Outbound marketing is the practice of initiating contact with potential customers through cold email, cold calls, paid interruption advertising, and other push channels. Channels include cold email, cold calls, LinkedIn outreach, direct mail, and paid interruption advertising (display, paid social, TV, radio, podcast ads), where the marketer reaches out to the prospect rather than waiting for the prospect to find them through search or content. It is the methodological counterpart to inbound marketing and the bedrock of most modern B2B sales-development motions.
The modern B2B outbound playbook in 2025 is mostly cold email and LinkedIn at the sales-development tier, supported by intent-data tools (6sense, Demandbase, Bomb...