Different marketing techniques play a role at every stage of the customer journey, from attracting new customers to converting them into long-term customers. To make your strategy work, you need the right tools to execute it effectively.
These include traditional marketing tactics, such as a billboard advertisement, which has a broad reach and often garners more trust than digital marketing campaigns. Also included are content marketing, such as blog posts and podcasts, and influencer marketing.
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Marketing
B2C marketing is the set of practices that businesses use to promote their products or services directly to consumers. Companies that focus on B2C often skip the middleman, selling directly to customers online or through physical retail spaces.
Consumers often make purchases based on personal factors, such as price or enjoyment. This makes it important for B2C businesses to have a relatable voice and evoke an emotional response in their advertisements.
Many B2C companies are also community-based, selling to communities of people with shared interests. This can be done through social media platforms like Facebook or fee-based companies, such as streaming businesses.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
Business-to-business marketing strategies focus on building relationships and creating loyalty. This is done by using networking, personalised interactions, and establishing long-term partnerships.
These strategies are used by companies that sell products or services to other businesses or organizations, such as coworking spaces and screen-printing shops. B2B marketers also use influencer and word-of-mouth marketing to reach their target audience, as well as Account-based Marketing (ABM), which is tailored to specific high-value accounts or businesses.
Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing involves offline channels like trade shows, print advertising (magazines, newspapers, coupons, letter-based advertising), and personal selling. These tactics help build strong relationships with consumers and create better value.
It also breaks digital barriers, reaching audiences who may not have access to online marketing platforms. However, it has a few drawbacks: Lack of Real-Time Feedback: It takes time to gather consumer responses through surveys and focus groups. Limited Metrics: It is difficult to measure direct impact and ROI accurately. This makes it harder to improve and adjust campaigns.
Outbound Marketing
Outbound marketing involves broadcasting a business’s message to a broad audience through traditional channels like TV, radio, and direct mail. Typical outbound marketing tactics include cold calling, direct emailing, and video ads.
Outbound marketing offers several benefits, including raising brand awareness and prompting immediate customer conversions. However, some consumers may find outbound marketing annoying or spammy, and many people can use technology like ad blockers to avoid it altogether. This can lead to lower engagement rates and a challenge in tracking ROI. Also, relying solely on outbound marketing can quickly become expensive.
Inbound Marketing
Rather than interrupting consumers with TV or radio ads, cold calling, or email spam, inbound marketing draws customers to your business through valuable content that provides helpful solutions to their problems. This helps build trust and establishes your brand as a thought leader.
You can also target your marketing to specific consumer groups using tailored content. This will increase your chances of converting prospects into customers and of turning them into advocates. To do this, you’ll need to develop detailed customer personas. (Check out our handy guide on how to do this.
Social Media Marketing
SMM is an important aspect of a business’s marketing strategy because it allows for a wide reach, a targeted audience, and cost-effective advertising. It also helps businesses build brand loyalty and increase sales.
It humanizes a business by providing an approachable voice and personality for users to interact with. It enables brands to connect with their audience in an authentic way that resonates and fosters community. In addition to increasing brand awareness, SMM can boost conversion rates by leveraging landing pages that align with campaign goals. This ensures that each ad, post, or story leads to a website page tailored to the user’s needs.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engines like Google make it possible for people to find the content they’re looking for online. SEO is the competitive discipline that focuses on optimizing website elements to improve visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
While the algorithms used by search engines are proprietary, marketers have reverse-engineered key ranking factors over time to develop best practices for SEO marketing. This includes optimizing website content, using relevant keywords, and implementing technical SEO practices. There are also specialty branches of SEO, such as e-commerce and enterprise SEO.
Content Marketing
Content marketing focuses on creating valuable, relevant materials for online audiences to drive results over time. This approach positions businesses as helpful resources rather than sales-y pushes, which often turn off customers.
Invest in quality content to improve your SEO and position yourself as an authority in your industry. It can also help shorten sales cycles and generate leads, but it’s important to define your goals and set realistic expectations. To maximize ROI, focus on measurable outcomes like brand awareness, lead generation, and customer loyalty.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing involves working with social media influencers to promote your products and services. This technique helps build brand awareness and trust.
It also increases traffic and improves search engine optimization (SEO). Influencers can share your content on their platforms, host a live video, or create custom visuals for your campaign.
To identify suitable influencers, you must first understand your audience and their needs. Use tools to find influencers that fit your criteria, then reach out to them. Ensure that their audience aligns with yours and negotiate terms.
Acquisition Marketing
Acquisition marketing is the process of attracting new customers to your business. It includes tactics like leveraging email campaigns and offering free trials and samples to boost conversion rates.
Using referral programs to attract new customers is another effective way to grow your business. This type of marketing helps build trust and customer loyalty.
People tend to trust other people more than they do brands. Use this to your advantage by featuring user stories, case studies, reviews, and testimonials on your website and social media channels.