6.1 Introduction
In this module we will look at the different forms of marketing, as there are a number of possible options available to you. However, not every type of marketing is going to be suitable for your needs, therefore it is important for you to be aware of the market that you are targeting and to identify the best way forward, in order for you to get your message out.
6.2 The Key Forms of Marketing
We start by discussing the different forms of marketing that you should be aware for your marketing strategies or campaigns. We recommend you consider using more than one of these forms to fully harness the power of marketing and provide your business with the best opportunity to make the kind of impact that you are hoping for. We could spend a considerable amount of time discussing the different forms of marketing and there are some individuals online that work their way through over 50 different forms of marketing - even though that is an unrealistic number and certainly not viable in any way. However, we will focus on the key areas that most people involved in marketing should be aware of, simply because these can make a huge difference to the potential future success of your business or marketing strategy. To progress this point, you need to consider the following important points:
Select your market
It is argued by some that there are different forms of marketing for each industry as there are certain protocols and expectations that are placed upon you by those that you will be targeting. In other words, an individual working in the construction industry has to market things differently to those working in beauty, as the customers or clients are looking for very different things when making their decisions.
It is important that you are aware of the forms of marketing related to your industry and, in order to do this, it is advised that you spend time researching your market and competitors to get some insight of what to expect.
Outbound marketing
One form of marketing to consider is known as outbound marketing and this generally takes the form of the 'dreaded' call centre. This method is known to be effective but ultimately comes down to the quality of the people working on your behalf. However, once again, this depends on the market, for example double glazing works well with this method, yet a hairdresser would fail.
Inbound marketing
Inbound marketing also often involves the use of a call centre but, this time, people call you, often due to having seen some kind of advertisement or marketing elsewhere. This will depend on you having competent people who are able to sell your products or services to those that call in.
Word of mouth marketing
Word of mouth marketing is not a thing of the past - if you are able to create some kind of a buzz around what you are doing, you will find that customers old and new ones will spread the word, thus saving you the trouble of doing so. However, ensure you are providing them with what they are looking for because word of mouth marketing can also work against you - negativity can spread faster than positivity.
Direct mail marketing
Direct mail marketing is something with which people tend to become irritated, especially when lots of leaflets are dropped through their door on a regular basis. However, if you are able to get past the point at which they throw things in the bin, it can help to generate more awareness of your brand. The key to success here is to ensure the advertising they receive is capable of grabbing their attention.
Direct marketing
Direct marketing used to just be direct mail, but now it can involve email marketing or even in person marketing. The main thing is that there is a very real 'call to action' when it comes to the message that you are trying to put across and the key is that you go to them rather than sitting back and waiting for them to come to you hence the 'direct' part of the term.
Social marketing
With social marketing, the important thing is to take advantage of new technology which is focused on social media. We will cover this in our section on online marketing but it is certainly something that is becoming more and more important for various industries. This does not just involve you having a presence on Facebook but also online reviews, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and much more. The key is the way in which you are able to interact with your potential customers by providing an almost constant presence, due to the way in which these websites operate.
Viral marketing
Viral marketing has become more popular in recent times, although it is accepted that this is not easy for some people to do. People mistakenly believe that to be a success, going viral means receiving millions of views or hits on an advert posted online. However, that is not true because viral means that people are talking about you or sharing your marketing without you doing anything to prompt them to do so. In other words, even word of mouth marketing is a form of viral marketing as the goal is to create some kind of buzz about your products or services.
Guerrilla marketing
Guerrilla marketing is one of the buzz terms alongside viral marketing but, once again, there is a misconception as to what it actually means. The main thing is that you invest time and energy in creating unconventional ways of marketing your business and getting your name out there.
For example In Romania, there was an issue surrounding mobile phones being stolen. Vodafone reacted by creating a marketing campaign whereby those skilled in the art of pickpocketing would slip flyersadvertising their phones into the public's pockets. This is not only unconventional but it also shows how ingenious some companies can be when it comes to their marketing.
There are a whole host of other types of marketing but the ones mentioned above will provide you with some sense of what is possible. Marketing is about being clever and using a variety of methods although, as we stressed earlier, not everything will work as well as you had hoped. It all depends on your ability to spend time researching your key methods and then implementing these in a way that will work for you.
FACT
B2B marketers say the #1 benefit of marketing automation is the ability to generate more and better leads.
Source: hubspot.com
6.3 The Importance of Understanding and Using These Different Forms of Marketing
Now that we have guided you through the main key forms of marketing, we turn our attention to the reasons why this is so important. Remember, from a marketing perspective, there is no one solution that will work for every single company, product, or service. If you think that what appears to work for one company will work for you, think again. They may be targeting the exact same market but their team will have different ideas as to what they believe will work and there is something unique about you or your business that can make or break an entire strategy. Remember that, even when selling products that are the same as another company's, your strategy must be unique to you and the ethos that you bring to your customers. Your own individual goals for your products or services will be unique to you and nobody else. The things that drive you and the way you project yourself onto your market is something that will not be replicated elsewhere and it is important that the forms of marketing you employ reflect the way in which you desire to do business.
It may be that only certain aspects of a particular approach will work and different forms of marketing may prove to be best in different locations. Having a multi-angled approach will provide you with the best possible opportunity to build a successful marketing campaign, as relying on one outlet solely could prove disastrous, as you are in effect missing out on opportunities.
6.4 How to Select the Best Forms of Marketing
It is important to understand the different forms of marketing that are available to you and we now look at how you select the best forms for your own individual marketing campaign or strategy. We have to stress that what you select for one campaign will not automatically be relevant to another future campaign because everything is unique. Each individual marketing campaign may well have different goals so you would be using different ideas in order to reach those goals. So how do you select the best forms of marketing for your own campaigns? In order to do so, you have to think about the following:
What does your market expect?
The key with this particular
aspect is to be aware of what it is that your own market expects from companies
working within your particular industry. How does your market expect to be
approached by you? What kind of method will annoy them? Knowing the likes and
dislikes of your target market will help you get things right first time.
What is the track record of different forms of marketing?
We stated earlier that there are people on the Internet who claim that there are over 50 different forms of marketing but, before you start using certain methods or techniques, it is important to consider the actual track record that a certain form of marketing has in your industry. Not everything will work for every single person and you do not want to waste your time focusing on forms of marketing that are unacceptable to your market.
*What is the track record like?
*Have others had success or failure?
*Do your homework on the different forms of marketing to avoid costly mistakes?
*What does it cost?
As with anything related to business or marketing, you need to know in advance what something is going to cost, to see if it is financially viable. In this instance, you must know if you are likely to get a return on the investment that you have to make, in order to get the marketing strategy up and running. This takes us back to understanding what the market is looking for and whether or not a particular form of marketing works for your industry. If it fits your goals, then the costs may prove to be insignificant, as it could just be a question of taking into consideration the scale of your marketing, as opposed to whether or not it works.
How does it work?
Just as you are unable to undertake any effective marketing without understanding your business or target market, you must also understand the way in which the idea itself works in relation to your business or individual approach.
For example
If you are looking at direct mail, do not distribute flyers randomly. Are there areas where the demographics are more in your favour, so to prompt a better return? How do people react to these approaches? Knowing how something works is key, to enable you to get the kind of return that you are looking for, and to avoid time-wasting time.
You need to research not only how the market is going to react to an approach but also how the entire approach works in the first place. Preparation is so important and cannot be overlooked or the process will become much harder. Study the different forms of marketing that are suitable for your industry or market and begin to formulate your plan around what you have ascertained.
6.5 Where You Can Go Wrong and How to Avoid It
Finally, we have to accept that there may well be times whereby you make some kind of mistake and, of course, this could spell disaster, depending on how long it is before you realise that something has gone awry. However, even though it is impossible to completely avoid mistakes, there are things that you can put in place to help reduce the likelihood of you making a mistake that could cause difficulty for your marketing strategy. The main mistakes that people make regarding marketing and the different forms that exist are as follows:
Failure to research the methods and techniques.
The main mistake is that people tend to launch into a marketing plan without researching the relevant methods or techniques. Research has to be at the heart of everything that you do with regards your marketing, or you are blindly putting money and effort into something that will get you nowhere.
Giving up too soon.
By this we mean that people lack the patience to give various strategies time to have an impact. It is rare, or in some cases extremely expensive, for a marketing plan to generate substantial results immediately and you want to have a strategy that is sustainable over an extended period of time. This concept of jumping from idea to idea until you believe that you have hit 'the magic formula' is erratic, serves no business purpose and causes stress. By all means abandon a method or marketing format if it is clearly not working but, other than that, it is often a case of perseverance, even though there has to be a time limit, especially if it is costing you a substantial sum of money. Being reckless when under pressure.
One problem with marketing is that there is often a point whereby you feel under pressure because something is not working out as you had hoped. At that stage, it is important that you are able to act in the correct manner because the decisions you make at that point can make or break your entire marketing strategy. This is where your ability to think clearly under pressure is important because the last thing to do is to act recklessly which will only make matters worse. Do not overspend to try and correct. Once again, we must stress that there will be other mistakes that you could potentially make when it comes to dealing with the different forms of marketing but it is how you handle those mistakes that will prove how successful your business or, in this instance, your marketing strategy will be.
MODULE SUMMARY
In this module, we have primarily looked at the different forms of marketing and how you are able to select the correct approaches for your own individual marketing strategy. However, we stress that this is something that will be unique to you and the different forms of marketing are merely a guide towards what is largely available to you. At the end of the day, it is up to you and your own individual strategy to determine which actions you believe will work best and to allow you to reach your end goals.
Next, we will take you through one other aspect of marketing that is going to play an important role in your ability to create the perfect marketing strategy: the concept of the Four P's of marketing.
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