Admit it; you once opted to buy a product or service because of how well it was advertised. Well, marketing goes beyond just advertising; it is the whole process of identifying your target audience and presenting a product/service that’s compelling or enticing to them.

If you want to learn more about the best ways to market your business, then you are in the right place because this article will cover everything about marketing for your business.

Let’s begin!

What is Marketing?

Marketing is a business’s activity to communicate to its customers or audience to create a brand that’s appealing to them. Marketing is one of the best strategies to get your business moving and get you on top of your competition.

Importance of marketing

The main aim of business marketing is to attract a target audience and build a network of interaction with your customers. Marketing provides a way to research your customers, get to know them, interact with them, and pitch your product or service to them. In simpler terms, marketing involves getting customers interested in your services or products.

Types of marketing

The best practice effective for identifying the suitable marketing type for your product and services is to conduct proper research on your audience. There are two broad categories of marketing that you should know;

Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing is pitching your business or products to your audience without using online media or over the internet. Due to technological advancement, traditional marketing has reduced its popularity, but some businesses still use it depending on the business situation. Combined with digital marketing, it is more effective because you can reach a bigger audience. There are different forms of traditional marketing, these include;

• Personalized marketing- using historical data to customize advertisements can be sent through direct mail.
• Outbound marketing- for example, billboard advertisement
• Word-of-mouth marketing- direct customer referrals.
• Telemarketing- use of phone calls made to individual customers
• Brand Marketing- use of visuals and voice to communicate to customers
• Stealth marketing- The customer needs to realize that you are marketing to them. For example, the appearance of a product or service in a movie.

Advantages of Traditional Marketing

Even though traditional marketing is outdated and not used by many businesses, integration of traditional marketing is still a lifesaver for many businesses; here is how;

• Tradition marketing is simpler to design and use, even if you need to become more familiar with a digital marketing tool.
• Traditional marketing is a faster tool since digital marketing design involves a learning curve that might take a while to get acquainted with.
• When considering the audience type, traditional marketing is suitable for your business if you want to reach the older generation who do not have access to smartphones or the internet.

Disadvantages of traditional marketing

The disadvantages of traditional marketing define why digital marketing has recently gained popularity; here are some drawbacks of traditional marketing.

• Traditional marketing is costly compared to digital marketing. A good example is renting billboard spaces which are quite expensive.
• In most cases, it isn’t easy to quantify traditional marketing success rates, unlike in digital marketing, where you can easily track customer activities and see clicks on your ads.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a marketing strategy that involves the use of the internet to create online marketing content like advertisements. Digital marketing is a shortcut that came in as a lifesaver to so many businesses because, within a few minutes, your business can reach an entire world. The internet has turned the world into a ‘global village,’ and therefore, with digital marketing, your business can travel worldwide and gain a greater audience.

Just like traditional marketing, there are forms of digital marketing;

• Social media marketing- creating an advertisement post on any social media platform such as Facebook
• Search engine optimization, commonly known as SEO- business appears on the top of a Google search when a keyword is entered
• Pay per clicks ads- these are advertisements you will see on the search results
• Content marketing- content marketing is more of creating an online store to increase brand awareness
• Email marketing- Sending direct Emails to your audience
• Mobile Marketing
• Affiliate marketing is using social media influencers to market your product or services.

Advantages of digital marketing

• The best aspect of digital marketing that makes it so popular today is that it can reach a global audience quickly. No matter how big or small your business is, you can reach the entire world with digital marketing.
• Digital marketing cost is relatively low compared to traditional marketing techniques like billboards. Finding a suitable marketing strategy for your business and creating a budget before implementing it
• is advisable.
• There is indeed a learning curve associated with digital marketing, but most digital marketing strategies are easy to learn and implement for your business.
• With digital marketing, you can narrow down your targets easily. Data mining and machine learning will help prompt your business to the target audience. Machine learning studies a person’s online behavior and easily predicts what they might like.
• Another reason digital marketing is suitable for your business is that it provides you with a wide range of content types to choose from, and you can decide to use them. Examples of these contents include Blogs, websites, podcasts, etc.

Disadvantages of digital marketing

• Using digital marketing can be time-consuming, especially if you are starting on new content or online marketing tools.
• Online marketing is associated with security and privacy issues, making it sometimes unreliable because customers want to protect their data confidentiality while accessing online marketing content or ads.
• Online or digital marketing can sometimes go through downtimes like slow internet, slow loading speed, and inaccessibility, among other issues, which can be very annoying for customers.

How to market your business

Here are some tips on how well you can market your business

Gaining a proper understanding of your business marketing avenues is vital in laying out a budget for marketing. Whether a small or a big business, the strategy depends on your marketing budget and the target audience you would like to reach.

1. Create searchable content- SEO and searchable keywords can give your business an upper hand in marketing because they can be easily found on search engines.
2. Use social media- Most social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram now provide a way to set up an exclusive business page. You can easily create social media posts and stories to reach your target audience.
3. Create a business website- having a business website is the best practice to get your business on top of the market competition. Most online users prefer to view business websites because it is a more official and reliable way of connecting to the business.
4. Make use of google Ads- Google provides a way to register your business with google easily, and at a minimal fee, Google advertises your business to users.
5. Use affiliated marketing- affiliated marketing is using social media influencers to build a brand for your business.
6. Integrate traditional marketing into your digital marketing practice.

Further thoughts

Business marketing is a core strategy and a determinant of your business success. Therefore it is important to make a good choice of the best marketing strategy to go for. The two major marketing categories, digital and traditional marketing, can be combined for more effective business practice. Gaining a proper understanding of your business marketing avenues is vital in laying out a budget for marketing.

Once you have your marketing strategy, partner with Elly Virtually, and we can help you execute it! Contact us today.