You can develop excellent products or services, but if you don’t know how to let customers know about them, they’re of no use. This is where marketing comes into the picture, which involves several processes such as conducting research, promoting, and selling. It helps businesses attract new customers and retain the existing ones by persuading them to purchase the products. With the right type of marketing, businesses can acquire a loyal customer base. In the process, they satisfy the customer’s wants and needs, along with generating more profits. Once again, the purpose of marketing is to attract customers to brands through messages that convince them to purchase. Now, let’s explore the different types of marketing.
What is marketing?
Marketing is the process of attracting customers by communicating with them and delivering satisfying results in order to retain them. It is a primary activity of any business and is typically conducted by anyone selling a product or service.
It mainly entails a line of communication with the potential audience to promote the services or products offered. Marketing is basically high-quality messaging done after substantial research, surveys, and studies of customer behavior. At its core, marketing is nothing more than seeking the ideal audience for a potential product.
Different Types of Marketing
1. Traditional marketing
Traditional marketing was the talk of the town before the rise of the internet. But with the explosion of Internet popularity, digital marketing took over the traditional one, which we will discuss next. In the digital era, traditional marketing is not as effective as other types, yet it still has its perks.
It uses marketing channels such as prints, broadcasts, or telemarketing to boost the brand image. What distinguishes traditional marketing from other types is its ability to reach a larger audience and connect with them on a personal level.
2. Digital marketing
Digital marketing is also known as internet or online marketing. For example, the marketing campaign that you see on your device is digital marketing. Through social media posts and ads, the brand is promoted. It helps businesses to connect with potential customers using the internet.
The best part about digital marketing is that it allows brands to target specific audiences. In this way, they can send personalized marketing messages to the selected audience who are more likely to make a purchase.
3. Social media marketing
In this type of marketing, social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are used to reach prospects and customers. The brands publish content on their social media profiles that attract audiences. They interact with their followers to understand their needs and provide excellent services. Here, the social media analytics tools are used to understand brands’ performance. It includes analyzing the brand’s reach, engagement, and sales on social media.
4. Outbound marketing
In outbound marketing, irrespective of the audience’s interest, the products or services are marketed to them. It targets larger audiences, expecting at least some of them to convert. The proactive approach is used to draw the attention of the audience. Therefore, it is an effective type of marketing to reach out to audiences who haven’t heard about the brand before.
Unfortunately, it has a generalized approach that may not be relevant to all the members of the audience. This makes it less appealing to them, and, as mentioned, lowers the conversion rate.
5. Inbound marketing
Inbound marketing is about piquing the interest of potential customers. It is an indirect form of marketing, where the customers are persuaded into buying by increasing their engagement with the brand. It is one of the most effective types of marketing where there is more ROI (return on investment).
In this marketing type, the brands post blogs, videos, and other content explaining why their products or services are best and suitable for customers’ needs. This allows them to stand out from their competitors and acquire more customers.
6. Search engine marketing
Using this type of marketing, brands increase their visibility on search engine result pages. People spend most of their time online when searching for products or services. And what’s the better way than using SEM (Search Engine Marketing) to acquire new customers through search queries.
It is one of the quickest ways to drive traffic to websites, as visitors are more likely to make a purchase. Since it reaches the customer at the right time, SEM is considered to be an effective marketing type.
7. Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a trending topic in the marketing domain. It is the collaboration between influencers and various brands. The influencers have an impact on the purchasing decisions of their audience based on their relationship with them or their positions.
For this reason, brands reach out to them to promote their products or services, eventually generating more sales. It is an effective way of improving brand recognition.
8. Email marketing
Email may be one of the primitive marketing tools but remains at the core of marketing. It has the largest user base compared to most of the marketing channels. This makes it a favorable option to send promotional messages to potential and existing customers.
Brands offer the option to their visitors to subscribe for email marketing. This way, when they run promotional offers, they send emails to the subscribers sharing the details with them.
9. Video marketing
Video marketing represents video recordings integrated into the marketing campaigns to increase the customer’s engagement. They are, unsurprisingly, engaging and promoting the brands, creating awareness about their products or services and, usually, limited-time offers.
This type of marketing allows customers to relate to the brands on a more personal note. That’s because, with the popularity of streaming, consumers are more accustomed and attracted to video content.
10. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketers are people or companies who promote the products or services of a brand. But when customers make a purchase, marketers earn commissions i.e., a flat fee or a percentage of the sale. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.
Brands don’t have to actively participate in advertising, since affiliate marketers take care of that. Marketers can adjust advertising so it fits the targeted audience’s needs and wants, and customers get what they are looking for.
Comparison Table of Different Types of Marketing
Now, let us take a look at the following table to learn more about the various types of marketing and how they fare against one another:
| Approach | Description | Tools and Techniques |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional | It uses conventional methods for advertising and promotion. | Print ads in newspapers, TV commercials, radio ads, billboards, and pamphlets |
| Digital | Modern marketing relies on the internet and digital devices. | Blogs, web ads, email marketing, SEO |
| Social Media | Can be considered a part of digital marketing but is solely limited to using social media platforms. | Facebook posts, influencers, Instagram posts, WhatsApp Business |
| Outbound | Mostly used to generate leads by targeting a large audience at once | Calling, text messaging, email marketing, and mass media |
| Inbound | Using brand goodwill to generate interset | Content creation, brand integration, |
| Affiliate | Using a personal platform to promote other people’s products for a commission | Website, content marketing, referrals |
| Guerrilla | Unconventional methods to attract customers quickly | Viral videos, street art, flash mobs |
| Content | Creating content in order to attract and retain customers | Blogs, websites, videos, |
| SEO | Increasing your visibility through ranking on various search engines | Blogs, videos, content marketing, and lead management |
| Influencer | A person promoting products on social media | Brand integration, sponsorship |
Marketing Trends
The marketing trends have been fluctuating over the years. To educate you about the current marketing trends, we have prepared a chart –
How does AI impact marketing?
AI has already made a name for itself in the field of marketing. It has made marketing more analytical and taken over mundane tasks. Thus, we can say that AI is and will be transformative for marketing in the coming years, especially when the industry has shown strong potential for growth. If we take the US as an example, we will see at least $481 billion spent annually on marketing alone. However, the star of the show is undoubtedly digital marketing.
Just in the year 2023, many marketers have increased their budgets substantially for platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Google. Even the global digital advertising market is expected to reach $786 billion by 2026. And AI is supposed to play a greater role here. By handling customer segmentation and targeting, it can allow marketers to better place their products, adding more revenue to the industry. AI can also be used to analyze customer behavior and use the data to create a digital marketing campaign using personalized marketing tactics for better engagement, higher retention, and increased brand loyalty.
If recent reports are to be believed, AI-driven marketing is all but set to drive almost 45% of the entire marketing sector until 2030. If you want to learn more about the impact of AI on digital marketing, then click on the video below:
Conclusion on Marketing Types
In this analysis, we covered some types of marketing but there are others: personalized advertising, acquisition, voice marketing, word of mouth, campus, event marketing, etc. But regardless of the kind, marketing works to promote and sell products or services. It is an essential part of any business and is present from the very beginning. That’s because it helps businesses understand customers’ requirements and preferences and stay in the market.