Building a business is hard. From idea development to building a viable go-ahead market strategy. And it doesn’t stop there. It goes on to profit from the business. But businesses do face difficulties a lot of the time. After passing some stages in business, the next stage becomes difficult. And sometimes some businesses even find it hard to pass the existence stage. So, what is the cause of this? Is it that the barber is inexperienced or that the clipper is bad? Well, most times the problem is an inappropriate type of marketing strategy. That is, employing a type of marketing strategy that isn’t appropriate for your business.
So, what are we gonna do then? Do we keep jumbling or trying out different marketing strategies to know which is going to work? Or do you search for that one method that suits all businesses’ types of marketing strategies? Well, it is your business. So, it’s your decision. However, this post has different types of marketing strategies that can work for any business.
What Are the 5 Main Marketing Strategies?
The 5 Ps of marketing are product, price, promotion, place, and people. These are all important parts of marketing that are used to strategically place a business.
Different Types of Marketing Strategy
Traditional Marketing
This is the most common type of marketing strategy. Because every marketer knows about it. It involves all types of marketing channels used before the inception of digital marketing. For example, television ads, radio ads, and billboards. So, before the advent of the internet, these were mostly used. Because they are the available methods that one can use to reach out to a large number of people.
Digital Marketing
While traditional marketing uses older TV ads, radio ads, etc. to achieve its marketing aim. Digital marketing uses the more modern electronic devices or the internet for its. So, social media, email, and search engine marketing can be considered examples of this.
Outbound Marketing
Outbound because it involves the active pushing of the message to the consumers. So, they didn’t ask for it, but somehow you got it across to them. For example, email blasts. Businesses can easily turn off consumers using this approach. So, the tip is to segment your customers and get them the right message.
Inbound Marketing
This type of marketing strategy is the opposite of outbound marketing. So, consumers willingly bring themselves to you. That is, you passively attract consumers. An example of this is a lead magnet, like a sign-up for an E-book form, on helpful and engaging content on your website.
Search Engine Marketing
You might not be tapping the full potential of the internet if your business doesn’t have a website. However, there might not be much difference if your company’s site isn’t search engine optimized. Daily Google searches are estimated to be 3.5 billion per day. Searches on your industry’s content could be up to 1M and if your content makes the SERP (Search Engine Result Page) in 10% of the searches. It’s a sure way to promote your business. So, you don’t want to miss out on this. Also, you should check out the SEO segment of this post
Social Media Marketing
In this type of marketing strategy; the focus is on the audience on social media. And with the number of daily active users (DAU) on social media, Facebook alone reported about 1.66 billion DAUs, you sure want your business to establish a good social media presence. Tip: Don’t forget to tailor your message to suit the social media platform you want to put it on.
Brand Marketing
When you hear this, what do you think? a company’s logo, a company’s name, or more than those? Well, brand marketing goes beyond just a company’s name or logo. It involves their identity, values, and personality. So, this type of marketing strategy aims to seamlessly communicate these properties to the audience.
Contextual Marketing
You would have noticed that sometimes you see contents related to your recent search engine searches on your different social media platforms. This is an example of content marketing. So, it tends to personalize the content it brings to you based on your interests. Clearly, this is powerful because you will most likely go for the product since you are currently interested in it.
Native Marketing
This is when businesses pay publishers to create sponsored content that looks like some of the publisher’s non-sponsored content. So the publisher tweaks the content in a way that is relevant to their viewers. Moreover, this publisher should be influential in the business’ niche to increase the reach of the content.
Partnership Marketing
In this type of marketing strategy, two businesses collaborate to get their products or services in front of different audiences. For example, YouTubers do partner with channels that do the same as theirs to increase their audience reach.
Relationship Marketing
The aim of this is to build a loyal customer base through value delivery and good customer care services. So, the effect of this is the long-term sustainability of your customers and not just a one-off purchase by them. Check out more on relationship marketing.
Word of Mouth Marketing
It’s a passive form of marketing that’s usually done by your customers after a satisfactory engagement with your business. Clearly, this is kind of dependent on relationship marketing. Because it’s a loyal customer base that will be passionate enough to recommend your business.
Email Marketing
This involves sending your content to the audience that has willingly opted for it. It is one way of creating a deep, long-lasting relationship with your customers by sending them personalized content. However, to avoid being tagged as spam by most email client apps, you should comply with email governing regulations, especially the CAN-SPAM act. Also, you can check out this free course on email marketing to enhance your knowledge of this subject.
Experiential Marketing
This type of marketing strategy aims to engage customers by creating memorable, attractive public displays. The public show must not necessarily be about your company. It can address a community’s problem. For example, Coca-Cola’s small world machines aimed at fostering harmony between two countries that have been in dispute. However, let the result of such a campaign bring your brand to the limelight. So, get creative in your experiential marketing.
Guerrilla Marketing
From the military guerrilla tactics. One can easily say placing the word “guerrilla” beside “marketing” is very intense. However, guerrilla marketing isn’t combative or disruptive. It’s an unconventional type of marketing strategy that employs the use of opportunities to catch people during their normal daily routine. For more on guerrilla marketing, check this out
Promotional Marketing
This type of marketing strategy provokes consumers to take action towards a business due to incentives offered by the business. For example, coupons and the price of winning a contest.
Cult Marketing
Through this type of marketing strategy, companies aim to align themselves with a certain tradition or set of beliefs. So, consumers who also have similar beliefs tend to follow the brand of the company in that industry.
Alliance Marketing
Through this strategy, companies in the same industry pool their resources to market the same product or service. So, most times, companies do this because the alliance makes them stronger in the market. For example, the Android Open Handset Alliance
Niche Marketing
In a world where every market is becoming overcrowded. Niche marketing helps you find consumers who need products in that same market. For instance, the shoe market is already overcrowded, but a shoe company can carve out a new niche of consumers and make products targeted at them.
Seasonal Marketing
Businesses can increase their consumer reach with this type of marketing strategy. By maximizing seasonal events or activities to foster their marketing campaign. For example, Heineken maximizes the Champions League matches to promote its beer.
Undercover Marketing
Just like an undercover agent in the military. This type of marketing strategy involves the use of a stealth maneuver to market the product to consumers. So, undercover marketing agent uses opportunities to promote their company in a congregation. And also, the people might not even be aware that they are being marketed to.
What Are the 2 Main Types of Marketing?
Marketing may be broken down into two simple categories: sales promotion and brand marketing.
Conclusion
I hope this post has explained all the different types of marketing strategies that can work for any business.