Like many of the people working in the industry today, digital marketing was born in the 1990s. Since then, the industry has evolved at breakneck speed, sprouting up many more types of marketing.
From search engine marketing to account-based marketing, all brands can use a combination of these tactics to attract their target audience and earn more revenue.
Table of Contents
Types of Marketing
1. Traditional marketing
The traditional marketing refers to the promotion of the brand in the offline channels that existed before the emergence of the Internet. Think of billboards, brochures, and radio spots.
Because information was not so easily accessible and available, most traditional marketing relied on outbound tactics such as print, TV commercials, and billboards.
2. Outbound Marketing
The marketing of outbound is one of the types of marketing refers to the promotion intrusive as cold calls, sending emails to purchased lists and print ads.
This marketing method is called “outbound” because it involves sending a message to consumers to publicize your products or services, regardless of consumer interest.
3. Inbound Marketing
The marketing inbound , by contrast, focuses on attracting customers rather than barging. Most inbound marketing tactics are framed in digital marketing , as consumers have the ability to research online as they go through their own buying journey.
Inbound is based on three pillars: Attract, involve and delight. The initial goal is to create valuable content and experiences that resonate with your audience and attract them to your business.
The next is to engage them through conversational tools like email marketing and chat bots, and of course ongoing value. Finally, you delight them by continuing to act as an empathetic and expert advisor.
4. Digital marketing
Digital marketing is the opposite of traditional marketing, as this type of marketing takes advantage of technology that did not exist traditionally to reach audiences in new ways.
Businesses take advantage of digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and websites to connect with current and potential customers.
5. Search engine marketing
The search engine marketing , or SEM, is one of the types of marketing that includes all the strategies used to ensure that your company is visible in the results pages of search engines (SERP). With SEM, you can get your business to appear first when a user searches for a specific keyword.
The two types of SEM are search engine optimization (SEO) for organic search results and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising for sponsored search engine results.
To get started with SEO, you need to become familiar with search engine ranking factors and produce content for search engines to index.
Pay-per-click SEM involves bidding on keywords to get your ads placed, through platforms like Google Ads. There are also ad management tools that make it easy to create and manage your PPC campaigns.
6. Content marketing
The content marketing is a key instrument in the inbound and digital marketing because it is one of the best ways to attract your target audience.
It consists of creating, publishing, and distributing content to your target audience through free and closed channels such as social media platforms, blogs, videos, e-books, and webinars.
With content marketing, the goal is to help your audience along their buying journey. First, identify your shoppers’ most frequently asked questions and concerns before they’re ready to make a purchase.
Next, create an editorial calendar to help you create and manage your content. It also helps to have a content management system (CMS) to make publishing easier.
7. Social Media Marketing
With platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, brands can promote their business and engage with audiences in a more personal way.
In these types of marketing, with social media, there are two things that are key to success: relevant content and consistency.
Nobody enters social networks looking for something to buy, it is important to balance promotion with entertainment. Compelling images and captions that encourage your audience to like, share, and comment will bring your brand that much closer to landing a customer.
Now, consistency is what keeps your followers coming back. How are they going to be interested in your brand if they rarely see it on their timeline? To facilitate the publication of content on all platforms, there are several social media tools that automate the process.
8. Video Marketing
According to a study, 86% of marketers say that using video in their marketing strategy has a positive ROI. Whether it’s for your website, your YouTube channel, your email list, or your social media followers, video can drive brand awareness, drive conversions, and close deals.
Some video marketing applications even allow you to analyze, feed, and rate potential customers based on their activity.
9. Voice marketing
Voice marketing is about leveraging smart speakers like Amazon Alexa and Google Home to add value to your audience and answer questions about their topics of interest.
Beyond optimizing your website for voice search by incorporating the right keywords, you can also be inventive by developing a Google Home action or Alexa skill.
10. Email marketing
The email marketing is one of the types of marketing that connects brands with potential clients and customers via email. Email campaigns can be used to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to other channels, promote products or services, or nurture potential customers towards a purchase.
Email regulations, such as the GDPR and the CAN-SPAM Act, require brands to adhere to responsible business email practices, which boil down to three principles:
- Only send emails to people who expect to hear from you. That is, they have chosen to do so.
- Make it easy for subscribers to unsubscribe.
- Be transparent about who you are when you contact them.
With this in mind, the first thing you need to do is plan how you are going to build your email list, that is, the database of contacts that you can send emails to. The most common method is through lead acquisition forms on your website.
Next, you will need email marketing software and CRM to send, track, and monitor the effectiveness of your emails. To take your email strategy further and maximize productivity, you can also look for email automation software that sends emails based on trigger criteria.
11. Conversational marketing
The Conversational marketing is the ability to hold conversations 1: 1 with their audience across multiple channels, meeting with customers how, when and where they want. It’s more than a live chat, it extends to phone calls, texts, Facebook Messenger, email, Slack, and other channels.
When you start in this type of marketing, you will first identify which channels your audience is on. The challenge, however, is being able to manage multiple channels without slow response times, lack of internal communication, or loss of productivity. That’s why it’s important to use conversational marketing tools, like a unified inbox, to streamline your efforts.
12. Buzz Marketing
Buzz marketing is a viral marketing strategy that leverages creative and refreshing content, interactive events, and community influencers to generate word of mouth marketing and buzz for the product or service that a brand is about to launch. .
Buzz Marketing works best when you reach out to influencers in advance and have a plan to build buzz around your brand. To keep track of your efforts, invest in social listening software to keep track of how your audience responds.
13. Influencer Marketing
The marketing of influencers is one of the types of marketing that have appeared to take advantage of existing community of committed followers on social networks. Influencers are considered experts in their niches and have earned the loyalty and trust of an audience you might be trying to reach.
To get started with influencer marketing, you must first build your influencer marketing strategy and define what type of influencers you are targeting. Next, you’ll want to create criteria for your influencer to make sure they fit within your strategy and budget. Factors to consider include your niche, your audience size, and your current metrics.
From there, you can find the influencers and get in touch with them:
- Manually contacting on social networks.
- Using an influencer marketing platform.
- Hiring an agency to do the research and contact for you.
14. Acquisition Marketing
With any marketing strategy, your goal is to attract and retain customers. However, each type of marketing focuses on a specific stage of the buyer’s journey. The marketing acquisition focuses on the phases of attraction and conversion to convert strangers into qualified leads for sale.
What sets it apart from other types of marketing is that it extends beyond the marketing team, often involving collaboration with successful and customer service teams. Why? Because satisfied customers are the biggest promoters.
Acquisition marketing can involve a number of tactics to turn a website into a lead generation engine, including offering freemium products, launching education centers, tightening up site copywriting, optimizing conversion rate and optimization of potential customers.
You can even include a lead nurturing and optimization strategy to facilitate the handover between marketing and sales.
15. Contextual marketing
The marketing context is to target online users with different ads on websites and social networks based on their online browsing behavior. The main way to make contextual marketing efforts powerful is through personalization.
A CRM combined with powerful marketing tools such as smart CTAs can make a website look more like a ‘choose your own adventure’ story, allowing the user to find the right information and take the right actions more. effective.
Contextual marketing is one of the types of marketing that requires highly refined and perfected strategy and planning, you’ll see when you do a master’s degree in digital marketing.
16. Personalized marketing
The personalized marketing aims to create a marketing experience customized for each user who is with your brand.
This can be as simple as adding a user’s name to the subject line of an email or submitting product recommendations based on previous purchases.
17. Brand marketing
The brand marketing is shaping public perception of your brand and forge an emotional connection with your target audience through storytelling, creativity, humor and inspiration.
The goal is to provoke reflection and generate debate so that your brand is remembered and associated with a positive sentiment.
To start doing brand marketing, you have to know your buyers thoroughly and know what they like. You should also consider your position in the market and what makes you unique from your competitors. This can help shape your values and what you stand for, providing raw material for storytelling campaigns.
18. Covert Marketing
The undercover marketing is one of the types of marketing that occurs when brands advertise their products or services to consumers who do not realize that they are being marketed. For example, when you’re watching a TV show and you see a branded product built into the shot.
Before influencers were subject to ad disclosure regulations, they used to use undercover marketing to advertise sponsored products.
For this style of marketing to work, brands have to find opportunities that align with their brand identity and values.
19. Guerrilla marketing
The guerrilla marketing is to make bold brand activations and intelligent physical places of great affluence to publicize the brand.
Some examples of guerrilla marketing are the alteration of outdoor urban environments, promotion during a live event without the permission of the sponsors or organizers, public stunts, and scavenger hunts.
It can be a cost-effective way to get widespread attention. However, it also has the potential to go left if misunderstood by the public or disrupted by weather conditions, law enforcement or other factors beyond the brand’s control.
20. Native Marketing
The native marketing occurs when brands customize your ads to fit the feel, the look and function of the platform on which they will be published.
Brands often collaborate with publishers to create and distribute sponsored content to their audience. The objective is that, by taking advantage of the brand’s editorial experience and creating non-disruptive ads, conversion rates are increased or a certain brand awareness is created.
To benefit from native marketing, you will have to contact media publications yourself or use a native ad network to help you find and facilitate ad placement.
21. Affiliate Marketing
When a company rewards another brand – called an affiliate or affiliate partner – with a commission for every purchase made by a customer through affiliate promotion tactics, that’s affiliate marketing .
It is popular with influencers, but it can also be used by brands to promote products or services that align with their own.
If you already have marketing assets that are working well, such as a website that generates leads or an engaged social media network, affiliate marketing is a great way to leverage those assets even more. Choose a product or brand that is in line with what you sell, but does not compete with you, and promote it to your audience.
On the other hand, it is one of the best types of marketing to spread brand awareness and a good alternative to influencer marketing. You can take advantage of affiliate marketing to generate more income. And the best part is that each business can design its own rules when launching an affiliate program.
22. Partner Marketing
The marketing partner , also known as co-marketing, marketing is a collaboration between brands which are associated in a marketing campaign and share the results. It’s a great lead generation tool that allows brands to access an audience they may not have reached yet.
For it to work, brands must align on their goals, have complementary products or services, and have similar users.
23. Product Marketing
Product marketing is much more than meets the eye. It’s not just about taking product photos and launching campaigns. It’s driving demand for a product and its adoption through positioning, messaging, and market research.
Product marketers are at the intersection of product, sales, marketing, and customer success teams. They work with all teams to enable sales and align marketing strategies.
24. Account-based marketing
The marketing based on accounts is a hyperconcentrated marketing strategy in which teams try to a potential client or an individual client as if it were their own market. Marketing teams create content, host events, and launch entire campaigns dedicated to the people associated with that account, rather than the industry as a whole.
This type of marketing allows brands to design personalized campaigns for their ideal customers and dedicate their time and resources to prospects who display high-intensity behaviors.
25. Customer Marketing
Unlike acquisition marketing, which focuses on acquiring new customers, customer marketing focuses on retaining existing customers. The ultimate goal is to delight your customers with your product or service, as well as excellent customer service to make them brand advocates.
The cost of acquisition is much higher than the cost of retaining or selling to existing customers, so brands can benefit from investing in this type of marketing.
However, it depends on the constant improvement of the customer experience, that is, on the impression that it leaves on the customer after having provided the service.
Some simple ways to do this are to eliminate friction in the customer service process, provide self-service resources such as online knowledge bases, and use customer service software to manage and automate interactions.
26. Word of mouth marketing
What opinion do you trust the most? That of a friend or that of a brand? The answer is obvious.
This is why word of mouth marketing is so powerful. Although you cannot force it, you can position your brand in a way that makes it easier for it to occur, for example:
- Creating content that is sharable and worthy of being shared.
- Offer referral and loyalty programs.
- Request reviews after offering a product or service.
27. Relationship Marketing
The relationship marketing is one of the types of customer marketing that focuses on cultivating deeper and meaningful relationships with customers to ensure brand loyalty in the long term.
It is not focused on short-term profits or sales transactions, but on creating brand evangelists who promote it.
The key to achieving this is to focus on delighting customers who are already satisfied with the brand.
28. User generated marketing
The marketing user generated is when companies take their audience to participate in creating marketing materials.
It can be anything from a social media hashtag challenge asking users to make up a jingle, or asking users to share their photos or videos using your product or service.
Why do brands use it? It’s profitable, creates a connection with your audience, and increases brand awareness.
29. Campus Marketing
Some brands are targeting college students, and who better to market to them than their peers?
The university marketing is the process of promoting products or services among students in the campus. It often involves brand ambassadors who make the company known.
You’ll often see campus marketers promoting products at event booths, hosting their own events, and handing out gifts.
30. Proximity marketing
The proximity marketing is one of the types of local and highly targeted marketing using the location of users to show relevant product promotions or services.
For example, if you stop by an ice cream parlor, you may receive a notification of a special discount for a flavor from that store. There are several ways to use proximity marketing:
- Bluetooth beacons
- Wifi
- QR codes
- NFC
- Geofencing
Brands can also use it to organize treasure hunts, redirect users who do not make a purchase, or simply learn more about user behavior.
31. Event Marketing
An event is coming up to launch a new product. Now how do you get your target audience to show up? That is event marketing .
It requires brands to plan a promotional strategy, develop creative resources to create buzz, and determine the appropriate channels to publicize the product.
An event – be it a workshop, seminar, trade show, conference or pop-up store – helps brands connect directly with their target audience and establish lasting relationships.
32. Experiential Marketing
The experiential marketing encompasses events, and virtual experiences and interactions that make lasting emotional connections between a brand and its target audience.
It takes event marketing one step further with the goal of making the experience magical for attendees and providing them with something they can take away after the event, aside from the information, of course.
33. Interactive Marketing
The interactive marketing is a marketing strategy based on the activation creates a dialogue between a brand and its audience. The brand adapts its approach based on user behavior.
For example, let’s say you’re on a bookstore website and you’re looking for a memoir. The next time you go online, you can see recommendations for more memoirs by other authors. This strategy meets consumers where they are and adjusts to meet their needs.
34. Global Marketing
The global marketing is the process of expanding its marketing efforts to attract global audiences. However, it requires a lot of market research to determine where a product or service can best resonate and how to market it to meet business goals.
Take, for example, a food company based in France. If the team decides to expand to the United Kingdom, there may be changes to menu items, packaging, prices and advertising to better reflect the public.
35. Multicultural Marketing
The multicultural marketing is to devise and execute a marketing campaign aimed at people of different ethnicities and cultures within the general public of a brand.
It involves in-depth research to understand the needs and values of those communities, and to determine the right message to resonate with that group.
36. Informational Marketing
The informational marketing refers to the type of message that focuses more on facts and less on emotions.
It is one of the types of marketing that stands out for how the features and benefits of your product solve the problems of your customers and are compared to those of your competitors.
37. Neuromarketing
The neuromarketing takes advantage of neuroscience for information on consumer decisions and predict their behavior.
Neuromarketing studies may include tracking eye movements, analyzing brain scans, and tracking physiological functions in response to marketing stimuli.
38. Persuasive Marketing
Unlike informational marketing, persuasive marketing taps into users’ emotions. Your goal is to make the audience feel something, associate those emotions with a brand and trigger the desired actions.
39. Marketing with a cause
With cause marketing , brands engage with social issues while promoting their products. For example, your favorite brand may announce that a purchase from your brand will lead to a donation to a certain charity.
Whether it’s temporary or long-term, there are three questions to answer before starting cause marketing:
- What causes matter most to my brand?
- How can we leverage our position to support these causes?
- How can we inform my clients and prospects about our efforts and encourage them to participate?
40. Controversial Marketing
The controversial marketing uses controversial issues to draw attention to marketing campaigns. It is not intended to polarize the public, but to capture their attention and provoke debate.
This approach has both pros and cons. For one, it has the potential to go viral and generate a bit of buzz around your brand. However, there is a risk that you will alienate potential customers and negatively impact your brand image.
41. Field Marketing
The field marketing , also known as field sales, is a traditional form of marketing that involves going out to promote your products or services directly to your target audience. You can do this by distributing product samples, offering product demos, or distributing brochures in a community.