Forget Inbound – Unbound your Marketing

Gleanster Research just published their evaluation of Marketing Automation offerings and Ian Michiels their CEO makes the following statement on Inbound Marketing:

Forget inbound – unbound your marketing. … It’s also more expensive. Inbound is beneficial, but it will never replace traditional marketing tactics. … Bottom line, you need to invest in a mix of inbound and outbound marketing – and the marketing automation partner you choose ought to be open to some level of SPAM-compliant outreach to non-opt-in lists, … That’s the key, you can’t just deliver generic messages to generic lists anymore – it’s bad for your brand. But you should be able to deliver targeted messages to relevant recipients without “hoping they come across a blog post or find a whitepaper”. … With more and more innovation around predictive insights (using your existing win/loss data from your salesforce automation system) you can actually narrow down very relevant target audiences that have the greatest chance of converting. That way you don’t waste boatloads of money on a top of the funnel strategy that only drives a handful of leads.

via 3 Compelling Trends to Watch in Marketing Automation | Social Media Today.

Not sure, if I agree on to be open for SPAM-compliant outreach. I personally hate to get email newsletter I didn’t explicitly opt in for.  This SPAM for me!

And not sure on his perception on „hoping they come across a blog post or find a whitepaper”. I am a strong believer of attracting potential customers through quality content. This doesn’t mean to sit down and relax and wait for the customers. It means to be actively promoting the offerings.

A mix of inbound and outbound tactics: YES.

More personalized messages delivering what the customer is interested in: YES

SPAM and unwanted outbound-generated messages: NO!