If you are running a business, there are few more important responsibilities than ensuring that as many people as possible know all about it. Otherwise, you can end up in a situation in which you are simply not hitting your goals and generating as much business as you possibly can. This is where marketing comes in. There are lots of different types of marketing that you can consider, and it is worth knowing about as many of them as possible in as much detail as you can. This way, you are going to be able to work out the best ones that work for your company.
In the following blog post, there will be a run through of all of the different types of marketing that you can consider for your business. This way, you are going to be able to make the most informed decision possible, which is always going to be worthwhile when you are running a company. So, let’s go through the main marketing types right here and now.
- Digital Marketing
First of all, there is digital marketing, which is obviously a broad area and one that has expanded in a big way over the past years. There are all sorts of different elements that are included here such as PPC, email marketing, and social media marketing – to name but a few. Ultimately, this has had a big part in transforming what has been done in terms of marketing possibilities. Essentially, you are able to reach an audience that has been highly targeted and planned out in a very tight manner. You can also analyze the results that you are getting in order to ensure that you are always improving them over time. Otherwise, there is every chance that you are going to end up in a situation in which you are not making the type of headway that you would otherwise like to.
- Offline Marketing
Next up on the list, we have offline marketing, which could otherwise be described as traditional marketing. Once again, this is a fairly broad category that can take a number of different forms and formats. For example, just think about all of the print forms of media that are out there, as well as billboards and anything else that does not exist in the digital world. While digital marketing has taken over in a big way, this does not mean that it is totally dominant. In fact, the right type of offline marketing can really have a big splash. However, it may well be the case that you need to have a professional agency planning it all out for you as they can help to give some highly targeted advice about how best to use this – often expensive – form of marketing.
- Outbound Marketing
There are new areas of outbound marketing that are springing up all the time such as influence marketing. When you are involved in marketing in an outbound manner, you are the one who is shouting about your product. For example, in the form of adverts that are put out on TV or on social media. While this is a good way of ensuring that you are getting the word out, you can also end up in a situation in which people do not trust it as much, as you are the one shouting about your own product – as opposed to a third party. However, having said that, it is certainly going to be worth bearing in mind that it is a good way of reaching as wide an audience as you possibly can.
- Inbound Marketing
At the other end of the scale to outbound marketing, you have inbound marketing, which refers to when customers are coming to you directly rather than the other way around. Obviously, there are all sorts of ways that you have out there of drawing them in. For example, if somebody is seeking out a particular product or service rather than having it rammed home in their face, this is what is known as inbound marketing. A lot of the time in the modern world, this will be occurring when people are doing searches online. Therefore, you certainly need to ensure that you are taking your Search Engine Optimization seriously as you will really be able to draw a lot of people in. You also need to target the areas in which people are actually seeking out your services in an active manner.
- Word of Mouth Marketing
For a lot of marketing pros, they will tell you that this particular form of marketing is the holy grail and the one that should be strived for above all the rest. A big part of this comes down to the fact that a lot of people will put a huge amount of stock in the word of the people that they trust the most. Essentially, you need to work highly hard to ensure that your business has built up a strong enough reputation to ensure that you have the right word of mouth marketing. You can also appeal to your loyal customers to refer others to your services. It is often the case that you are going to be able to do this by offering them some sort of reward such as a discount or perhaps points on a loyalty scheme. Ultimately, word of mouth marketing is going to be worth striving towards in the best way that you possibly can.
- Content Marketing
Ultimately, you are not going to be able to run a business in the digital age without ensuring that you have huge amounts of content out there. This way, you can keep drawing people back in time and time again. A big part of this will come down to ensuring that you have various channels from which you are pumping out your content. Your website and your social media pages are likely to be the central components at the heart of all of this. You also need to have a strategy in place to ensure that you are producing high quality and shareable content. Long gone are the days in which you could simply pump out anything and expect to receive some excellent results for doing this.
- B2B Marketing
Next up on the list is B2B marketing, which refers to businesses marketing their services directly to one another. Essentially, this can encompass a range of different marketing techniques, but everything is put together with the aim of getting businesses to work closely alongside one another. Of course, the language that is used and the specific techniques that are involved are going to differ widely to the other major form of marketing, which is going to be discussed in more detail in the next section.
- B2C Marketing
The counterpart to B2B marketing is B2C marketing, which essentially refers to the process when businesses are marketing their services directly to consumers rather than to other businesses. Obviously, this covers a big percentage of what is going on in the world of marketing. It can also encompass a wide range of the major techniques that are out there, many of which have already been discussed in the blog post. It is more than likely that you are going to use some of them within your own company structure and everything that it has been geared towards.
- Affiliate Marketing
This may be a form of marketing that flies a little bit more under the radar, but there is no doubt that it can play a major role in all sorts of different ways. Essentially, it refers to the way in which companies will piggyback on one another to ensure that they are getting their message across. For example, you may have clicked a link through a particular page and found your way into a third-party website. In this situation, it is more than likely that you have clicked through an affiliate link, which means that the first website or blog will get a percentage of the sales price. Essentially, it is like one business referring another, but it is often done in a way that is not immediately apparent.
- Social Media Marketing
While this technically falls under the umbrella term of digital marketing, it has become so important and prevalent in the modern world, there is no doubt that it plays a central role in what you are doing in so many different ways. There are the right and wrong ways of going about it, but what is important to remember is that you need to keep trying different techniques and experimenting with the content that really starts to pull in the eyeballs that you are looking for.
Final Thought
There you have just a few of the major forms of marketing that are out there and that your business could really begin to take advantage of. At the same time, you certainly need to make sure that you are making the most of them as far as possible.