As a business owner, you need to have a basic understanding of several different types of marketing— even if you plan on hiring a marketing agency. There are many different types of marketing techniques that fall under two main categories: traditional and digital. There’s also recruitment marketing, in which your target audience is not a consumer. Marketing to both consumers and job seekers is equally important to your business’s success, and here’s a brief description of each of these three types of marketing strategies.
#1: Traditional Marketing Strategies
Traditional forms of marketing are the marketing techniques that businesses and advertisers used before the creation of the internet. This includes printed media (such as newspapers and magazines), billboard ads, and TV and radio advertisements.
Even though traditional marketing strategies may seem old fashioned or out of date, they are still very effective forms of marketing— especially for small businesses that serve a local community. However, even larger companies can benefit (and do benefit) from traditional forms of marketing.
#2: Digital Marketing Strategies
Digital marketing is marketing that is done over the internet. This form of marketing began to rise in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the increase in usage of email and social media— which are two forms of digital marketing. By far, digital marketing in general is the most effective form of marketing because you can reach the most amount of people for a smaller amount of money. Here are some of the subcategories of digital marketing:
Affiliate Marketing
This is a type of digital marketing strategy that allows you to involve your most loyal customers. Affiliate programs allow your customers to earn a commission when another customer purchases your product(s) through their affiliate link. You get to decide how much they earn from each purchase.
Content Marketing
Content marketing involves the creation of useful and meaningful content to increase brand awareness and generate leads for your business. Examples of content to create include:
- Photos, videos, and audio recordings
- Long-form content, such as white papers or ebooks
- Infographics
- Blog posts
Email Marketing
Email your content to your customers who have signed up to receive emails from you. These emails should include content that is informative, such as upcoming promotions and new product releases. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t overwhelm your customers with emails, and give them the option to both sign up and opt out.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC brings people to your website by paying a publisher every time your ad is clicked on their website. Websites that utilize PPC include:
- Google Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Twitter Ads
- LinkedIn Sponsored Messages
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This digital marketing strategy uses techniques to get your website to rank higher in search engines. When people search popular search engines like Google, they typically don’t scroll too far down the list of results— and they’re even less likely to check the results of the next page. With SEO marketing, your website will rank higher and have a higher chance of getting clicked by searchers.
Social Media Marketing
Billions of people use social media every day, making it one of the most effective forms of digital marketing. Social media marketing goes hand-in-hand with content marketing. Post your infographics, photos, and videos on platforms such as:
#3: Recruitment Marketing
In business, customers aren’t the only group of people you have to market to. The purpose of marketing is to create brand awareness to help drive sales— but it is also used to create brand awareness to recruit employees. This is known as recruitment marketing, and it’s a unique form of marketing (that incorporates many digital marketing strategies) that recruits and identifies the best talent to work for your business.
A recruitment marketing guide can give you an overview of the techniques used to market your brand towards potential employees. First, you’ll need to create a strong brand identity that resonates with job seekers in your industry. After this, you’ll be able to market your business towards the best talent.
Marketing to both consumers and job seekers requires you to develop a strong brand identity that will create brand awareness. Traditional methods of marketing are still effective in a digital world, but should not be used without digital marketing. Digital marketing— towards consumers and job seekers— requires you to have an online presence, meaning that you should have a business website and at least one social media page.
