Marketing is key when you’re running a business, and there are many different types of marketing strategies that it’s almost hard to categorize them. There are different ways you can market and even different groups of individuals to market to. Here’s a look at seven different marketing strategies that you should be familiar with as a business owner.
#1: Advertisements
Advertisements (often shortened to ads) are the most basic form of marketing. The main goal of advertising is to promote your business and your products/services to your target market (the broad group of people who you think would be interested in your company), whereas marketing determines the needs of your target audience (the specific group who is the target of your campaigns). Traditionally, ads were printed in newspapers, magazines, and flyers— and they still are today— but now they’re also displayed online.
#2: B2B Marketing
B2B stands for business to business, and this is a specific category of marketing used by businesses that provide goods or services to other businesses exclusively. This is different from B2C (business to consumer) marketing, which uses strategies to market to individuals. B2B marketing is much more strategic and complex, so it usually takes longer to develop and execute marketing strategies. This is also because the target audience (other businesses) has to do a lot of research before making a purchase.
#3: Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is marketing that’s done online and is used in both B2B and B2C marketing. Many different strategies fall under digital marketing, including:
- Social media marketing
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Pay-per-click (PPC)
- Online PR
- Native advertising
- Inbound/outbound marketing
- Email marketing
- Content marketing
- Affiliate marketing
Digital marketing strategies are the most effective ways to market because you’re able to reach a larger number of people than you are with traditional forms of marketing.
#4: Event Marketing
Meeting with your potential consumers face-to-face (or virtually) is another way to market your products/services to the public. It’s a very effective form of marketing because it creates memorable experiences for individuals. There are two main types of event marketing to create these experiences for others.
Interactive Marketing
This is the most common type of event marketing because it uses face-to-face interaction, usually done by playing games to win a giveaway.
Experiential Marketing
This type of event marketing creates a more immersive experience. Pop-up events are the most popular type of experiential marketing because it creates exclusivity and a sense of urgency around this limited-time event.
#5: Promotional Marketing
Promotional marketing uses promotional items for advertising your brand to the public. The idea behind this strategy is to create more brand awareness by having your employees and/or customers wear/use items that display your company name and logo. For best results, you should use promotional items that make sense to your company, but some of the most widely used promotional items include water bottles, T-shirts, phone cases, mugs, keychains, ink pens, and hats. These are considered universal items that most people use or wear, making it more likely for your brand to get noticed.
#6: Stealth Marketing
This is a subtle marketing strategy where the idea is that your target audience doesn’t know that they are being marketed to. A prime example of stealth marketing is product placement, i.e., having your product strategically placed in a commercial or other types of ad where it catches the attention of viewers.
#7: Telemarketing
Telemarketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing that is still in use today. It involves companies reaching individuals via phone calls, and it can either be cold calling or individuals can give their consent to be called about more information for a product or service they’ve already shown interest in. Because there are so many other ways to market to people, telemarketing isn’t considered the most effective strategy.
To determine which marketing strategy works the best for your business, you’ll have to do a lot of market research to determine what appeals to your target market. This will help you decide which marketing strategies will have a chance at being successful, but you’ll never truly know until you implement those strategies. Marketing is a lot of trial and error, and you’ll have to try different techniques to find the ones that work the best. However, once you find which strategies work, that’s where you’ll want to put most (if not all) of your marketing resources.
