Inbound marketing waits for buyers who are already looking: search, ads, social media and your website. Outbound goes to the buyers who aren't looking yet, by approaching the companies that fit directly. If people search for what you sell, start with inbound. If they rarely search, or you need new clients sooner, start with outbound. Most businesses need both.
What's the difference between inbound and outbound?
The difference between inbound and outbound marketing comes down to one thing: who starts the conversation.
With inbound, the buyer does. They search, see an ad, come across a post or hear your name, and come to you. Your job is to be visible and convincing at that moment. With outbound, you do. You decide which companies you want as clients, find the right person in each and contact them directly.
| Inbound | Outbound | |
|---|---|---|
| Who starts the conversation | The buyer | You |
| Who it reaches | People already looking, or about to | The companies that fit, whether or not they're looking |
| Typical channels | SEO, Google Ads, social media, paid social and your website | Researched, personal messages to named decision-makers, by email and on LinkedIn |
| What it depends on | People searching for what you sell | Knowing which companies should buy from you |
| How it starts | Google Ads can bring enquiries soon after launch; SEO builds over months | Replies start once a campaign is live, after the market, the list and the messages are ready |
Why does inbound alone often fall short?
Because at any one moment, most of your potential buyers aren't buying. John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute estimates that up to 95% of firms are not in the market for many products and services at any one time. His reasoning: companies change suppliers such as their main bank or law firm about once every five years, so only around a fifth of them are in the market in any year. He's clear that 95% is a rule of thumb rather than a measurement, but the point stands. Inbound only reaches the small share who are looking right now.
How small that share is depends on what you sell. Google's keyword data shows about 74,000 UK searches a month for "electrician near me", and about 70 for "facilities management outsourcing" (12-month averages, retrieved through DataForSEO on 03/10/2026). If what you sell looks more like the second, waiting to be found means waiting for very few people.
That's the position many of the firms we work with are in. Most of our work is with construction and B2B service firms, whose buyers are often identifiable companies that rarely search for a supplier. They ask around instead, so new work often depends on referrals.
When should you start with inbound?
Start with inbound when:
- people already search for what you sell, in numbers worth competing for;
- your buyers are too many or too varied to list, such as homeowners or small local businesses;
- you need enquiries from people ready to buy now, which is what Google Ads is best at;
- each customer is worth too little to justify researching and approaching them one by one.
Check the first point before anything else. Google's Keyword Planner, part of Google Ads, estimates how many people search for a phrase each month. If the numbers are healthy, SEO services build visibility that lasts, and Google Ads management puts you in front of those searches while it builds.
When should you start with outbound?
Start with outbound when:
- you can describe the companies that should buy from you, by industry, size, location or the job title of the person who decides;
- your buyers rarely search for a supplier, and choose from the firms they already know about;
- a new client is worth enough to justify researching and approaching each company individually;
- most of your work comes through referrals, and you want new business that doesn't depend on who happens to know you.
That's the work SendIQ, our outbound service, does. We decide which companies are most likely to buy from you, find the right people in them, research each company and write to them directly, then pass you the replies. It starts from your market, not from a bought list, and costs from £1,558.80 a month including VAT (£1,299 plus VAT at 20%), with a three-month minimum.
Done properly, contacting businesses this way is lawful in the UK; the ICO's guidance on business-to-business marketing sets out the rules.
Why do inbound and outbound work better together?
Good outreach makes people look you up. Someone who receives a well-researched message from you may well check your website, or search for your name, before deciding whether to reply. If what they find is dated, vague or hard to use on a phone, the message loses its force. So the website comes first, whichever route you start with.
It works the other way too. A business that's visible and credible when people check it out is easier to say yes to, which makes every outbound message more convincing. And when both are tracked in one place, you can see which route each new client came from, and put the next pound where it works.
For Mr Gates and MG Group, we did both halves of the groundwork. We researched, wrote and built the Mr Gates website, and for MG Group we worked out who could buy or specify its work, from main contractors and housing associations to architects and facilities managers, and set out how to find the companies in each group.
Four questions that tell you where to start
- Do your buyers search for what you sell? If they do, in useful numbers, inbound has demand to catch.
- Can you name the companies you want as clients? If you can, outbound can go straight to them.
- What is a new client worth? The more each one is worth, the more sense it makes to research and approach companies individually.
- Is your website ready to be looked at? If not, fix it first, whichever route you choose. Our website design and development work starts from £1,198.80 including VAT (£999 plus VAT at 20%).
If the answers point both ways, start with the route you can measure soonest, then add the other. One channel done properly beats several done thinly. If you're a firm that sells to other businesses, our page on B2B marketing shows how we put the two together.
Questions about inbound and outbound
Is inbound or outbound cheaper?
Neither, reliably. It depends on the channel and on what you need. Our own prices give a sense of scale: SEO, Google Ads and paid social each start from £600 a month including VAT (£500 plus VAT at 20%), with ad spend separate for the two advertising services; social media management from £780 a month including VAT (£650 plus VAT at 20%); and SendIQ outbound from £1,558.80 a month including VAT (£1,299 plus VAT at 20%). Compare them on what a new client costs, not on the monthly fee.
Which brings results faster, inbound or outbound?
Google Ads and outbound are usually the quickest to start producing conversations. Ads can bring enquiries soon after launch, and replies to a SendIQ campaign start as soon as it goes live, once the market, the list of companies and the messages are ready. SEO is the slowest: technical fixes can show within weeks, but content and authority take months.
Is social media inbound or outbound?
Organic social media is inbound: people come across your posts and choose whether to get in touch. Paid social sits between the two. It puts your message in front of people before they search, which is more active than waiting to be found, but they still decide whether to come to you. Outbound means contacting a named person at a chosen company directly.