If you’re planning to start your own business, one of the most important things you need to know about is marketing. Marketing is how you promote your company and its products and/or services to your target market. Here are 10 types of marketing strategies that you should be aware of as an entrepreneur.
1. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is becoming an increasingly popular form of marketing where you, as a business owner, pay a website or individual a commission when they promote your product and a purchase is made through their referral link. In some cases, this is similar to having brand ambassadors, though brand ambassadors tend to receive products for free (because they have a large online following), while affiliates still have to purchase from a company.
2. Brand Marketing
The aim of brand marketing is to make more people aware of your company, and your brand as a whole. Your company’s brand identity consists of its name and logo, but also your tone of voice and your core values.
3. Cause Marketing
Cause marketing is a type of strategy that plays on your company’s brand. It’s where companies publicly back a specific cause that strengthens one or more of their core values. For example, if you want to support a cure for cancer, you can donate a percentage of your earnings to the American Cancer Society, and advertise this on your website on social media platforms.
4. Event Marketing
Like the same suggests, event marketing is a marketing strategy that takes place in the form of an in-person (or virtual) event. This allows your customers to experience your products and your entire brand as a whole in a more hands-on way. An example of event marketing is a pop-up shop. This is where companies set up a temporary “shop” where customers can purchase their products.
5. Inbound/Outbound Marketing
Inbound marketing uses strategies to bring customers to you, as opposed to outbound marketing. Outbound marketing focuses on delivering a message to your target audience. The former uses other strategies, such as SEO (search engine optimization), to bring organic traffic to your website, and gently encourages potential customers to become buyers. The latter is similar to your traditional marketing techniques, such as a billboard ad.
6. Mobile and Email Marketing
These are two forms of marketing that take advantage of the decades-long and ongoing advancements in technology. Mobile marketing involves sending marketing content via text messages, while email marketing sends similar messages via email. Both allow the consumer to opt-in and opt-out of these messages, and email marketing relies heavily on content marketing (graphics, photos, videos, etc.).
7. Public Relations Marketing
The goal of public relations (PR) marketing is to generate more buzz around your business, particularly when you’re launching a new product, or when you’re making another type of huge announcement.
8. Recruitment Marketing
This is a very different type of marketing because your target audience isn’t consumers, but job seekers. If you’ve just started your small business, you may not need to hire any employees just yet, but it’s likely that you will in the future. Because of this, you’ll need to know the basics and best practices for recruitment marketing— although you can hire a recruitment marketing agency to help bring you the most qualified individuals.
9. Social Media Marketing
If you’re a first-time entrepreneur, it’s likely that you’re already using social media marketing in some way. This form of marketing utilizes the top social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter) in order to create product and brand awareness. These platforms allow you to create a business profile and/or access business tools to help promote your business to the almost five billion people who use social media.
10. Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of mouth marketing may not reach the same number of people as the other forms of marketing listed above. But, it’s still a very effective form of marketing. You can do this yourself by simply telling others about your new business. Yet, it also includes your current customers telling their family and friends about your business. Just keep in mind that you have the least amount of control over this form of marketing.
As an entrepreneur you should, at the very least, have a working knowledge of each of these 10 types of marketing strategies. For the most success, you should hire a digital marketing firm or specialist who is knowledgeable in a variety of different types of digital marketing. Just keep in mind that digital marketing professionals may not necessarily be well-versed in recruitment marketing. So this will be a separate firm you’ll need to hire.
