By Nishul Sharma
INTRODUCTION
Lots of people are talking
about all the new forms of marketing a company can pursue. It’s true, certain
traditional marketing has been around for a long time and is still used today,
but with the Internet now playing such a huge role in any company’s success,
people are coming out with more and more ways to market their products or
services. The more we thought about all the different varieties of marketing,
the more we realized there are so many different ways to promote something.
Internet
Marketing
Internet marketing is any marketing strategy that takes
place online. Also referred to as online marketing, it encompasses a variety of
marketing forms like video advertisements, search engine marketing and e-mail
marketing. It is the opposite of offline marketing, and can also fall under
digital marketing. Internet marketing needs
a good approach in areas of design, development and advertising. A company with
a total web site marketing plan will have more success online than one that has
just designed a web site without thinking of how to market their company
through it.
Offline
Marketing
Offline marketing, the opposite of online marketing,
includes all forms of marketing that aren’t done on the Internet. Examples of
offline marketing are local advertising in newspapers and on television. In
today’s marketing world, companies are finding ways to leverage their offline
marketing campaigns with their online ones, making them complement each other.
Outbound
Marketing
When you think of marketing, the different forms you come
up with are mostly outbound marketing (also called traditional marketing). In
fact, the majority of companies today are using different types of outbound
marketing to reach their potential customers. Outbound marketing includes any
marketing efforts that are taken to introduce a product or service to someone
who isn’t looking for that product or service. Some examples are cold calling,
sending newsletters, billboards, and banner ads on different web sites.
Inbound
Marketing
Inbound marketing focuses on having your company found by
customers, as opposed to reaching out to them directly like in outbound
marketing. The important thing to remember here is that a person starts out
with the want/need to purchase a product or service, and they go out to find
it. When they search for that product/service on a search engine, the search engine
results page will show inbound marketing results. Instead of using paid
advertisements, inbound marketing is the search engine optimization (SEO) part of web marketing.
Newsletter
Marketing
Newsletter marketing and email marketing refer to ways of
promoting your company through emails. Typically, a firm using newsletter
marketing will have a group of contacts that they will send a newsletter
containing some interesting information to. The success of newsletter marketing
depends on grabbing attention, writing good content and reaching a large number
of potential clients.
Article
Marketing
Businesses will often write articles related to the
industry they are in and distribute them online and offline. These free
articles will inform people about an important topic and give the company that
wrote it more credibility within the market. The organization can also include
their business contact information in the article, allowing them to get new
clients.
Trade Show
Marketing
Companies that want to reach a large number of potential
customers can participate in public or private trade shows. Trade shows and
other forms of event marketing are often a large investment to participate in,
but trade shows allow companies to demonstrate new products and examine what is
going on in the industry.
Search
Marketing
Search engine marketing (SEM) is the way in which
companies promote their business through paid placement on search engines like
Google. Instead of increasing the organic search results that a website has,
companies will pay to have their advertisements in the sponsored section of
search engines. This is also known as Pay Per Click Advertising or PPC
Direct
Marketing
Direct marketing’s main goal is to send a message
directly to consumers, without having to use any third party outlets. Examples
of direct marketing include mail marketing, telemarketing and direct selling.
Direct marketing is often preferable because the results can be easily
measured, giving the marketer a better understanding of the success of that
campaign.
Niche
Marketing
When a product or service is not being readily supplied
to a certain portion of a market, a company can focus their efforts on that
niche to address a need that isn’t currently being addressed. This targeted
marketing is successful because the marketer has identified a need that isn’t
being resolved by mainstream providers. Sometimes it is beneficial for a
company to focus on a niche instead of trying to compete in a larger market.
Drip
marketing
Drip marketing is the act of sending out scheduled
targeted emails that are all coordinated to a specific goal of client
conversion. The sender uses email marketing software that allows them to setup
multiple emails at one time and let them “drip” over time. This sometimes
includes phone calls to check in on the clients along the way.
Social Media
Marketing
Social network marketing and social media campaigns
provide a window to market a product or service on the Internet through
different social networks. Companies can use these outlets for their marketing,
customer service and sales. The most common and successful means of social
media marketing are found on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube
and even company blogs.
Referral
Marketing
One of the less strategic types of marketing, referral
marketing relies on a company’s customers to refer new customers to that
company. Also called word of mouth marketing, this is a more spontaneous way of
receiving new business, and can not be solely relied on because results aren’t
very predictable. However, word of mouth is still a powerful part of a
company’s efforts to bring in new business, especially in the social media
community where communication travels freely.
Guerrilla
Marketing
With a smaller budget, guerrilla marketing makes a splash
by relying on energy, timing and unusual approaches to get the consumer’s
attention. The unconventional marketing involved tries to get the most out
something small, and make a lasting brand image in the consumer’s mind.
Promotional
Marketing
Promotional marketing is a common form of marketing
strategy that companies use to motivate a consumer to make a decision and
purchase their product. There are a number of ways that businesses will promote
a product or service, including holding contests to win a prize, offering
coupons for purchasing a product at a discount, and having samples of the
product so people can experience it before they purchase.
Affiliate
Marketing
Affiliate marketing most likely involves four different
groups that contribute to the marketing effort. The Merchant is the company
that is producing and selling the product, the Network is the outlet that is
used to promote the affiliate link, the Publisher or Affiliate is the person
who has the website with the affiliate ad and of course the customer doing the
purchasing. Affiliate links are found on all types of websites, and they are
used to drive traffic to outside websites.
Viral
Marketing
This type of marketing relies on the message of a
marketer being spread quickly through various social networks in order to
increase brand awareness. The name viral marketing stems from the rapid spread
of viruses in general. Typically, a viral marketing campaign will not last as
long as other marketing efforts, but if a company can come up with a good idea
for viral marketing and reach the right people, it will become highly
successful in a short amount of time.
B2B
Marketing
Any type of business, whether an organization,
individual, government or other institution that markets to other businesses is
involved in business to business marketing. Since B2B marketing involves
companies trying to sell mass quantities of product to one another, there is a
more personal relationship that needs to be established between businesses. If
your company sells to other businesses, your marketing efforts will most likely
be more direct.
B2C
Marketing
Business to consumer marketing campaigns try to reach a
category of people that will be likely to purchase their product or service.
The marketing efforts the company takes should be more broad than B2B, which
focuses on specific companies. B2C marketing can involve different marketing
techniques such as door to door marketing, promotion marketing, newspaper
marketing, television marketing and radio marketing. In today’s marketing
world, B2C Internet marketing is becoming more important to reach consumers.
Mobile
Marketing
Along with Internet marketing, mobile marketing is part
of the newest groups of marketing activities. Companies have been experimenting
with the certain ways to reach consumers through their phones, especially with
the rise of Apple’s iphone. Some ways to marketing a product or service through
a mobile phone include SMS marketing, in-game marketing, banner marketing on different
web pages and location based marketing.
Reverse
Marketing
This form of marketing is similar to inbound marketing.
The goal of reverse marketing is to market a product in a way that will cause
the consumer to seek the firm doing the marketing. Reverse marketing can be
conducted through such means as television, print and Internet marketing. If a
company has a product that solves a problem in the market, they will have more
success using reverse marketing because they will seek out that product.
Telemarketing
A form of direct marketing, telemarketing’s focus is on
reaching consumers by phone. Most of what we thing of as telemarketing is cold
call marketing, which is unpopular and has lead to laws being created against
it. However, telemarketing can be effective if the right person is reached on
the phone at the right time.
Direct Mail
Marketing
Most people receive large quantities of marketing
material in the mail, which is considered direct mail marketing. Companies will
send paper mail with promotions or other information to a list of addresses,
usually in a common geographical area. This form of marketing is also called
junk mail by some, because the customers receiving the mail aren’t expecting it
and usually don’t want to open it.
Database
Marketing
Database marketing is similar to other types of direct
marketing, but the focus is more directed towards analyzing data. Companies try
to narrow their marketing efforts down to certain groups of people, and they
use database marketing to analyze statistics like name, address, or sales
history, in order to create the most accurate model possible.
Personalized
marketing
The goal of personalized marketing is to create a unique
offer for each individual customer. This form of marketing doesn’t work for
every company, but certain ones can capitalize on their unique products and
customer demographics to market to individuals. With the Internet becoming a
more popular place for marketing, companies are finding that personalized
marketing is affective in cases when they can track a customer’s specific
interests and send them more information for future suggestions.
This list should give you a good idea of different ways
companies can market themselves to consumers or other companies, but there are
still more types of marketing out there. If you think of any, let us know and
we’ll add it to the list.
Depending on your company and the industry you
are in, you will definitely choose different kinds of marketing that will
produce the best results for you. No matter which type of marketing you want to
use for your company, Design & Promote can help you research and implement
a marketing campaign that will allow your company to win the consumer’s
attention and hold the search engine results