The types of marketing that are used today has gotten more complex with the advent of the internet. When I began is was all about getting to actually meet people in the community I worked in. The varieties of options can be overwhelming. It helps to understand some of the larger categories of marketing types just to orient ourselves.
Push marketing
A push strategy involves promoting your services directly to the customer. This can be by whatever means. The goal is ensuring the customer is aware of your brand at the point of they are ready to purchase your services. We want to appeal to those who have not yet discovered that they need what we are offering. This requires pushing out our message to a much larger group in order to find that smaller group who might be interested in what we are offering.
Here are some examples of push marketing tactics
- Email, print, or broadcast campaigns advertising services
- Trade show or health fair promotions
- Directly reaching out to customers
Pull marketing
A pull strategy takes a different approach. Here we are trying to establish a loyal following by showing potential consumers who we are. We want them to see what we offer. Our hope is to attract them to utilize our services. We are appealing to those who are in need of the service we provide. Furthermore pull marketing is more cost-effective than push marketing. And most importantly while the payoff takes longer with pull marketing, the effects seem to last longer.
One common slogan that is often used is this: Use branding to pull and sales to push.
Here are some examples of pull marketing tactics
- Word-of-mouth referrals
- Customer relationship management
- Presentations and talks to public for referral people
- E-newsletters with useful info for the public
- An inviting web page that has lots of useful articles and resources
- Any activity that attracts potential clients and creates a positive image
Conclusion
So when you are considering a marketing strategy, it is useful to consider what the objectives are in the effort. I have written a post on my many marketing disasters called: Spectacular belly flops in marketing. Hope you find better ways than these.