10 Types of Marketing You Need to Know About

To succeed in any business, there are strategic things you need to know about marketing, if not have a solid grasp of the ins and outs. After all, marketing is what’s going to drive your sales. So, even though you may have profitability in mind, it’s vital to make sure you understand it if you want to succeed.

Problem: Many factors come into play when you think about marketing for your business. If it’s not your discipline, it could seem overwhelming.

Opportunity: However, asking the right questions makes a difference. For instance, will you market to consumers or business owners? What channels will you use? What are your budget limitations? And so on.

Resolution: Keep reading to learn more about the different types of marketing you need to know about.

Ultimately, every business leader needs to know marketing strategically for business success. There are several options available, and you need to know which ones are right for your business. Even if your marketing team handles it, understanding opportunities aligns your business in totality.

What Kind of Marketing Do You Need to Succeed?

Marketing can take many forms, and the kind you need depends on your specific business. Before deciding what kind of marketing you will do, you need to think about your target market and your products or services. Once you have this information, it’s easier to decide what kind of marketing is right for your business. So, go through these options with your marketing team.

1. Online Marketing

One of the most common forms of marketing is online or internet marketing. Examples of online marketing include placing ads on websites or running paid search campaigns on search engines. These ads direct people to your website, where they can browse, purchase, or sign up for updates. With online marketing, you can choose paid ads, where you pay an ad service (e.g., Google Ads) to place ads. Alternatively, you could seek to rank through organic results, where you use your website or other websites that link back to you.

Online marketing can also include email marketing, where you send emails to prospective customers, clients, or members. Speaking of email marketing, it’s not dead—yet. People still read emails. So, email marketing is still a valuable way to stay in touch. Of course, online marketing also includes social media marketing. You want to encourage viewers to ‘like,’ comment, and share content. It’s worth the investment to hire someone who understands how to engage with people on your social media channels.

2. Digital Marketing

While digital marketing may seem the same as online marketing, it’s not. Sure, some digital marketing could happen online. For instance, you could include social media in digital marketing. However, digital marketing’s a bit more nuanced. An example of digital marketing is creating digitally printed materials. Those could include QR codes, business cards, brochures, and posters.

Digital marketing could also include sending texts to your leads or using chatbots to answer questions. If you happen to have a corporation, another digital marketing technique you may want to use is a mobile app. As we know, most people now consume information on their mobile devices. As a result, many companies seek to create communities through app development or community platforms.

3. Print Advertising

Believe it or not, print ads remain an effective tool for marketing to get your brand in front of your target market. However, it has to get done correctly, or it doesn’t work. Different print ad options include print ads, flyers, posters, and billboards/signage. The reality is that print ads could seem novel in the digital era.

As we know, most marketing happens digitally or online. As a result, things could get lost because businesses and consumers get hundreds, if not thousands, of messages each day. So, if you want to stand out from the crowd, you could get a bit retro. For example, you could decide to do a campaign of printed postcards you mail to prospects. Done right and with thought, print ads still attract attention.

4. Public Relations

Public relations is a big part of online marketing. Moreover, it’s an essential part of every business’s marketing strategy. Every business—no matter the size—wants to get mentions. Regarding public relations, several ways exist to help spread brand awareness. For starters, you could reach out to the media (e.g., pitching on HARO) to expand on your thought leadership.

As you may know, influencers are a big deal in marketing. Influencers can be people in your industry or people with large audiences. For instance, they can write pieces about your brand, post them on websites, and talk you up on social media. You can also get your company in touch with the PR representatives in your area or industry. Their job is to get you as much exposure as possible.

5. Mobile Marketing

With mobile marketing, you use various forms of technology. For instance, mobile marketing could include the use of apps you develop. The short of it is that mobile marketing aims to target your audience on mobile phones and tablets. Another example included in mobile marketing is making your website mobile responsive.

Again, the primary way people consume information is no longer on a laptop or desktop. It’s with their tablets or cell phones. So, in mobile marketing, your team ensures to figure out strategies that engage with your audience on mobile. As a leader, you want your marketing team to do everything to improve your marketing using mobile devices. And that’s especially true with B-to-C sales.

6. Business-to-Business or Business-to-Consumer

Business-to-business marketing is any form of marketing that aims to get your brand before the people who work for a company. You can do business-to-business marketing through networking events, professional conferences, and trade shows. When you’re at these events, you can offer your products and services to people who work in similar fields. Perhaps you have a booth at a trade show or virtual event. Or, it could include the networking you do.

Business-to-consumer marketing targets individual people. Some of the best companies that know how to engage consumers include Firefox, Apple, and JetBlue. With b-to-c marketing and sales, you want a following. The more people love your brand, the greater the community your build. One further note, your company may do b-to-b and b-to-c. If you need to market to both, it takes a fully aligned team that knows how the two engage those audiences.

7. Event Marketing

Event marketing done well effectively gets your brand in front of your target market. With event marketing, you could host an event and use various forms of marketing at the event, depending on your audience. So, for example, you could host a virtual conference for businesses. You could send SMS texts or email reminders with free content before the meeting.

The reality is that event marketing’s come a long way. Traditionally, it was all in-person conferences or events. However, companies now do global virtual meetings with ease because we’ve moved online. Event marketing’s an excellent way to promote your brand as a leader in the industry. And it’s no longer necessary to spend a lot of money to make that happen.

8. Conference Marketing

Conference marketing is similar to event marketing in that you host a gathering. However, conference marketing’s more specific to b-to-b companies. Still, it’s not unheard of to have companies who want to attract consumers to conferences. When you do conference marketing, it’s an excellent opportunity to offer a taste of your product or service.

Since the pandemic, many companies shifted to doing conferences. Why? Because it’s not as expensive to do them virtually, and you could attract people from across the country or even the world. Conference marketing’s an excellent way to present a problem to your audience—and offer a solution. Remember, conference marketing is structured. It’s a great sales tool, especially when you invite partners and provide great insights, trends, and ideas.

9. SEO & PPC

Search engine optimization and paid-per-click ads, referred to as SEO and PPC, are two sides of the same coin. With SEO, you work to get your website in front of as many people as possible through various means. For instance, you could use backlinks from other sites, keywords, and on-page optimization. A word of warning. Many companies say they know SEO, and they don’t. So, use a trusted partner.

With PPC, you place ads on search engines. Ultimately, those ads drive users to your site when they search for products or services similar to what you offer. The advertiser, in this case, your brand, would pay every time someone clicks on the ad. PPC may make sense depending on your audience and with a comprehensive marketing strategy.

10. Branded Entertainment Marketing

Today, entertainment is so readily available that it’s often ‘background noise’ during our days. The result? Most consumers check out when ads appear when watching series and movies. As a result, brands struggle to stand out, and the investment is expensive. Enter branded entertainment marketing (or ‘advertainment’).

This branch of entertainment marketing is all about tapping into the power of brands to engage and connect with consumers on an emotional level. It does so by positioning brands within existing series and movies as a way to create new, proprietary content. For instance, think of James Bond and the Aston-Martin. Alternatively, it could also include branded campaigns, such as The Lego Movie.

As a business leader, even if you’re not the one executing marketing, it’s vital to know your approaches. Moreover, you want any marketing efforts to be effective at strengthening brand identity and improving customer relationships. Today’s marketing isn’t a fluffy ‘nice-to-do.’ It’s essential, and it’s an area that’s very data-driven. So, next time you meet with your marketing team, ask them more specifics about what they’re doing and why.

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Ben Stroup is Chief Growth Architect and President at Velocity Strategy Solutions where he helps leaders design, develop, and deploy smarter business growth strategies. Ben is a futurist, disruptor, and data champion. He leads a team that takes a structured learning approach to business challenges, which allows them to assist leaders in bridging the gap between ideas, innovation, and revenue—taking ideas from mind to market.

Velocity Strategy Solutions is an on-demand, next-generation business strategy and management consulting firm which provides clients with a relentless focus on data, execution, and results that positively impact the bottom line. Velocity delivers integrated people and revenue strategies combined with a disciplined approach to growth architecture that elevates the capacity of leaders, teams, and organizations to succeed and win more.