Synopsis
Among the basic foundations of a thriving profitable business is an active, ongoing, and professional-looking outbound marketing presence. It doesn’t matter if you are a home-based business, or one-person professional office, or a business with many employees. This list doesn't change no matter how small or large your company is now.

What You Will Learn
1. You will learn the basic differences between “outbound” and “inbound” marketing.
2. You will learn four simple and effective ways to improve your outbound marketing efforts.
3. You will learn just how imperative it is for your success to keep updating and improving your outbound marketing efforts.

Introduction
Among the basic foundations of a thriving profitable business is an active, ongoing, and professional-looking outbound marketing presence. It doesn’t matter if you are a home-based business, or one-person professional office, or a business with many employees. This list doesn't change no matter how small or large your company is now.

FYI: Some Quick Definitions
Definition # 1. Outbound Marketing: Your marketing efforts that pushes, or helps, customers to find your company.
a. Examples: TV and radio ads, direct mail, product catalogs, and trade show displays.

On the other hand,
Definition # 2. Inbound Marketing: You create content that pulls, or attracts, or motivates, people to find your company. This is content that is of interest to the consumers. Content with information that consumers will find helpful to their own situation. This content is not about your company, but about the consumer’s needs.
a. Examples: article marketing, blogging, free videos, free webinars, and free ebooks.

Obviously, there’s a lot of overlap between the two. And each type helps the other work better. But that was a very simple explanation of the differences.

Now on to the simple low-cost ways to improve your outbound marketing efforts:

Improvement #1. Keep Website Current
Your website is your most essential marketing tool. It’ll be working for you 24/7/365. It’s the first place that most people will go to learn more about you and your business. You must always make sure that it’s working at its peak performance. Every link must be active, and every picture and graphic must appear as it was meant to.

Make sure that every pdf is working properly, and that the links inside each pdf are also working. Make sure that all of your dates, statistics, and facts are current and accurate. Be certain that your pages are easy to navigate and find. All of these details are very easy to overlook or forget about. But first impressions are extremely important. So, make sure that every detail of your website always looks good and is working properly.

Improvement #2. Make An Emotional Connection
The most powerful and fundamental part of a successful marketing plan is one that can make an emotional connection with your prospects and your customers. Your company’s very survival and growth depend on it.

The greater this connection, the greater your ability to beat out other companies for the hearts, minds, and dollars of the customers. Too few companies, small or large, bother to try to make an emotional connection with prospects and customers.

But, by showing your customers how much you care about them, and proving to them that you really want to keep them as customers, you can build a base of loyal customers that will not be so quick to leave you for your competition. This could play an important role in your company’s survival during a slow economy, or when trying to beat out the intense competition.

Improvement #3. Build Your Lists
By lists, I mean email list, direct mail list, and social-media list. Each can play an important role in your marketing plan. Some prospects and customers might prefer one format over the other. This will depend on your type of business, and what your customer demographics are.