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Inbound or outbound? How to incorporate both into your B2B lead generation strategy

·Alyssa Haeussler for Apollo

A vector illustration depicting markets do inbound and outbound calls. — Visual Generation // Shutterstock
A vector illustration depicting markets do inbound and outbound calls. — Visual Generation // Shutterstock

Inbound or outbound? How to incorporate both into your B2B lead generation strategy

Most B2B companies have leaned too far in one direction. They either double down on outbound or rely solely on inbound — without realizing that a lopsided approach can stall growth.

To keep your pipeline consistently full, you need a B2B lead generation strategy that blends both.

How do you know if you’re over-indexing on one? And how do you find the right balance for your business?

Tried, tested, and recommended by experts, these full-cycle lead gen strategies from are built for teams exploring how to blend inbound and outbound lead gen for maximum impact.

What is B2B lead generation?

B2B lead generation is the process of finding and engaging businesses that may find value in your product or service, or have shown interest in what you have to offer. The goal is to build a list of prospects that your sales and marketing team can nurture and eventually turn into customers.

One of LinkedIn's top sales voices, Zoë Hartsfield, puts the importance of B2B lead generation bluntly.

“If nobody is even interested in talking to you about the problems you solve, you can't sell the thing that you sell, and if you can't sell you can't make money,” Hartsfield says. “And if you can't make money, your business dies.”

The B2B lead generation techniques that keep business alive fall into two main categories.

Inbound lead generation

Inbound lead generation is about attracting prospective customers to your business—pulling them to you. It draws them in and builds awareness of your brand, giving answers to their questions with information they need, and surface your solution as the answer.

Outbound lead generation

Outbound lead generation takes a more direct approach. Your team reaches out to prospects that fit your ideal customer profile, trying to actively spark their interest in your product or service and nurture that interest until they’re ready to buy.

Most successful B2B businesses invest in a combination of both inbound and outbound motions to generate leads. And for good reason.

According to , B2B buyers are 1.8 times more likely to complete a high-quality deal “when they engage with supplier-provided digital tools in partnership with a sales rep.”

Apollo’s director of paid acquisition, Cameron Thompson, challenges the assumption that inbound and outbound are “cannibalistic” rather than complementary.

“When inbound and outbound are integrated properly, outbound efforts help amplify what you're doing with inbound—and vice versa,” Thompson says.

But the exact ratio of inbound and outbound you choose to focus on will depend on your specific B2B business and the audience you’re trying to reach.

Let’s take a closer look at both.

Inbound lead generation: A deeper dive

In inbound lead generation, your prospect makes that initial contact.

They may download a guide or attend an event because they’re on the hunt for more information on a problem they’re trying to solve. But without a proper nurture, the buck may well stop there.

To understand what that looks like, consider a prospect who submits their email and phone number to download a whitepaper, but doesn't take any further action beyond that. Offering the whitepaper is an inbound motion. Sending the prospect a personalized follow-up email or phone call that encourages the prospect to learn more about your product or company is outbound.

“That's where it becomes really important to have both efforts in tandem, working harmoniously,” Thompson says.

Understanding your inbound audience

To figure out how much to invest in inbound, start by looking at your (TAM)—that’s the full revenue opportunity if you captured 100% of your potential market.

Within that market, inbound leads are the people who are actively searching for solutions or information related to what you offer.

If your buyers are the type to do their own research and discover solutions organically, then inbound tactics—like content, SEO, or webinars—should be a core part of your sales strategy.

But if your audience tends to wait to be approached or rarely explores new vendors on their own, inbound may play more of a supporting role. In those cases, outbound tactics or relationship-based selling might get you further, faster.

That’s why the best B2B lead generation strategy starts with understanding your buyer’s journey and meeting them where they are.

Applying inbound to the customer journey

To build effective inbound motions, start by mapping your from first touch to closed deal. In B2B, that journey often includes multiple stakeholders, long consideration cycles, and a need for trust at every stage.

Research by shows that B2B buyers experience an average of 27 interactions throughout their buying journey. And found that the average enterprise B2B buying group consists of five to 11 stakeholders.

Your goal is to support that journey with the right content and experiences—tailored to the questions and concerns your buyers have at each phase. That could mean thought leadership and SEO content at the top of the funnel, product comparison guides or ROI calculators in the middle, and detailed case studies or integration documentation at the bottom.

How do you know when the time is right? —the secret sauce of inbound.

Intent data tracks signals that indicate when a prospect is actively researching or showing interest in solutions like yours. By analyzing these signals—such as content downloads, website visits, or specific search queries—you can pinpoint exactly when they're ready to engage. Workflows that are based around intent data are actually proving to .

For , timing really is everything.

Ideas for inbound motions and programs

  • Host events
  • Create an online community
  • Send nurture emails
  • Publish content like blog posts and guides
  • Post on social media channels like LinkedIn
  • Create a podcast

Key benefits of inbound lead generation

  1. An inbound play—like a blog post or guide with a submission form at the bottom—can continue to capture leads years after launch. Inbound motions like this are “always on,” raising hands-off brand awareness and hopefully leads.
  2. Because inbound lead generation has that longevity in its favor, a stronger focus on inbound lead generation strategies can mean a lower cost per acquisition over time.
  3. By focusing on motions that align with your buyer’s specific journey, you let prospects set their own terms, moving through the buying journey at their own pace.

Is inbound lead generation the right strategy?

To know when to start introducing inbound lead generation motions to your sales and marketing program, ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Do I have the resources and budget to create marketing assets that will attract potential buyers? Inbound takes upfront investment—content, SEO, design, and distribution—but those assets can generate leads long after launch, lowering your cost per acquisition over time.
  2. Am I willing and able to invest in long-term programs, not just short-term wins? Inbound doesn’t produce overnight results. But if you’re building a pipeline that compounds over time, inbound is a foundational pillar for sustainable growth.
  3. Do I want to increase brand awareness as well as generate leads? Inbound lets your buyers find you on their terms—through search, content, or social. It builds trust before your sales team ever reaches out.

If you answered yes to any or all of the questions above, consider introducing inbound motions to your lead generation strategy. The earlier you start, the faster it can scale.

Outbound lead generation: A deeper dive

If inbound is about being found, outbound is about finding—reaching out to the right prospects before they know they need you.

Take Dhara Patel, CEO of Outer Realm, who is very strategic about outbound lead generation.

Using that scans builder websites, industry news, and planning documents to surface , she runs multi-channel outbound plays to go straight to the folks who need her—right then.

Understanding your outbound audience

While a combination of both B2B lead generation strategies is always ideal, outbound is particularly beneficial to businesses with a smaller, more specialized audience.

Take a product with a total addressable market of 50 people as an example. By leaning more into outbound B2B lead generation, you can reach out to each of those prospects individually with messaging personalized specifically to them.

The benefit of that kind of targeted approach—and outbound lead generation in general—is that you can get early wins, bringing in bigger deals.

How you apply outbound lead generation strategies depends on your customer journey.

Applying outbound to your customer journey

Just like with inbound lead generation, your outbound efforts should be tailored to your customer journey. And also like inbound, the exact number of touchpoints you should expect from your outbound strategy will vary.

In fact, in his book, “,” renowned sales executive Jeb Blount, CEO of Sales Gravy, says that the exact number can range anywhere from one to 50 touches. He breaks it down like this:

  • Inactive customer: 1 to 3 touches
  • Familiar prospect in buying window: 1 to 5 touches
  • Familiar prospect not in buying window: 3 to 10 touches
  • Warm inbound lead: 5 to 12 touches
  • Somewhat familiar prospect: 5 to 20 touches
  • Cold prospect: 20 to 50 touches

Notice the “warm inbound lead” in the middle of the list?

That’s someone who’s already interacted with your brand through your inbound lead generation efforts. Because they have some experience with your brand already, they require fewer outbound touches to close the deal.

It’s just one example of how inbound and outbound work together, and why both are critical to your strategy as a whole.

Even when it comes to outbound alone, though, the most successful strategies will use a multichannel approach, putting a variety of tactics together to maximize outreach—for instance, social selling and cold emailing paired with .

Generic one-off emails and phone calls are far less effective now than they used to be. With massive competition for your prospects’ attention, it takes more to break through the noise.

Ideas for outbound motions and programs

Here are several proven outbound tactics that, when executed well, can drive high-quality leads and real pipeline momentum:

  • Hyper-targeted campaigns focused on high-value accounts, combining personalized messaging across channels.
  • Still effective when done strategically—especially when paired with pre-call research and timely outreach.
  • Craft thoughtful, relevant messages that cut through the noise and spark meaningful conversations.
  • Build credibility and relationships by engaging with prospects directly on platforms like LinkedIn.
  • Paid ads. Use targeted ad campaigns to warm up key accounts or drive engagement that supports outbound outreach.

When these strategies are all paired together in a multichannel outbound strategy (rather than focusing solely on email), Apollo research found that sellers are .

Key benefits of outbound lead generation

  1. You control the targeting for outbound, going after exactly the right audience with the right messaging. This is especially important for sales motions where you need to get in front of decision-makers.
  2. Outbound allows you, as the seller, to and build one-on-one relationships with the prospects you’re reaching out to.
  3. Outbound gives you instant or almost instant feedback. If someone answers your cold call and says they’re already with your competitor, you’ve immediately gained important information you can quickly act on—like adding them to an .

Is outbound lead generation the right strategy?

Not sure if outbound lead generation should be your focus? Ask yourself these key questions.Each one reveals whether outbound is the right strategy for your goals.

  1. Do I need to generate new business quickly? Outbound is the fastest way to engage with high-potential prospects. If you're under pressure to bring in new clients in a short time frame, outbound tactics like cold calling, direct outreach, and account-based marketing (ABM) can put you in front of decision-makers fast.
  2. Do I have a budget to launch ads and keep them running long enough to ? Successful outbound often requires paid media. But ads need time to optimize and A/B test. If you have the resources to keep your campaigns running and tweaking for maximum ROI, then paid ads paired with targeted outreach can produce valuable, quick wins.
  3. Do I have resources like SDRs and AEs to execute my outbound motions? Outbound success relies on a skilled team, whether in-house or outsourced.
  4. Do I work in a saturated market and rely on one-on-one interactions to stand out in the crowd? In competitive industries, your messaging must break through the noise. Outbound allows you to cut through the clutter with personalized, targeted communication to prospects who might not yet know they need your solution.

Again, if you answered yes to any or all of the questions above, consider focusing on outbound more heavily to generate leads.

Tip #1: Understand your buyer persona

Whether you lean more towards inbound or take an outbound-first approach, you need to understand your prospective buyers before you can target them.

What are their needs and pain points? How does their industry work? What do they prioritize in their business?

“You have to live a day in their life to understand what their motivations are,” Apollo’s Thompson says.

Thankfully, you already have another group of people at your fingertips who can help you accomplish that. Your customers. Here’s how your existing customers can help you start building your buyer personas and understand your prospects’ buying intent. All in three easy steps.

Step 1: Interview your existing customers

Start by conducting interviews with your current customers, asking questions that will get to the root of their initial purchasing decision. Questions like:

  • What pain point were you trying to solve for?
  • How did you first hear about us?
  • What made our product or service stand out?
  • What is it about us that inspired you to stay loyal?

An analysis of market trends and your own sales and engagement data will help round out the answers. You can then use that information to map out your customer journey.

Step 2: Look for patterns in your customer profile

Use the information above to create a wish list of attributes you’ll want to look for in the new prospects you target—otherwise known as your (ICP). These prospects will be businesses with the same challenges and needs your existing customers had when their journey started.

To do that, Hartsfield suggests starting with your top 20 to 30 existing customers—those with the highest (NPS) or the highest lifetime value, for example. Then dig into their details to see where there are similarities between those customers, whether it be industry, job titles of key decision-makers, or something else entirely.

Hartsfield adds: “You're going to find those trends, you're going to find those patterns. Then I would actually start building my list from that set of data.”

Step 3: Search for prospects that match

With step one and two completed, you can start putting together a of prospects that share the same attributes you’ve identified.

A sales intelligence tool can help you find the contact information of potential customers that match that ideal customer with information like:

  • Title
  • Company
  • Number of employees
  • Size by department
  • Recent hires
  • Revenue
  • Location

Better yet—look for ones that let you stitch together these attributes to and search against them in a third-party database.

Tip #2: Score your leads based on intent

The best organizations prioritize leads by opportunity size, conversion likelihood, and available intel—and a helps standardize those priorities across the team.

Lead scoring lets you rank prospects based on real signals—like company fit, engagement, and timing. When done right, it aligns sales and marketing, speeds up handoffs, and keeps your team focused on the highest-value opportunities.

AI scoring tools make this process infinitely faster, easier, and more accurate.

It can delve deep into your team's past prospecting efforts by tapping into your data history to identify the contact and account features that drove your previous successes. It will pull out the critical criteria of your best customers to signal which new leads fit this picture.

Lead scoring, when applied correctly, is a lead gen hack that can’t afford to be overlooked.

Tip #3: Relevance is even more important than personalization

“Generic content just is not going to cut it,” says Thompson.

But Hartsfield adds some depth to the importance of pertinent content. “Personalization is not the same thing as relevance, and you really need both,” she says. “You could mention my dog's name in a personalized email, but also mention a solution that has nothing to do with my pain points or job.”

Both personalization and relevance start by knowing your prospects and their intentions. So by understanding more about them, you’re already on the way to creating personalized messaging that’s also relevant.

Take tech company Smartling, for example.

They created an AI prompt that performs “always on” research for their biggest signals. They use what they find out directly in their messaging.

“We don't personalize with something generic,” says Grace Feeney, senior manager of sales development and operations at Smartling. “We say ‘There’s a problem on your website right here, and I wanted to give you a heads-up.’”

The result: more personalized cold emails and the boost reps needed to become more productive.

Capture your best B2B leads

Generating leads and keeping your sales funnel full doesn’t have to be overly complex. With a combination of both inbound and outbound motions, you can find the right approach for your business. Through the right tools and proven best practices, you can create lead generation strategies that stand out—and start meeting your sales quotas every time.

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