The 3 Types of Marketing that Business Owners Need to Know About
Marketing is the process of businesses communicating with their audience and how they establish their brand. Every type of business needs marketing in some way to be able to make a profit off of their goods or services.
There are numerous marketing strategies that businesses can use to their advantage to advertise to customers/clients, other businesses, and even prospective employees. Here are three categories of marketing that all businesses need to be aware of.
#1: B2B Marketing
“B2B” stands for “business to business”, meaning that a business’s target audience is another business. An example of a B2B relationship would be that of a wholesaler and a retailer, or a manufacturer and a wholesaler.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
ABM is a more targeted form of B2B marketing, where both sales and marketing teams work together to advertise towards the accounts that are better fits, turning them into customers. Because the customers are other businesses, transactions don’t work as fast as they do in B2C sales. This is why a lot of research goes into ABM and any type of B2B marketing.
Event Marketing
As the name suggests, event marketing is when an event is held (either in person, virtually, or a combination of both) to meet with and market to other businesses. It’s also good to have promotional items, such as T-shirts, to give away at these events.
Inbound Marketing
This method (also used in B2C marketing) uses content creation to attract customers/businesses. The content created is tailored to the potential customer or business customer.
#2: B2C Marketing
“B2C” stands for “business to consumer”, and these are the typical types of businesses that the majority of people think of. There are several types of marketing strategies that businesses use to persuade customers to buy from them. They can use the traditional forms of marketing, such as word of mouth, telemarketing, newspaper articles, radio ads, and television commercials— but the majority of businesses use digital marketing techniques.
Affiliate Marketing
In its most well-known form, affiliate marketing allows customers (influencers) to earn a commission from the sales of a company’s product when they promote it on their website, blog, or social media platforms. This type of marketing is most effective when a company wants to target a specific demographic.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is when businesses send promotional emails with valuable content to both current and potential customers. Most companies allow their customers to choose how often they’d like to receive these emails and even give them the option to stop receiving them.
Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing is similar to email marketing, except current and potential customers sign up to receive occasional text messages. This strategy works best for companies that have their websites in app form, encouraging people to open the app and make a purchase.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is marketing that occurs on social media platforms in the form of paid ads or relevant content. This is an effective strategy because many social media platforms allow businesses to sell their products right from the platform.
#3: Recruitment Marketing
Recruitment marketing is the process of marketing your business to future employees. This is done in a similar way that you’d market your products to potential customers. This way of hiring guarantees that the most qualified candidates for your specific business will apply, rather than having to sift through countless resumes and applications when you post on job boards.
The way it works is by creating your company brand and promoting that to potential candidates. Highlight the best features of your business, such as your core values, company culture, etc., and candidates who feel like they’re a good fit will apply. Effective recruitment marketing is crucial for making this process successful, and you can get help by hiring a recruitment agency.
Conclusion
Even though the majority of small businesses are B2C, it’s still good to be familiar with how B2B marketing works— especially since B2C companies work with B2B companies, and both types of businesses use some of the same digital marketing techniques.
Overall, it’s important for B2C companies to understand digital marketing because it’s the most effective form of marketing towards both customers and other businesses. The four digital marketing strategies listed above are just as few, as there are many more to be aware of, such as SEO (search engine optimization) marketing, content marketing, and PPC (pay per click).
Finally, recruitment marketing is another marketing strategy that all business owners should be aware of. You can even hire a recruitment marketing agency to help you find the best candidates for employment.
