Inbound-Led Outbound

Inbound-Led Outbound: A New Method to Turn Engagement into Action

Traditionally, inbound marketing focuses on drawing in prospects with valuable content, while outbound involves directly reaching out through cold emails, calls, and ads. However, slowly working on cold accounts is no longer effective. Leading B2B companies are now blending these approaches, focusing their outbound efforts on warm accounts that have shown intent. By adopting inbound-led outbound strategies, they hit their pipeline goals and make every engagement more impactful.

By leveraging insights gained from your inbound activities—such as understanding prospect behaviour, preferences, and pain points through the content they engage with—you can ensure your outbound efforts feel like a natural continuation of the conversation.  Webinars serve as a perfect example of activation that enables this at scale, allowing you to steer the conversation more effectively and make your outreach more personalised and relevant.

Here’s how to do it effectively:

1. Use Inbound Data to Guide Outbound Efforts
Inbound marketing isn’t just about attracting leads; it’s also about collecting useful data. Each time someone interacts with your content, they leave clues about their interests and readiness to engage. You can use these signals to guide your outbound strategy, making it more targeted and effective.

• Identify Key Engagements: Not all clicks are equal. Focus on actions that show intent, such as multiple visits to key pages, content downloads, or watching a product demo. Additionally, track key webinar interactions—who registered, attended, engaged with polls, downloaded assets, clicked through to the landing page but didn’t register, and showed interest in taking an offer. These behaviours indicate a prospect is genuinely interested and ready for further outreach.
• Identify your Ideal Customer Profiles: Go beyond basic demographics and explore the behavioural data from your inbound marketing. By understanding who your most valuable prospects are, you can fine-tune your outbound strategy to focus on the highest-value opportunities. Use this information to guide your messaging, ensuring it speaks directly to the challenges and goals that matter most to your target audience.

2. Make Your Outreach Personal
Treat personalisation as necessary when approaching your prospects to foster deeper connections. Use insights from inbound engagement to craft outbound messages that feel like a natural follow-up.

• Tailor Your Messaging: Reference specific interactions in your communication. For instance, if someone recently read a whitepaper on dark social, your follow-up could start with, “I noticed you’re interested in learning more about leveraging dark social—here’s how we can help further.” This shows you’re paying attention and adds value.
• Follow Up with Relevant Content: Use inbound data to see what content engages most. Follow up with resources that align with your prospect’s interests, keeping the conversation going and moving them further down the sales funnel.

3. Automate Thoughtfully
Automation can help scale your efforts, but it’s essential to keep things, as mentioned, “personal.” Use tools to trigger timely, relevant actions based on prospect behaviour, but ensure your communication remains genuine.

• Smart Automation: Set up automated sequences that are personalised based on what a lead has engaged with. This ensures your outreach is timely and relevant.
• Keep an Eye on Your Workflow: Review your automated messages regularly to ensure they’re still on point. Adding a personal touch, like a quick manual email or a call, can make a big difference.

4. Measure and Adapt
To get the best results from inbound-led outbound, continuously measure your efforts, learn from the data, and adjust your approach.

• Track Key Metrics: Monitor engagement rates, response rates, and conversions from your inbound-led outbound efforts. Understanding what works—and what doesn’t—will help you refine your strategy and focus on the leads that matter.

Test Different Approaches: Experiment with different messages, content, and timing. Stay agile and adjust your strategy based on what you learn.

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