9 Types of Marketing to Promote Your Business

A quick history of marketing

Many might argue marketing has been around for as long as commerce because people needed a way to sell their goods. However, marketing can be tied back to the printing press and the first magazines. From there came other types of print advertising, including billboards. However, marketing has evolved along with technology.

For example, when televisions became more popularized and common in homes, so too did commercials. Likewise, marketing has continued to evolve alongside technology as marketers find new ways to promote businesses. Now, you may know other forms of marketing, including digital marketing, which came about as a result of computers, email, search engines, and social media.

There are many different marketing types, including the use of print and digital mediums, because of the evolution of media and technology. As technology continues to evolve, so too will marketing.

B2B and B2C marketing

When determining which of the many marketing strategies for small businesses you should choose, you must consider your audience. There are 2 common types of businesses: B2B and B2C. Business-to-business (B2B) marketing requires businesses to market to other businesses, which may involve using a sales team to answer questions and drive purchases. Many B2B companies leverage relationships in their sales process to keep their customers coming back. For example, Mailchimp markets to business owners for the use of our email marketing and automation tools.

On the other hand, business-to-consumer (B2C) businesses must market to regular consumers. For example, Walmart markets directly to consumers through different forms of marketing and advertising. B2C businesses focus on a more transactional nature and can create marketing campaigns focused more on emotion than logic.

Depending on the nature of your business, you might have B2B and B2C products and solutions, which means 2 different audiences you must target.

9 different types of marketing

As we’ve already mentioned, with the evolution of technology came the evolution of marketing, so there are many different types of marketing to choose from. Depending on the nature of your business, industry, and customers, some marketing types will be more effective than others.

It’s also important to note that there are 2 broader types of marketing: traditional and digital. Digital marketing encompasses all of the digital aspects. If you’re marketing to people online, through computers or mobile devices, it’s digital marketing. Digital marketing allows you to easily track and monitor your campaigns, taking all the guesswork out of marketing to ensure you can optimize every strategy for the best results.

On the other hand, traditional marketing uses print and traditional forms of media, including television commercials and billboards. Below you’ll find the different marketing types that fall under these two broad marketing categories.

1. Content marketing

Content marketing is an effective inbound marketing strategy that educates and engages customers by helping them find information about your products, brand, or industry online. Examples of content marketing include:

• Blogs
• Organic social media posts
• E-guides
• Video

Content marketing aims to provide your customers with the information they can use to make a purchasing decision.

2. Social media marketing

Social media marketing is sometimes considered a small part of content marketing. However, many marketers believe social media is a stand-alone marketing technique worthy of more attention. Social media is a cost-effective marketing tool that can help you increase engagement with your audience, educate consumers, and sell more products.

There are many different ways to market on social media with different platforms to choose from, and some will be more effective for your marketing goals than others. For example, B2B businesses typically get better results on LinkedIn and Facebook than on Instagram and YouTube. Meanwhile, more visual businesses, such as e-commerce businesses, get better results on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. However, you can reach your audience anywhere if you have a good strategy.

3. Influencer marketing

Some may consider influencer marketing a subset of social media marketing, while others consider it a separate strategy. With influencer marketing, businesses can leverage the relationships influencers and thought leaders have already made with audiences.

Because influencers are thought leaders in their industries, they have gained a level of trust many businesses never will, so their followers are likely to listen to product recommendations. As a result, influencer marketing can help your brand earn more exposure, boost brand awareness, and increase sales.

Influencer marketing is commonly used in B2C, particularly for e-commerce businesses. However, B2B companies can also take advantage of these popular marketing methods if they find a thought leader in the industry with a large enough following.

4. Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) includes all types of marketing that use search engines like Google as their marketing tool. Search engine marketing typically encompasses 2 digital marketing strategies.

• Search engine optimization (SEO): Have you ever wondered how your competition is in the highest spot on Google search engine results pages (SERPs)? The answer is SEO, a marketing strategy that optimizes website content to help you increase your rankings on search engines.
• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising: PPC is another search engine marketing strategy that helps your business website appear on SERPs. However, your website will appear in the paid search results section instead of organic results, located at the top or bottom of the SERP. PPC requires you to pay per click, while SEO focuses on organic traffic. Both are effective ways to bring more traffic to your website.

In recent years, SEM has become associated mainly with PPC, and SEO has become its own separate strategy. So if you’re discussing options with a marketing agency, ensure you clearly understand the type of SEM they’re referring to.

Any type of business can benefit from SEM because many people use search engines as their 1st stop when trying to research solutions. Therefore, a B2B company selling software and a B2C e-commerce company can use SEM to improve their reach and increase website traffic.

5. Email marketing

Many companies use email marketing because it’s highly effective. Email marketing requires marketers to send emails to customers and prospects to increase sales and help customers through the sales funnel easily. With high conversion rates come high returns.

Email marketing requires you to get people to subscribe to your emails, which may take work if you haven’t already started growing your list. Even so, once you have subscribers, you can send them all sorts of emails and drip campaigns consisting of new product releases, abandoned cart reminders, and even newsletters to help them through the funnel. Before you start building out your emails, learn about the customer journey for email marketing to discover how automation can help you increase sales.

B2B and B2C companies can use email marketing and automation to improve their sales process. While B2C marketing emails will focus more on quick transactions, B2B companies can use automation to supplement the sales process and keep more prospective customers in the pipeline.

6. Public relations

Public relations (PR) is a type of marketing that can help build your business reputation in the media. Public relations builds beneficial relationships between your company and the public through earned media to manage a business’ image and reputation. Ultimately, PR aims to position your company or an individual from the organization as a thought leader in a particular industry, increasing brand awareness and trust among the public.

While all businesses can benefit from managing their reputation with the public, robust PR strategies are best for larger businesses that are often in the news. However, local PR can benefit local businesses if they have something newsworthy to share.

7. Print marketing

Print marketing is the use of print media to generate brand awareness about your company. Print marketing includes advertisements in magazines, brochures, and billboards. Print marketing is not something you can effectively measure, even though there are some methods for ensuring your efforts perform well. For example, print marketing can promote your product or service within a small geographic range, or you can aim for national publications to get more brand awareness across multiple areas.

Print marketing can be effective for any type of business. However, you must target magazines carefully. For example, B2B businesses may choose to advertise in trade magazines, while B2C companies can target consumer magazines with a wider, less specific reach.

8. Direct mail

Direct mail marketing works similarly to email marketing, but instead of sending information to your digital mailbox, it sends print materials to your physical mailbox. The print pieces can contain much of the same information an email can, including CTAs and incentives. Unfortunately, direct mail may not be as effective as email marketing for your business since many people will consider it junk mail and toss it into the trash without actually reading the information you send them. Therefore, your offer to customers must be clear to make them take the action you want.

Direct mail is another example of a marketing strategy that any business can use. For example, a local spa might send city residents direct mail to promote discounts, while a B2B company will send their mailings directly to businesses rather than residential homes.

9. Television and radio

Everyone has seen or heard commercials. Television and radio commercials have evolved over time but remain effective marketing strategies for businesses. Unfortunately, these advertisements can be expensive, so they’re not ideal for small businesses. If your business has the money to spend, it’ll need to get creative to make people act.

Vary your marketing

While different forms of traditional and digital marketing are effective, you can use them together to increase brand awareness and promote sales. When deciding which marketing strategies are right for you, consider your brand and its customers. Your goal should be to find where customers spend their time and how you can reach them.

Unsure where to start? Mailchimp has you covered. With our marketing automation tools, you can create elegant marketing emails, drip campaigns, and create a website designed to convert prospects into customers.