In the January, 2016 issue of Forbes, marketing advisor A.J. Agrawal shared his thoughts on inbound marketing. He argued inbound is no longer a “nice to have” opportunity, as he put it, but absolutely necessity.

Outbound marketing happens when a company sends messaging out to an audience. The messages are intended to promote its own products or services through a variety of tactics, including TV and radio commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, and out-of-home executions. You know, the traditional marketing tactics. Mad Men stuff.

Another way to refer to outbound is “push” marketing, wherein a business pushes its message to potential customers.

But “pushing” is often remarkably inefficient. The ROI on a national television campaign, for example, can be hard to justify in the era of tight, or shrinking, marketing budgets.

Conversely, inbound marketing reaches consumers when they’re actually looking to purchase. And that predisposition makes a big difference – it makes it far easier to turn consumers into customers.

Inbound marketing links motivated consumers to products and services through content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization and other non-intrusive methods.

Another way to put it: Agrawal says inbound marketing enables your brand to be “found” by your target consumers. In short, for the sake of marketing success, inbound marketing is a great alternative to running ads.

RATHER THAN PUSHING, INBOUND MARKETING “PULLS” CUSTOMERS TO RELEVANT, BENEFICIAL CONTENT AND SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT.

And consumers aren’t going to “block” content they find valuable.