What Are the Different Types of Marketing?

The word “marketing” doesn’t refer to one type of activity you can do to promote your business. In fact, there are many different types of marketing that businesses can use to promote themselves.

Marketing is most commonly split into two distinct categories — traditional and digital.

Traditional marketing refers to marketing that is done offline — in magazines, newspapers, on TV and the radio, at events or in the form of billboards and posters in public spaces.

Digital marketing occurs online through your business website, search engine ranking, social media and adverts.

Traditional Marketing

Some people see traditional marketing as a dying art. Still, in the UK alone, people watch an average of 22.5 hours of TV per week, not including streaming services like Netflix, and 9.5 million adults in the UK listen to the radio.

There’s definitely an audience out there — you just need to get their attention.

Traditional marketing comprises four key areas: Print, Broadcast, Events and Direct.

Print

Print marketing refers to any marketing material that’s printed, including:

Posters
Billboards
Magazine or newspaper adverts
Brochures
Catalogues
Tote bags and other “swag”
Branded company vehicles
Company stationery
Being featured in a magazine or newspaper article.

The type of printed media used in your marketing campaigns will vary depending on business type, target customers and more.

If you know your target customer reads a particular type of magazine, you want to get your product in that magazine.

If your company regularly attends events, you want to invest in a fantastic stand to grab the attention of potential customers at those events.

Even the shopping bag your customers take away from your business is print marketing. Why do you think designer brands print their logos on the clothes they sell? Print. Marketing.

Ikea Steps by Mother

Broadcast

Broadcast marketing is any company promotion that happens on TV or radio. It also extends to the adverts that play before a movie starts.

The cost of these ads depends on the time of day they are shown or even the program they show alongside. During America’s Super Bowl, prices are as high as $6.5 million for just a 30-second advert.

Different types of broadcast marketing include:

TV adverts
Product placement
TV show sponsorships
The company appears as part of a TV show
The company appears on the news
Radio adverts
Radio jingles.

It’s always been easy to place localised adverts on local radio stations, but it took longer for businesses to have that same option on TV. You can now run region-focused TV adverts with some channels. ITV offers regional advertising slots targeting 15 different regions in the UK.

Regions of the UK that ITV can target with regional adverts.

Creating a TV advert can be a long process, but when done well, it can help you reach a vast target audience. Making a radio ad is more straightforward and can be perfect for local and national audiences alike; you just need to ensure your ad creates a visual image in your listener’s mind.

Event Marketing

Event marketing refers to any way your company is involved in an event. This includes conferences, conventions, experience marketing and more.

If you’re attending a conference or convention, you could be marketing your business by:

Attending networking events
Hosting a panel/talk
Exhibiting/sales stand
Sponsoring the event/area of the event.

Choose your conferences and events wisely, depending on your goals.

Suppose your goal is to get more customers. In that case, you’ll want to attend an event your customers will attend. For example, having a sales stand promoting your sports supplements at a convention for sports enthusiasts.

If your goal is thought leadership in your industry, attend events where the attendants are your peers and competitors. For example, hold a talk about innovating in the sports supplement space at a conference for sports-focused businesses.

Suppose you want your business and products connected to an event, potentially included in promotional material such as lanyards, posters, signage, etc. In that case, you may want to sponsor an event.

A large-scale example of event sponsorship is Genshin Impact sponsoring MCM London Comic Con in May 2022. As part of the sponsorship, the game had a large dedicated space in one of the convention halls, game characters featured on the convention tickets, exclusive merchandise and more.

Genshin Impact booth floor plan at MCM London May 2022

If you’re a local business, you can get involved with local events of any kind as long as your customers are attending.

That said, if you’re a plumbing business, you might be out of place at a local craft fair.

See how you can get involved with local events, whether promoting yourself with a stall or stand, or sponsoring an event.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue attended a local conference, the Better Ageing Conference, to promote its work in the local community.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue stall at the Better Ageing Conference

If you have a physical location, you can also hold events yourself. Remember that if your event is just a sales pitch, it’s unlikely people will want to attend. Think about how you can add value to the local community.

If you run an electronic repair shop, you could run a workshop on simple repairs anyone can do at home or how to use various electronics.

You could sponsor local sports teams, too, if that’s within your budget.

Another type of marketing event is an experience event. Experience events can be held at an existing event, as a pop-up or at your physical location. To help promote the hit show Bridgerton, Netflix, Shondaland and Fever hosted A Bridgerton Experience, replicating the Queen’s ball from the TV show. This sort of event is likely to nurture relationships with existing customers instead of bringing in new customers.

Despite this, hosting a “post-worthy” event is expected to result in lots of user-generated content, promoting the experience to those who may not have considered attending beforehand.

A Bridgerton Experience, hosted by Netflix, Shondaland and Fever.

If you’re interested in attending events, check out this guide on getting started with event marketing.

Direct Mail and Telemarketing

Direct mail and telemarketing are more frowned upon by consumers than other forms of traditional marketing. Historically, they have relied on contacting customers who did not consent to be contacted.

Direct mail is defined as “unsolicited commercial literature sent to prospective customers through the post”, but this isn’t always true. Some consumers may sign up to receive mail, such as vouchers or catalogues.

Telemarketing is defined as “the marketing of goods or services by means of telephone calls, typically unsolicited, to potential customers.” It’s often referred to as “cold calling”. You may get a consumer’s phone number when they fill out a form, but they may not expect you to call them.

Regarding direct mail and telemarketing, tread carefully and ensure you know the laws and regulations surrounding this type of marketing.

Learn more about direct mail and telemarketing laws in the UK.

After reading through the different types of traditional marketing, you might decide that traditional marketing methods aren’t for you or that you need to reach your audience in different ways, which brings us to digital marketing.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is any marketing that takes place online. This includes search engine ranking, websites, apps, online ads and more.

Digital marketing comes with multiple benefits, the first being that consumers of the world are spending more time online, meaning you can reach them during their normal online activities, such as scrolling social media or watching YouTube videos.

Another benefit of digital marketing is that there are multiple free ways to market your business online, mainly through social media.

As of April 2022, there were more than five billion internet users worldwide, 63% of the global population. Of this total, 4.7 billion were social media users, aka 59% of the world’s population.

One of the challenges of digital marketing is that the space can sometimes be oversaturated, especially if you’re trying to get seen in a popular niche.

Because of this, you need to make sure you know your customers well and understand where they spend time online to connect with them.

You can connect with consumers in lots of different ways online, including your website, blogging, search engine optimisation (SEO), social media, pay-per-click advertising, email, digital PR and more.

Content Marketing

Content marketing covers all the content you put out online: the content you share on your website, the blog articles you write, the copy you include on your product or service pages and more. It also covers content you create for other websites, such as guest posts and digital PR.

The areas on your website that have content are:

The homepage
Category pages
Product/service pages
Blogs
News
About page
Case studies
Testimonials and reviews
Contact page
Policy pages.

Every page of your website has content, but the type of content on each page varies. Blog posts will have more detail than product pages, and policy pages will be more formal than news posts.

Example of a blog on the B&Q website.

You want your website content to be consistent throughout. If your blogs have a very playful tone of voice, but your homepage is very serious, visitors will find this confusing.

You need to identify the purpose behind different pieces of content, the stage of the marketing funnel visitors will likely be at when they see this content and what they are typing into search engines.

Example of a product page on the B&Q website.

If you’re selling tools to DIY enthusiasts, you may create an online guide on how to get started with DIY for people brand new to the DIY space to nurture those who may not be ready to purchase yet.

For the searchers ready to purchase, a guide on the best tools on the market or well-optimised product and category pages will serve that searcher better.

Content marketing combines with SEO to ensure your website gets visibility on search engines. You can create great content, but if you don’t understand SEO, no one can find it.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search engine optimisation, also known as SEO, is any effort you make towards getting your website to rank in search results.

This may not sound like a type of marketing, but it’s one of the most important. You can have the best website and products in the world, but if your website doesn’t appear when consumers search for similar products, you’ll have trouble making sales.

SEO gives you “free” website traffic by helping your content rank at the top of search. How high your pages rank is based on the various ranking factors the search engine’s algorithm uses to decide what pages rank where.

The two key types of SEO are on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

On-page SEO is everything you can control on your website. This includes both the front of your website that visitors see and changes to the back end of your site (known as technical SEO).

Examples of on-page SEO include:

Writing copy optimised for search engines
Optimising your page titles and meta descriptions
Optimising website images
Creating content that visitors want to read, with images and videos to keep them engaged.

Example of a well-researched blog with a search-optimised title. Image Source

Examples of technical SEO include:

Page/website speed
User experience
Schema
Website security

Off-page SEO refers to any SEO work away from your website. The most crucial element of off-page SEO is link building, where other websites link to your website.

When your website is being linked to by high-quality websites, this shows search engines that your website is a source of credible, quality information.

These links are called backlinks and can be gained in a variety of ways:

Creating informative content that other sites want to link to
Publishing guest posts on other websites
Being a source for journalists
Creating a newsworthy digital PR campaign that other sites want to link back to
Listing your local business on a relevant business directory
Offering a testimonial for a tool or product you use in your business.

Example of a quote in a Hotjar blog linking back to the Thinkplus website.

Backlinks can also be purchased or built in other “unnatural” ways, but we advise against it. These links are often from low-quality websites, which will harm your rank rather than improve it, as search engines have complex algorithms that spot false link building.

Remember, there are no shortcuts in the world of SEO.

SEO takes time to work, but once you have an effective strategy in place, you’ll see a steady flow of organic traffic to your site from search engines.

SEO isn’t the only way to get organic traffic to your website. Another way is through social media.

Social Media

Social media marketing is a hugely popular type of digital marketing thanks to its accessibility and widespread adoption. It’s ideal for raising awareness of your brand and creating a place where customers can interact with you.

No matter your target audience, there’s likely a social media channel they spend a lot of time on. There are 4.7 billion active social media users worldwide — that’s 59% of Earth’s population. Because of this, social media is a great place to meet your audience in the online spaces they already spend time in.

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Some of the most popular social media platforms are:

This isn’t a definitive list — social media is fast-paced and so are the platforms and their popularity.

Some parts of the world have their own social media platforms, with VK being the largest social network in Russia.

We don’t suggest trying to master every platform but building a brand presence on more than one means you won’t suffer as much if a platform drops in popularity.

Despite being aimed at friendship groups, brands are already trying to figure out how to create content on the fast-growing social media app BeReal while moving away from platforms like Tumblr after drops in users.

The exact social media channels you choose to promote your business on will depend on your target audience and their demographics.

If you want to reach a younger audience, then TikTok is the ideal platform.
If you want to reach a business-minded audience, LinkedIn might be the place for you.
If you want to tap into a niche community, you may find them on Reddit.

Social media can get traffic to your website in two ways — organic and paid.

Organic social media refers to the posts you share on a platform and how much reach and interaction posts get without paying the platform to push posts to more people.

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Paid social media refers to any adverts that appear on social media. This could be a post that started as an organic post but then had money put behind it to boost its reach or ads crafted specifically to be ads.

You can also find paid ads on other corners of the internet, including websites and search engines.

Pay-Per-Click

Pay-per-click advertising, also known as PPC, refers to ads you see around the internet. This includes social media, YouTube, websites, search engines, emails and messaging apps.

It’s often clear what’s an ad and what isn’t, but they are usually made to fit in with the platform they are on. For example, Google search ads appear in the same format as other search results but have the word “Ad” next to them.

The way PPC ads look depends on the website they are hosted on. If you’ve spent time on the internet, you’ve likely seen website banner ads. They are more obvious ads than what you might see on search engines or social media.

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Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with your audience once they visit your website.

A well-crafted email marketing campaign can result in a conversion rate as high as 8.59% and is a great way to cultivate customers who aren’t quite ready to convert.

Once set up, email marketing can run in the background, 24/7. Emails will be automatically sent to email subscribers depending on the stage of the sales funnel they are at.

Some examples of automated emails are:

Someone downloads an ebook in exchange for their email address, and over the next month, receives emails offering more insight, advice and a gentle sales pitch.
A website visitor enters their email address in exchange for a 10% discount code and then receives emails over the next few weeks explaining what is great about your products.

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This email from Better, courtesy of Really Good Emails, was sent to inform email subscribers of a saving they could make on closing costs and highlights this as a limited-time offer.

For someone nearly at the stage of converting, this email could be the last push for them to become a customer.

Video Marketing

Video marketing differs from traditional TV adverts in that it covers a broader range of topics and is more adaptable. TV ads must be broad to appeal to a wide audience, whereas video marketing can be tailored to specific questions, products and audiences.

Video marketing can be used for:

Website videos
YouTube videos
Videos on social media
PPC ads

Website videos can help answer customer questions, show off a product in more detail, be used as a tutorial, give insight into your business or brand, illustrate a point in a blog and more.

The possibilities are endless!

For example, we have a video on the Thinkplus homepage explaining what we do and why you should work with us.

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Creating videos for YouTube is another effective way to get your business in front of potential customers. If you choose the right topics and put effort into your videos, you can create a loyal community around your business.

YouTube also offers paid video ads that run at the beginning, middle or end of YouTube videos, putting products and businesses in front of an existing creator’s audience.

Many social media platforms are taking a video-first approach, meaning they push video content to their users more than other types of content. Some social media platforms, like TikTok, are fully dedicated to video content.

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Depending on the platform, you may want to use video in your PPC ads to make them more interesting or to communicate more information in a short amount of time.

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Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is another way to get your business in front of potential customers online. This strategy involves paying an established internet celebrity, commonly called an influencer, to promote your product or service to their audience on social media platforms.

Not only do influencer marketing campaigns get you in front of a large audience, but they also give you the added endorsement of the influencer. These ads also appear as a more organic promotion than a normal PPC ad.

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Influencers are often paid a flat fee for their work and can be given the opportunity to earn a commission on any products sold due to their promotion.

There are rules and regulations to ensure influencers are upfront about paid advertising. They must include #ad in their posts if the post has been paid for, or #gifted if the post was not paid for, but the products were sent to the influencer for free, as is the case with the post above.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is similar to influencer marketing but works in a different way.

A blogger, website owner or influencer will include a link to a product, service or business in their content or social media profiles. Each time someone clicks that link and makes a purchase, the affiliate receives a payment.

Alongside the different marketing channels, there are other approaches you can take with those channels, depending on your customers.

There are two main methods of marketing: outbound marketing and inbound marketing.

Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing is where you “interrupt” a consumer by putting your product or service in front of them.

Outbound marketing includes print advertising, TV and radio adverts, direct mail and telemarketing and online PPC ads.

If someone is reading a magazine and sees an advert, that technically interrupts their reading — they didn’t buy the magazine to look at adverts (although they probably expect to see adverts in said magazine).

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In terms of video marketing, if someone seeks out a video on a certain topic and the video they watch just so happens to be made by your company, that’s not outbound marketing. However, if they are watching a video and your video ad appears before, during or at the end of that video, that is outbound marketing.

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Any marketing where you insert yourself into someone’s life is outbound marketing. On the other hand, if people find you of their own accord, that’s inbound marketing.

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is any marketing where consumers find you.

Examples of inbound marketing include content marketing and SEO, digital PR, email marketing, video marketing, social media marketing and more.

When you create content for SEO, you should target search terms that your potential customers are searching for already. Because of this, they will find your website on their own without you needing to find them.

By creating high-quality, informative content that meets searchers where they are and answers the questions they’re searching for, you connect with them when they’re looking for information you can provide. Yes, some searchers will visit your website, get the info they need and then leave and forget, but others will remember you when it’s time to spend money.

When it comes to email marketing, a consumer must sign up to your mailing list willingly for it to be counted as inbound marketing. Your mailing list should provide value to your customers, not just send a stream of sales emails.

The type of marketing channels and tactics you use will also depend on the kind of customers you have — whether you are selling to businesses or individuals.

B2C Marketing

Business-to-consumer marketing, or B2C marketing, is where you provide a product or service for consumers. You likely have a specific target audience in mind, possibly even their age, gender, location, pay bracket, family status and more.

Depending on whether you sell directly to consumers (D2C) or through a third party, your B2C marketing strategy will be slightly different. If you sell directly to consumers, you need to ensure there’s a place where customers can easily make purchases and communicate that place to customers, such as your website or a physical store.

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If you’re selling through a third party, you still need to communicate this information, but you’ll have other things to factor in, such as product stands in physical locations like supermarkets. If you sell online through a website like Amazon, you must consider whether or not you want to run ads on Amazon itself.

The other type of customer you may find yourself marketing to is businesses.

B2B Marketing

Business-to-business marketing, known as B2B marketing, is where your customer base is made up of businesses rather than individual customers.

Because of this, your strategies may need to focus less on the demographics of a person and more on the type of business you want to buy from you. If you sell a medical product, you’ll want to target medical businesses.

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The strategy you use to target businesses can differ from B2C marketing.

You need to factor in elements of the sales process, such as product demos and sales meetings.

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You also need to think about where you’re placing your marketing efforts — a billboard in the centre of a city will likely get lots of eyes, but running an ad on an industry-focused website visited by your customers will likely get more sales.

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When it comes to inbound marketing for B2B, you can still use channels like social media, email and video. The people in the business who make the purchases are still people who are likely to use these platforms on a regular basis. LinkedIn is often cited as the best social media platform to connect with businesses, but you can use other platforms, too.

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Although in B2B marketing, your customers are businesses, these businesses are made up of people. Many B2B marketers create a customer persona so that they have a specific person in mind when creating content or writing emails. This could be based on an actual client you’ve had in the past or just a made-up ideal customer.

You might be wondering how these different types of marketing work together, which works best together and if you can combine traditional and digital marketing techniques.

The answer is that it depends on your business goals and what you want to achieve. Using different types of marketing together is called multi-channel marketing.

What Is Multi-channel Marketing?

Multi-channel marketing refers to the different marketing types you use to promote your business.

You may want to run TV adverts and promote your business on social media, directing potential customers to your website.

You might find that a social media and influencer marketing approach works well for your audience.

If you’re a local business, then ads in local newspapers, attending events and being active in local groups on social media would be effective for building a name for yourself in the local community.

How to Choose a Marketing Channel

The marketing channels you choose for your business depend on various factors, mainly who you are trying to reach and the impact you want to make.

If you aim to raise awareness of your product amongst younger audiences, organic social media marketing is a great channel to focus on.

If your goal is to make sales to business owners, then PPC ads and organic posts on LinkedIn might be a good fit.

It’s important to spread your marketing efforts across multiple channels, but don’t try to conquer all of them. Likely, your audience won’t be on every platform, and it’s better to focus on a few platforms and make the most of them than be stretched too thin.