Marketing Made Easy
If you’re a business owner or marketer interested in propelling your brand’s popularity and boosting sales, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll explore what marketing is, the various types that exist and why it’s time you started to put a marketing strategy together. Consider this your introduction to marketing - a Marketing 101 with everything you need to know.
What is Marketing?
Put simply, marketing is the method through which a business promotes its products to customers. This is done in the pursuit of better brand awareness and increased sales. Without effective market research and a strong strategy for success, businesses will remain under the radar with potential customers. Marketing is about mining this wealth.
The concept emerged at the same time as the very first products and services, with major accelerations in its use resulting from the invention of trains, newspapers, radio, television and the internet. Companies looking to make money realized that customers needed to be aware of the brand and given a good enough reason to decide to make a purchase.
How Can Marketing Help?
By engaging with marketing practices, you’ll put your brand’s products or services in front of potential customers. Done right, you’ll grab their attention for the long term and create a base of customers that’ll keep your profits high and your business thriving. Marketing can keep sales up both in the short- and long term.
Types of Marketing
There are nine major types of marketing you need to know about, ranging from classic methods like print and radio to modern examples like influencer and social media.
Print Marketing
Print marketing is one of the oldest types of marketing, whereby a brand will publish an advert in a newspaper or magazine. This category also includes billboard advertising, which dates back two centuries. While print marketing can be deployed nationally or internationally, it’s a great method for localized advertising too.
Television Marketing
Television marketing is any form of advertisement that appears on television, though today that would also include online streaming sites. A classic example of television marketing is securing an advert on live or catch-up TV. However, brands may also advertise more subtly through this medium, placing their products within TV shows themselves.
Influencer Marketing
Brands may choose to use the popularity of celebrities and influencers to promote their brand or service. By approaching highly-followed people on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, marketers can quickly get their brand in front of millions of people. Plus, with the apparent backing of a trusted person you’re sure to see a jump in sales.
Email Marketing
Email marketing continues to be one of the most successful forms of digital marketing that a brand can invest in. Conversion rates are high, especially when emails are succinct and direct customers to purchases easily. Within email marketing, you can either purchase ad space within an email from a trusted source or send out your own dedicated email to subscribers.
Search Engine Marketing
Search engines are the most visited sites online, so it’s no wonder they’ve become a major marketing platform. Brands can either use these platforms for paid-for advertising or engage with search engine optimization (SEO) to boost their page up the listing.
Social Media Marketing
Any marketing team successfully achieving the basics will be engaging with social media marketing. The advantage of social media marketing is that it is usually substantially cheaper than other forms of marketing. That’s because setting up a brand page is completely free, except for employee costs. Of course, there are ways to push your social media marketing to the next level with a wider strategy of paid ads too.
Radio Marketing
Whether you’re a large or small business, radio marketing has been proven to work for decades. With national, global and local stations, there’s a platform for any brand. Radio is a diluted market, however, so you’ll need your advert to stand out here to successfully grab people’s attention.
Postal Marketing
Postal marketing remains popular and for a good reason. It’s still very successful. A lot like email marketing, postal marketing sees a brand deliver physical materials to its target audience.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is unique in that it isn’t supposed to be disruptive. While email or postal marketing is intended to put something directly in front of potential customers, content marketing is intended to create valuable content that people will find useful or helpful. This may take the form of blogs, podcasts or informational videos.