Marketing: The Definitive Guide, Tools & Free Templates [2023]

Chapter 1

Overview and Marketing Definition

In this first chapter, I’ll provide a general overview. I’ll start by giving you a marketing definition. And then, I’ll tell you about marketing channels. Afterward, I’ll talk about the purpose of marketing and marketing stages.

What’s more, as pointed out in this marketing definition, marketing promotions have to be addressed to specific target audiences, or else you won’t succeed. Among marketing’s goals, it is worth mentioning that it aims at identifying your ideal audience so that you can market your product or services to them.

Besides, any marketing strategy must bear in mind the marketing mix, also known as the four Ps, which I’ll explain later in this post. They are product, place, price, and promotion. They are crucial to marketing. 

Anyway, marketing also strives to retain customers and clients. It helps you to attract them and then maintain a relationship with them. On top of that, these days, it is critical you promote your products/services through several channels. I’ll comment on them below.

Marketing Concept

The marketing concept is a business philosophy according to which enterprises must understand customer needs and do their best to satisfy them. This means that companies must do their best to beat their competitors in all the marketing processes.

That’s to say, in the production, delivery, and promotion of their products or services. Apart from focusing on the buyer’s needs, the marketing process concentrates on solving any problem your target audience may have.

This means that you need to find a creative way to market your products/services. You must communicate the right message to your target audience and at the right time. This will help you to satisfy your customer needs, beat your competitors, and improve your profits. 

You can try to convince your audience through several channels such as advertising, content marketing, influencer marketing, and more. So, you must promote your product/services on various channels. 

Marketing Channels

There are lots of marketing channels out there nowadays. Most companies combine several of them. Whether digital or printed, you should familiarize yourself with the most common ones. I’ll comment on them just below. But first, let me explain what marketing channels are.

Most marketers use several marketing channels to spread their message. It’s up to you whether to use one or another. Take into account your audience to select the ones you think will work best for your brand.

Unsurprisingly, not all brands go for the same marketing channels. Some companies sell directly to their end clients, while others don’t sell right to their end consumers, but they need retailers. Marketing channels are essential to increase your reach and make your business more profitable.

The most well-known marketing channels are:

Social Media

Social media refers to any tool or web app that allows people to share their ideas, thoughts, and other information in real-time. You can use social media networks to share videos, photos, documents, and personal information.

Although most social media platforms were first designed to communicate your ideas and share information with family and friends, many businesses use them today to promote their brand and products.

There are lots of different social media networks, and each has a different purpose. For instance, Youtube and Instagram are platforms that are mostly used to share videos and photos. However, we use other social media apps to share thoughts like Twitter and Facebook.

Some networks specialize in discussions, such as Reddit. Others provide and allow you to leave reviews – for example, Trip Advisor and Yelp. Most users spend quite a lot of time on social media. So you must try to take advantage of social media channels if you want to engage them.

Social media is an indispensable channel for enterprises to advertise and promote their business, engage with customers, get feedback, and offer support. Social media makes interactions faster and easier. 

You can use social media analytics to check customer sentiment and improve your relationship with your customers. Social media platforms are crucial to foster your customers’ loyalty. 

Email

Email is short for “electronic email.” It is used to send a message to a recipient through the internet. It is one of the most widely used channels since it is inexpensive, flexible as regards content, and fast. The only requirement to receive emails is to have an email address. 

Nowadays, most people have various email addresses, at least one personal and one for work or doing business. Originally, emails only were able to support plain text messages. But, today, email messages can include links, images, and CSS layouts. 

Among the advantages of using this channel there is the fact that you can access emails almost everywhere. Email has a global and instant delivery. You can attach files to your message, and emails can be stored for as long as you need. 

Mobile

Mobile is a channel that aims at reaching your target audience on their mobile devices, like through their smartphones or tablets. This channel will help you to reach your audience anytime, anywhere, and in an instant. 

Besides, it’s cost-effective, and it will help you engage with your audience where they are. Not to mention that you can customize your messages as it happens with emails. This channel offers a whole world of possibilities.

You can promote your business through your own app, other apps, image ads, video ads, SMS, QR codes, and more. You can also take advantage of mobile search ads and location-based marketing.

So, as you can see, mobile is a must-have channel. You can’t miss the chance to engage with your audience through their mobile devices since the amount of time spent on mobiles is on the rise. We use them to search for information, check the email, make a purchase, communicate with others, etc.

Website

A website or site consists of a bunch of web pages that are somehow related and linked together. People can access these web pages from your website’s homepage. However, a website can also be made up of just one web page.

Each web page has its own images, text, layout, and other elements. Yet, they all share the same domain name. Anyone can create a website, from the average person to a business or organization. 

Besides, there’s a lot of variety as regards website types. There are social media sites, eCommerce sites, educational sites, news sites, and more. It is worth mentioning that websites are hosted on servers, and you need a browser to access them.

Having a website is not only advisable but a must nowadays. It is one of the best ways to reach your target audience and be available for them. Make sure your website and its pages communicate the message you want to.

Many are the ones who judge a brand because of their website. Thus, your site’s content must be useful, educational, and up to date. This channel will significantly help you to increase your brand awareness and sales.

TV and Radio

Television and radio are more traditional marketing mediums in comparison to the ones I’ve mentioned above. Both of them will help you broadcast your message to a broad audience. Yet, you can also deliver messages to specific segments of your target audience.

Thus, the power of TV and radio channels cannot be underestimated. Radio ads will help you to reach many people while on the go. Besides, the radio is a handy tool for local marketing.

TV advertising offers lots of visual marketing opportunities. It allows businesses to be somehow more creative than in other marketing channels. You can take advantage of TV to show your products, tell your brand story, generate leads, etc.

Both TV and radio are still recommended marketing channels these days. You should try to reach your audience through different platforms, and any of these two can do wonders in your marketing strategy. The downside is that they are generally more costly than other mediums.

Podcast

A podcast is a digital audio file that online users can download to their computer or mobile. Podcasts come in series, and loyal listeners can subscribe to receive a notification when their favorite podcasts are available. 

Podcasts are a fantastic way to reach your target audience. You can listen to a podcast almost anywhere: at home, at work, in the car, in the gym, etc. There are times when it’s impossible to enjoy video content, but audio podcasts are there for you to listen to while multitasking.

There are podcasts of repurposed radio. Yet, it doesn’t need to be the case, as podcasts can cover any topic you can think of. You can also choose among different formats, lengths, and frequencies. Though, most of them tend to be weekly.

Anyone can create a podcast, from individuals to companies, radio and TV networks, storytellers, comedians, and more. Podcasts tend to be run by one or two presenters who talk about a specific subject. It is common they have guests to interview too.

Many brands turn their attention to this channel for their ads since it’s free, and it doesn’t have almost any regulations, but for copyright. Podcasts allow you to target your audience wherever they are, no matter if they’re doing something else.

Webinars

A webinar is an online meeting, conference, presentation, or video workshop in real-time. It tends to be recorded by the host and sent afterward to the event participants. 

You can organize a webinar to share knowledge, present a new product, get high-quality leads, increase your email list, and more. You must know your webinar’s goals beforehand. You must promote the event in advance too.

Not surprisingly, you need to plan what you are going to say and check that all the software and materials you want to use work properly. Webinars are characterized by allowing participants to use a live chat to communicate with the host and other attendees.

You must make sure you leave time for questions and answers during and/or after the presentation. Many marketers also make use of polls and surveys to follow up and get feedback for future webinars.

This channel is highly valuable for bloggers, B2B, Saas companies, and anyone willing to share their expertise. Do not hesitate to use it to interact with a more specific audience. It’s got many advantages. You can even post it on your website or send it by email to increase its reach.

Word of Mouth

Word of mouth is when your consumers and people you know share information about your brand, products, and services with their family and friends. It is one of the best advertising forms since people trust more what other people say than what brands say.

You should encourage word of mouth among your audience. Yet, you must give them good reasons to talk nicely about your brand. Make sure you offer enough information so that they can share it. And ensure your customer service is exemplary.

You must improve your interactions with your customers so that they generate positive word of mouth. You need to keep your audience informed and provide content that’s up to date. Not to mention that you have to be honest with them.

Nowadays, word of mouth happens through the internet too. Not only do consumers recommend your products to their friends face to face, but they also do it online such as through social networks, review apps, forums, etc. 

Physical Channels

Physical channels are an excellent opportunity to reach your target audience. Although we live in a digital age, there is still a lot of value as to physical channels since not all brands can afford them, so there is less competition.

There are loads of physical channels. For instance, newspapers, magazines, advertising panels, merchandising, flyers, catalogs, brochures, and more. Whether you should choose one or another depends on your target audience and their preferences.

Physical channels are more trustworthy than digital ones. There are fewer chances of being involved in fake news. So, they will help you to strengthen your relationship with your audience. 

You must plan according to your budget and take timing into account to prepare everything for your marketing campaign. People will judge you by what they see. So, make sure you carry out quality control to ensure a great result. 

Events and Public Relations

Both events and PR aim at engaging with people and brands. PR entails a lot more than organizing events such as crisis management, media relations, reputation management, corporate communications, etc.

Yet, events management is one of the most important roles of PR. There are one thousand reasons why you must attend, speak at, and host PR events. Industry events are essential to meet high-quality leads and establish yourself as a leader.

You will increase your brand awareness, loyalty, and respect. Thus, PR events are critical. It doesn’t have to be a huge event to take advantage of it. You can organize a small workshop or seminar and still succeed.

It is fundamental you find out what kind of event your target audience is interested in. This will help you to make better decisions as to what events you should attend or organize. You can either speak yourself and be an industry leader or hire an expert or group of experts.

Whatever you decide, do not forget to plan your event and promote it through several mediums. You can invite the press to your event – the local press might be more willing to attend. It would be wise to record the event and take pictures to later post them on your social media channels or your website.

Once you know their needs, you must figure out how you can help your customers with whatever you sell. This means you have to make sure that your product or service is up to date, suitable, and adapted for their needs.

Satisfying your customers’ needs means that you have to ensure your product/service is so good that they will feel pleased with it. Still, this process has to be profitable. Make sure you provide enough quality and information so that your product sells itself.

So, the purpose of marketing is to catch your audience’s attention so that they buy your products or hire your services. Depending on your business, you’ll need to take different measures. There is no doubt you must consider your audience and their preferences if you want to succeed.

You must be thinking you want to increase your brand awareness and get more sales, and it doesn’t matter the order as long as you achieve your aims. Yet, learning about marketing stages will help you do so more quickly and establish yourself as a leading brand.

Here are the seven stages of marketing:

1. Create a brand presence.

There is only one chance to give a great first impression. That’s why this stage is so important. It includes creating content for your website, developing social media profiles, sending press releases, advertising, attending or organizing business events, and more.

Building a brand presence is mandatory. If someone researches your company, they need to find positive information about your brand or else they won’t contact you in the future. You must look professional, reliable, and trustworthy.

2. Educate your audience.

There is a lot of content you can create to educate your audience. For example, client testimonials, white papers, blog posts, reviews, etc. This is the best way to let them get to know you better. And at the same time, helping them with their needs.

But, you must provide them high-quality content, or else they won’t bother wasting their time. If you educate your audience, they will know you better. Thus, they will judge you accordingly and not just by your prices.

3. Establish yourself as an authority in your industry.

It is more than advisable that you become an expert in your niche. Not only your audience but also your competitors will respect you more because of that. You must create high-quality content. This way, you’ll strengthen brand awareness and boost loyalty for your brand.

Becoming an industry expert has endless advantages. For instance, the media could be interested in writing about your brand or even interviewing you. Apart from improving trust, you’ll get the chance to meet other experts. 

4. Promote your brand and products.

You must promote your brand and products so that your audience is aware that you exist. There are many ways to promote yourself, such as using social media ads, sending emails, retargeting, etc.

What is vital is that they know about you when they are ready to buy. You can only achieve this through promotion. Some prospects take their time before making a purchase. They compare prices, visit several websites, etc. Thus, the more you promote your brand, the better informed they will be.

5. Purchase.

Even though customers make up their minds to make a purchase, marketing doesn’t stop here. You must keep on advertising your products and helping them to use the ones they have already bought properly. 

You can help them with start guides, in-depth user manuals, or customer support forums. You can also suggest them to buy complementary products. It is easier to convince a former customer than to gain a new one.

6. Retain customers.

This stage is closely related to the previous one. As important as gaining new clients, it is to keep them as clients. Depending on the type of business you run, you might as well be interested in increasing the loyalty and trust of your former customers.

Not surprisingly, apart from the quality of what you sell, marketing plays an important role here. You can inform them about special offers, discounts for former customers, free shipping, etc. They will appreciate it and will probably share it with the people they know. 

7. Get advocates.

Every brand needs advocates to promote their business. They can significantly help you to establish yourself as a powerful brand. It is critical people support you. Yet, it is even better if they do so online, for instance, through social media networks.

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And that’s all for the general marketing overview and marketing definition. I hope you’ve found this first chapter easy but useful. It’s time we move on to the next chapter, where I’ll talk about marketing fundamentals. 

Carry on reading to check whether you know about all of them!

Chapter 2

Marketing Fundamentals

In this chapter, I’ll focus on marketing fundamentals. Unsurprisingly, marketing fundamentals is a vast topic that comprises many aspects. I’ll cover from the most basic to the most advanced ones here.

I’ll start by talking about marketing materials. And then, I’ll move on to marketing research, marketing analytics, and marketing segmentation.

Once you’re ready, I’ll comment on what’s a marketing strategy, a marketing plan, and a marketing campaign. And I’ll also deal with the marketing funnel, marketing tools, and marketing automation.

Ready?

Marketing Materials

There are several marketing materials, such as business cards, flyers, t-shirts, catalogs, brochures, calendars, posters, pens, banners, etc. 

Marketing materials will help you get more customers in your local area, promote your latest product, advertise an upcoming event, improve sales, boost your branding efforts, etc. 

Marketing Products

Marketing products need to be relevant for the end-user. Marketing products have a name, and they can be identified with your brand. Marketing products must adapt themselves to trends, audience groups, and time.

Examples of marketing products are a car, a coffee, a fridge, a phone, but also services, events, places, and even ideas. So, marketing products are anything you can think of that can be offered to a market to satisfy customer needs.

Promotional Materials

Promotional materials are crucial to marketing. You can use them to increase your brand awareness and, at the same time, please your target audience. What promotional materials to use and when to distribute them is up to you.

Indeed, you can also use promotional materials during events – for example, flyers, brochures, pens, umbrellas, keyrings, mugs, etc. What matters is that you find something you believe your target audience will use.

I mean, if you give them useful promotional materials, they will be exposed to your brand logo, name, or email frequently. So, chances are they contact you in the future. What’s more, promotional materials are cost-effective. So, do not underestimate their power.

Marketing Research

Marketing research is critical to collect relevant information about the market. You will no doubt benefit from the information you can get thanks to marketing research – for instance, to create your marketing strategies.

In other words, marketing research refers to the process by which you gather, analyze, and interpret decisive information concerning the market. More often than not, brands carry out marketing research to find out about changes regarding consumer behavior.

You must become familiar with changing trends, customer preferences, new products that have been launched, etc. Not surprisingly, this type of data is highly valuable to design your marketing strategy and succeed.

Marketing Research Process

The marketing research process will help you to base your decisions on verified data instead of assumptions. Thus, it will help you to be more efficient and competitive. Any marketing research process needs somehow a proper organization.

Here are the steps you need to follow to make the most out of the marketing research process: 

1. Identify the problem or issue you want to solve.

You need to know why you want to conduct marketing research. This is critical to set the objectives and check if you accomplished them by the end of the research process. Indeed, if there is any issue you’re having problems with, you have to define it to solve the problem once the research has concluded.

2. Create your marketing research plan.

There are many aspects you must consider to develop your marketing research plan. You have to decide on what kind of sources you’ll use for your research. There are mainly two types: primary and secondary.

Primary sources are the ones you collect through surveys, observation, interviews, focus groups, etc. Whereas secondary sources are those you can collect from books, reports, journals, magazines, etc.

Anyway, apart from deciding on the sources, you must select those who will take part in the research, what procedures you’ll follow, and how you’ll contact them, among other things. Planning is crucial to saving time and resources. 

3. Start collecting information.

It’s time you start collecting information. It is advisable to select several sources relevant to your problem and collect as much data as possible. In primary sources, it can be challenging to come up with reliable data since people are not always honest with their answers, for instance, in a survey. 

4. Analyze the data you compiled.

Once the data collection is done, you’ll have to organize it and discard the useless information and analyze those details relevant to your marketing research. More often than not, you’ll have too much data, so it’s advisable to calculate averages.

The more specific your analysis is, the better. Yet, it will depend on what kind of information you need to obtain. You must keep records of the results as they might be useful for future comparisons.

5. Use the data to improve your marketing strategy.

A marketing research process needs to have an objective; whatever it is yours, you must use the information you get to your advantage. For instance, if you find out that your target audience preferences have changed, you have to take it into account for the development of your next marketing strategy.

6. Make changes if necessary.

You shouldn’t be afraid of making changes based on reliable data. It would be wise to introduce small changes at a time and check if they’re having a positive effect instead of making lots of changes all at once.

Marketing Analytics

Many marketers collect data nowadays, though many are disappointed with their efforts to measure their ROI. Marketing analytics is critical to measure your ROI, as well as other key metrics. 

What to measure will depend on the aims of your marketing campaigns. Unquestionably, you must use marketing analytics to study your past, present, and future marketing performance.

Marketing analytics is of utmost importance these days for marketers as it can significantly help you increase your marketing efforts’ efficiency. Still, collecting data from all your marketing channels is not that easy, and it takes time.

Some tools can help you with this task, such as Google Analytics. But, gathering information is not enough. You must later analyze it and use it to your advantage. That is, base your marketing decisions on it. 

Marketing analytics is essential to understand your target audience better and learn about what your competitors are doing. It not only matters to analyze your performance among channels, but it can also help you predict future trends.

On top of that, marketing analytics is vital to analyze your marketing campaign’s success and make changes if necessary. Yet, you must allow enough time to compile relevant information.

Marketing Segmentation

These audience groups or segments are not set at random, but each group shares some characteristics. You can split up your audience based on their gender, age, location, lifestyle, behavior, preferences, income, loyalty, etc.

Not surprisingly, marketing segmentation is decisive in improving your campaign’s performance, discovering areas where you can expand, making better business decisions, and more. 

The most well-known market segmentation types are demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and demographic segmentation. Firmographic and seasonal segmentation are quite a lot important too.

Demographic segmentation is a method that helps you to target your audience based on their age, education, income, marital status, family size, occupation, gender, and nationality. This process will help you to be more efficient. Instead of aiming to reach the whole market, you’ll focus on specific groups.

Behavioral segmentation is a market segmentation approach that consists of dividing your audience according to their behavior. It takes into account aspects like shopping habits, loyalty, lifestyle, consumption, etc. It matters since it helps you to employ personalization to ensure your audience’s needs are met.

Geographic segmentation is a method that allows you to classify your audience based on their location. It considers factors such as the climate, population density, language, timezone, or whether your prospects live in a rural or urban area. It’s fairly easy to implement, and it’ll help you to ensure higher product relevancy. 

Psychographic segmentation is a market segmentation method that helps you target your customers based on their values, opinions, interests, personality traits, beliefs, attitudes, and lifestyles. Psychographic segmentation allows you to market the same product to people with similar characteristics. 

Firmographic segmentation is a segmentation approach that helps you divide your target audience according to their type of industry, revenue, location, and number of employees. Thus, it is a must for B2B companies. It provides deeper business insights. So, it will make your marketing and advertising campaigns more effective. 

As the name implies, seasonal segmentation is vital to classify your audience according to their changing preferences and purchasing behaviors during the year. 

Marketing Strategy

Besides, a marketing strategy will help you to use your resources to beat your competitors and succeed. It will help you to find out who your perfect target market is and create better sales opportunities. But first, you must establish your business goals, both long and short-term ones.

A marketing strategy will help you increase sales, but it will also help you develop goods and services that match your customer needs. It’s also vital to plan your advertising campaigns in advance. 

Thanks to a marketing strategy, you’ll improve your product distribution and strengthen your brand image. If you want to be successful, you must analyze the market, establish your goals, decide on the plan you’re going to follow, and check your performance.

Marketing Plan

If you want to grow your business consistently and boost your ROI, you need to create a marketing plan. Some companies apply marketing strategies here and there but do not have a fixed plan.

Many fail to succeed, while others achieve success but don’t know how to repeat it and keep on improving. A marketing plan will help you make the most out of your resources and steadily develop your business.

A marketing plan differs from a marketing strategy since the latter describes your business goals, but a marketing plan focuses on how to execute your strategy to attain those goals. 

A marketing plan defines what, where, and when to carry out your strategy. It also takes into consideration the tracking and measurement of your performance. Indeed, a marketing plan can include more than one marketing strategy.

Most marketing plans include elements like the following:

• An overview of your marketing plan.
• Your business goals and marketing objectives.
• An analysis of the current situation of your business.
• A description of your promotion strategy.
• A timeline.
• Budget details.
• Information about your target market, customer needs, and delivery plan.
• KPIs to be tracked.
• Communication guidelines.
• Final evaluation.

Still, what elements to include in your marketing plan is up to you. It can be as straightforward or as complicated as you need. But, what it’s a must is that you conduct marketing research to base your decisions on verified information.

Your marketing plan has to take not only your target market but also your target audience into account. Do not forget to ensure the strategies you employ match your objectives, or else you won’t get the result you expect.

Anyway, there are several types of marketing plans. For example, a content marketing plan, a social media marketing plan, a new product marketing plan, an annual marketing plan, etc. Whether to use one or another depends on your brand and your marketing objectives.

Marketing Plan Template

A marketing plan template refers to a professional marketing plan design that has already been created for you. So, the only thing you have to do is fill in the information with your brand details. That is, marketing plan templates are customizable.

There are loads of marketing plan templates out there. Thus, if you’re struggling to create yours, do not hesitate to download one online. I’ll deal with marketing templates later on in this guide (chapter 6). Jump there to get more information!

Marketing Plan Example

There are many aspects you can include in a marketing plan. Below there’s just an example. You can either add or exclude sections to adapt it to your business. Here is an example of a strategic marketing plan:

Summary.

In this part of the marketing plan, you must include your company name as well as the names and job titles of key employees. It is also common to include relevant information as regards your industry and your company.

You should also add your company’s mission and business objectives. That is, you have to explain what your company aims to do and how you’re planning to do it. You must also introduce your priorities and goals. The latter has to be measurable.

Target market research.

You should describe your industry. I mean, you need to provide relevant industry details. It’s also critical you add data as regards your competitors. Thus, you have to add a competitor analysis. And, do not forget to add your buyer’s persona definition. 

Learning about your competitors, your market, and your ideal customers is vital to apply your marketing strategy. Take your time to research and include contrasted information. Do not forget about audience segmentation.

SWOT analysis.

Likewise, it is detrimental you carry out a SWOT analysis. You must find out about your business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It will help you to understand your company better so that you can solve problems and use your strengths to your advantage.

Marketing strategy. 

In this part of the marketing plan, it’s where you describe the strategy or strategies you will put into place. You must add data regarding marketing channels where you plan to distribute your message and how you plan to do so.

Budget.

You must make a list of the expenses you think you’ll have. But, you should also know your total budget available. You must decide whether you will spend more on some tactics than others. And leave some money for unexpected expenses.

Analysis of your performance.

Finally, you need to evaluate the performance of your marketing plan. I mean, you have to measure the metrics of each of your marketing goals. This knowledge is fundamental. It will tell you whether you achieved your goals or not.

How to Create a Marketing Plan

Marketing Campaign

Marketing campaigns must have a long-lasting impression if you want them to succeed. In other words, marketing campaigns aim at making your company memorable. Marketing campaigns communicate your message to consumers so that the latter take the desired action.

A marketing campaign is a well-thought-out plan. Each campaign has its own goals, such as boost brand awareness, increase user engagement, promote a new product, get more leads, and so on and so forth.

So, each campaign has a purpose. And based on this purpose, you must set specific goals. There must be someone in charge of your marketing campaign, such as a team leader, to ensure everything goes as expected.

If you want your marketing campaign to be effective, you must decide on the timing. Launch your campaign when you’ve got more chances of success. It’s fundamental to coordinate its distribution through different channels. 

Indeed, successful marketing campaigns must be carefully planned and based on marketing research. I mean, you must plan the strategy or strategies you want to put into place. But, to do so, you need to know as much as you can about your target market, audience, and competitors.

Marketing Campaign Template

A marketing campaign template is a summary of your marketing campaign that you can customize with your campaign’s information. It usually includes data regarding the campaign’s purpose, goals, resources, budget, marketing channels, target audience, etc.

A marketing campaign template provides a structure that you can use to start planning your marketing campaign. Not all campaigns are the same, so you can adapt it to what you need. I’ll talk about marketing templates more in detail in chapter 6. Go there if you want to know more!

Marketing Funnel

Having a close look at the marketing funnel will help you to increase its effectiveness. If your target audience doesn’t know you, they won’t be interested in your product/service prices, for instance.

Most customers don’t purchase after the first contact with your brand. Many need from five to eight interactions before they make up their mind. It is for this reason that understanding the marketing funnel is so important.

Unless you know what stage of the marketing funnel your customer is in, you won’t be able to target him/her properly. You can only succeed if you transmit the right message at the right time to the right people.

Lots of people will become aware of your brand, but only a few will convert. You must target as many people as you can of those who are interested in your brand so that you can boost your conversions.

The AIDA Model

There are several marketing funnel models. I’ll comment on the most well-known one here: the AIDA model. However, there exist others such as the “TOFU – MOFU – BOFU” (top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, bottom of the funnel).

Here are the stages of the AIDA model:

Awareness.

This is the stage where you have to generate brand awareness so that your target audience gets to know your products or services. 

Interest.

You must create enough interest so that your audience is interested in researching further. You have to catch their attention and point out the benefits of your products/services. 

Desire.

In this stage, prospects realize they want to buy your product or hire your services. In other words, you have to stimulate interest in your products so that your audience wants to buy them.

Action.

It is in this stage where your prospect takes the desired action, such as make a purchase. Yet, there are other desired actions to consider, like download a brochure, join your email list, etc.

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Some people add two more stages to this list:

Loyalty.

You must try to retain your customers with regular discounts, social media and email interactions, and more. The buyer journey doesn’t stop once they take the desired action. If you do it properly, prospects can become loyal customers.

Advocacy.

This last stage refers to when your customers publicly support you, for instance, in social media networks. So, they help you to spread the word and get more customers.

Marketing Tools

Marketing tools are all those tools that enterprises use for the development and promotion of their products and services. Marketing tools are any strategies, materials, and techniques you can think of to develop and promote your goods and services.

There are many different marketing tools, such as market research, advertising, surveys, direct mail, and more. For this reason, most companies use a combination of them to increase their sales and gather consumer data. 

You must know which tools work best for your business. Still, it’s advisable to integrate several tactics to reach your objectives, grow your business, and engage your customers. I’ll explain marketing tools more in detail in chapter 6. Jump there if you want to learn more!

Marketing Automation

These days marketing automation is widely used among marketers. There are many marketing activities you can automate. Yet, there are others which you shouldn’t. When automating tasks, you must understand audience segmentation.

By researching your audience, you’ll be able to save time and automate many time-consuming and tedious tasks. Automation can also help you collect information regarding your audience. Do not hesitate to use it to increase your overall effectiveness!

It will help you increase efficiency and personalize your message, get feedback, generate qualified leads, boost your ROI, and more. Marketing automation makes tasks easier and helps you to convert prospects into satisfied customers. 

Indeed, marketing automation is critical to managing aspects like social media marketing, mobile marketing, email marketing, etc., all from the same place. Thus, marketing automation is vital to integrate related marketing activities, saving you time and effort.

Marketing automation will help you to send the right message to the right audience at the right time. If you know your audience, you can communicate with them better. I mean, send them content, offers, discounts, etc., that appeal to them.

So, marketing automation can help you to improve the buyer’s journey since you will help your audience based on the particular stage they’re in. Marketing automation needs a CRM system, which works as a database.

You can take advantage of marketing automation to integrate marketing channels through CRMs. You can also benefit from testing different variables, group your audience according to their preferences, and target specific audience groups.  

Marketing Automation Software

Marketing automation software is a platform that helps marketers to automate tasks, analyze the outcome of their marketing campaigns, capture leads, and nurture them through the marketing funnel.

Marketing automation tools are essential to determine the success of a marketing campaign across several channels. You can automate SMS, emails, social media posts, and digital ads. 

Be careful not to confuse marketing automation software with a CRM system. These two work together, and the former cannot exist without the latter, but they’re not the same. In other words, you need a customer relationship management system to store information. 

Anyway, marketing automation software is critical to building relationships across different channels. It not only ensures consistency but also that you communicate data based on your prospects’ preferences. 

Here’s a list of some of the best marketing automation tools:

1. Hubspot
2. Pardot
3. Marketo
4. MailChimp
5. Salesfussion
6. Act-On

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And that’s all for marketing fundamentals. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this chapter. Next, I’ll talk about marketing jobs. Carry on reading to learn more about it!

Chapter 3

Marketing jobs

In this chapter, I’ll tell you all about marketing jobs. First, I’ll talk about what a marketing manager, a marketing director, a marketing coordinator, a marketing consultant, a marketing analyst, and a marketing specialist do. 

Then, I’ll deal with key concepts such as what’s a marketing agency and a marketing degree. And to conclude this third chapter, I’ll focus on entry-level marketing jobs. Ready?

Marketing Manager

A marketing manager handles market research, promotion, and all the marketing activities of a company or a product. Besides, a marketing manager is in charge of a team. Together with his/her team, a marketing manager elaborates promotional messages to distribute across different channels.

Indeed, more often than not, marketing managers need to work with several media channels. They can even have to specialize in some of them unless the organization they work for is very small. 

A marketing manager can supervise a particular product or a whole brand. A marketing manager needs to understand the marketplace well enough to determine whether there exists a demand for a specific product or not and how this would change as time goes by.

Marketing managers not only need to master traditional marketing skills such as creativity and negotiation; they also need to be good at digital marketing and possess some general office skills. I’ll tell you more in a bit about the skills you need to become a marketing manager.

Besides, among the obligations of a marketing manager, it’s worth mentioning that he/she focuses on improving promotional campaigns and strategies. Marketing managers need to know whether their company’s products/services meet consumer’s needs and expectations.

Marketing managers are in charge of different marketing stages, such as package design, advertising, choosing media outlets, and more. They also have to keep an eye on email campaigns, contests, and other brand awareness activities.

As you may well have already noticed, marketing managers can be responsible for many marketing activities. Other tasks they might be in charge of are website and social media management, data analytics, public relations, etc.

Here are some typical responsibilities most marketing managers have:

• Create promotional messages.
• Organize your brand’s attendance at events.
• Test new marketing channels and look for new opportunities.
• Coordinate marketing strategies through different channels.
• Manage the budget for marketing campaigns.
• Handle the design and production of promotional materials.
• Negotiate with third-party agencies.
• Analyze customer feedback.
• Evaluate the performance of a particular campaign.
• Boost a company’s website and social media strategies.
• Work with and report findings to the executive team.
• Collaborate with customer service to solve problems.
• Think of new ways to promote your brand’s products/services.
• Research the market.
• Hire and educate a marketing team.

As regards education, most marketing managers have a bachelor’s degree either in marketing, communications, public relations, advertising, accounting, finance, or business marketing. They usually have a master’s degree in a related field as well.

Regarding experience, most marketing managers must have quite a lot of marketing experience before they become marketing managers. I mean, as less experienced candidates, they tend to have worked as marketing coordinators or marketing specialists before they get a promotion and become marketing managers.

Marketing Management

Marketing management refers to the processes and procedures that an organization or business uses to develop and put into action its marketing program. Marketing management means planning, organizing, and monitoring strategies and tactics to make a brand’s products/services profitable.

Indeed, marketing management is in charge of selecting target markets and creating a relationship with them. One of its main goals is to ensure all parties involved are somehow satisfied. 

So, marketing management has to do with planning, promoting, and distributing services, products, and ideas to satisfy both customers and organizations. Marketing management uses market knowledge, such as research and surveys, to develop a marketing plan.

Marketing management makes sure that realistic goals are set based on marketing research and audience preferences. Thanks to marketing management, you’ll be able to create strategies for your marketing plan.

Marketing management is essential to analyze new market opportunities, but it also matters for decision making, planning, lead generation, boost profits, and increase your customer’s satisfaction. 

Marketing Director

A marketing director is in charge of his/her company’s marketing strategy, communication, branding, and corporate image. Marketing directors conduct marketing research to create specific marketing plans for their company’s products or services. 

Marketing directors need to know about the marketplace so that they can adjust marketing strategies if required. A marketing director is responsible for developing annual marketing plans, setting the budget, and creating a marketing campaign calendar. 

Indeed, a marketing director is the one who leads and directs the marketing department, including marketing managers. Yet, they also have to report to the top management team of an enterprise. 

A marketing director needs to know about statistics, maths, sales, and marketing. Marketing directors also need to be good at people. Regarding qualifications, they must have a degree in business or marketing, a master’s degree, and lots of marketing experience, such as many years working as a marketing manager or in the head of a marketing role.

What’s more, a marketing director is responsible for identifying potential target markets, segmenting them, and deciding on the potential of possible target audience groups. Yet, a marketing director’s duties and obligations vary according to the industry he/she belongs to.

This is due to the fact that different industries have different markets, audiences, products, and so on. A marketing director needs to know and manage branding, communications, marketing strategies, and a budget.

Some marketing directors handle a specific area, such as a digital marketing director, a social media marketing director, or a brand marketing director. Whereas other marketing directors are responsible for more than one area. It all depends on the industry and the size of the company.  

Here are some of the responsibilities a marketing director might have:

• Plan and manage a marketing strategy for your brand’s products/services.
• Develop a marketing calendar for company events such as conferences or webinars.
• Research the market, your competitors, and consumer trends to design and adapt your marketing plan.
• Measure the campaign’s effectiveness and report findings to whoever corresponds (president of marketing, chief marketing officer, etc.).
• Set and control your brand’s project, team, and department annual marketing budgets.
• Establish specific marketing goals for each team as well as their corresponding KPIs.
• Negotiate with other agencies.
• Look for new business opportunities.
• Monitor and analyze your brand’s online reputation.
• Handle public relations. 
• Supervise the development of your advertising campaigns using data analytics.
• Research the market to find out about the demand for products and services.

Marketing Coordinator

A marketing coordinator, as the name implies, is the one who coordinates the marketing activities of an enterprise. A marketing coordinator manages promotional campaigns, handles market research, looks for target audiences, and analyses current trends.

A marketing coordinator is the one who develops and implements a marketing plan with its corresponding marketing strategies. Not to mention that marketing coordinators work as a kind of bridge between the marketing team, employees, suppliers, and customers.

Marketing coordinators can be in charge of coordinating the marketing department and assisting its members if needed – for example, in the development and evaluation of social media, digital, and content marketing campaigns.

A marketing coordinator is responsible for carrying out marketing and audience research, writing reports, identifying promotional opportunities, developing marketing strategies, and more. A marketing coordinator tends to work as the right hand of the marketing manager.

Besides, a marketing coordinator’s responsibilities vary depending on the company. There can be Junior and Senior Marketing Coordinators, depending on their responsibilities and their previous experience. 

To become a marketing coordinator, you need to have a degree in advertising, marketing, or business administration. For a senior position, you’ll also need years of experience in the field. Not to mention, you must excel in communication and project management skills. 

On top of that, marketing coordinators have to be good at creativity and writing since they generally have to create original content for a business website, social media, and email platforms. They must ensure there is a consistent brand voice among channels.

Marketing coordinators must be ready to contribute when necessary. So, they need skills in SEO, project management, social media, creativity, marketing, writing, critical thinking, and more. 

Below, there is a list of some of the most common responsibilities a marketing coordinator has:

• Back the marketing department initiatives in the planning and execution of marketing programs.
• Help in the development and implementation of social media and content marketing plans.
• Analyze key metrics and write reports as to marketing campaigns.
• Carry out market research.
• Look for new industry activities and trends.
• Support marketing teams.
• Negotiate media coverage.
• Handle internal communications.
• Coordinate the negotiation with vendors.
• Integrate event, content, and product campaigns.
• Determine whether new campaigns would be feasible and profitable enough.
• Help the marketing manager with the execution of marketing strategies.

Marketing Consultant

A marketing consultant is a business professional who works with companies or organizations to analyze and improve their marketing strategy. Marketing consultants are essential to create a successful marketing plan and come up with the best marketing mix. They not only monitor and track results, but they also make any necessary changes. 

Besides, a marketing consultant can either be self-employed or work for a consulting agency. What a marketing consultant does varies depending on the company and project. Yet, more often than not, it implies helping enterprises to better reach their customers.

What’s more, a marketing consultant evaluates a company’s current marketing strategy to later make suggestions for improvements. Marketing consultants may also help in the planning and implementation of specific marketing campaigns.  

Marketing consultants must have skills in and knowledge about marketing, communications, and business. They tend to know about specific areas, like copywriting, social media, online marketing, etc.

Besides, marketing consultants work side by side with your business to strengthen its brand awareness and promote your business products or services. They evaluate business data to develop new strategies that will be crucial to boost your business performance.

Here is a list with most of the responsibilities and obligations that a marketing consultant has:

• Elaborate a marketing plan that brings about better results.
• Find out opportunities to draw the attention of new customers.
• Implement public relations campaigns.
• Analyze your brand’s current marketing materials, social media platforms, website, and advertising.
• Research your competitors.
• Check customer satisfaction through feedback.
• Manage your brand’s reputation.
• Boost your customer lifetime value.
• Strengthen your company culture.
• Ensure all your platforms are integrated and coordinate their communications.
• Identify keywords that are relevant enough to improve your search engine rankings.
• Track your company’s performance to improve it and get better results.

Marketing Analyst

A marketing analyst is a professional who studies market conditions in domestic and international markets to determine whether a product or service will sell. They analyze data, competitors, trends, and strategies to boost your brand’s competitiveness in the market.

Marketing analysts’ main goal is to help companies decide what products are in demand and who will be willing to purchase them. They are crucial to decide on your product’s price. I mean, the price people would be willing to pay. 

Thus, a marketing analyst assists a company so that this one can make informed decisions to improve its profits. Not surprisingly, a marketing analyst is vital to reduce risks before launching a new project. 

Besides, marketing analysts examine consumer habits and behavior to help brands make better decisions regarding what audience segments they should target.

A  marketing analyst needs to have analytic and numerical skills. They usually possess a degree in Statistics or Marketing. And they need to be good at problem-solving. They can either work for a marketing firm or be self-employed.

A marketing analyst must write reports or make presentations to show the information obtained in the analysis. It can either be with numbers or words. Yet, a marketing analyst must have the ability to pay attention to detail and know how to interpret and communicate his/her findings.

A marketing analyst is essential to understand what position your brand has in the marketplace and how to change it. If you learn about potential new markets, consumer habits, how to set prices, among other things, you’ll be able to improve your sales.

Here is a list of some of the duties and responsibilities a marketing analyst has:

• Predict new marketing trends.
• Carry out SWOT analysis.
• Research your competitors.
• Split up your target audience into segments.
• Determine whether your marketing strategies are practical enough.
• Understand data analytics and statistics.
• Present information to your brand’s marketing manager, marketing director, or any other client they may have.
• Make recommendations based on his/her findings.
• Check out customer satisfaction.
• Study your consumers’ behavior.
• Design questionnaires.
• Collect information effectively through surveys, questionnaires, etc.

Marketing Specialist

A marketing specialist is the one who helps brands to create, implement, and track marketing programs through several marketing channels. They also provide recommendations and advice as to the best way to reach the target market. 

To become a marketing specialist, you need a degree in either marketing, communication, or business. Communication and management skills are vital too. More often than not, marketing specialists have to work among different departments and need to perform more than one task at a time.

As to their responsibilities, they might have to:

• Develop, execute, and monitor marketing programs.
• Collaborate with other departments and marketing teams.
• Come up with or revise technical content before it’s published across different mediums.
• Conduct market research and identify new opportunities.
• Create marketing materials.
• Work with external marketing teams, agencies, or marketing professionals.

Marketing Agency

A marketing agency is also known as a marketing company or a marketing firm. Marketing agencies help their clients to manage and implement their marketing strategies. A marketing agency is a specialized agency that allows a business or brand to achieve its goals more effectively.

What’s more, a marketing agency not only aims at identifying valuable marketing strategies, but it also evaluates results and looks for possible solutions so that their clients can maximize their ROI. 

A marketing agency is usually formed by a team of experts who use their knowledge and experience to bring better results for your business. You can either hire a marketing agency to launch a new company or improve an already established one. 

Not surprisingly, a marketing agency is critical to ensure long-term success. Marketing agencies are essential to promote your brand’s value and help you to build a strong customer base of loyal customers.

Marketing agencies assist other businesses in the planning, design, and implementation of their marketing activities. Most marketing agencies offer integrated services across media and marketing channels. 

This means that they are good at multitasking. Not to mention that marketing agencies must carry out extensive research before they come up with a thorough strategy. There exist different types of marketing agencies, and each provides various services.

Marketing Companies

Marketing companies can help your business develop your marketing strategy, plan your marketing campaigns, and execute them. Besides, marketing companies sometimes also provide specific services like conduct market research or assist you in telemarketing. 

Types of marketing companies:

• Market research firms.

Market research firms are essential to make informed decisions based on facts and not on assumptions. They can inform you about the market’s size, research your competitors, assist you with your PR campaigns, etc. 

• Telemarketing companies.

Telemarketing companies act as a call center for your business. You can hire their services to create direct marketing campaigns or to help you with follow-up responses, among other things.

• Digital marketing companies.

Digital marketing companies help other businesses to make better use of the internet and social media networks. They can help you improve your website and advise you on social media platforms to boost engagement.

• Marketing communications consultancies.

Marketing communications consultancies help you to create and develop your communications material. They can assist you in the writing, production, and design of brochures, newsletters, etc. 

• Direct marketing companies.

Direct marketing companies help brands in their direct mail campaigns. They can help you with your mailing list and in the design and creation of direct mail letters.

• Marketing consultancies.

Marketing consultancies assist businesses in creating, planning, and developing their marketing strategies. They carry out research and give you recommendations so that you can boost your performance.

Marketing Degree

A marketing degree refers to an academic degree that marketing students can get either in a business school, a college, or university. A marketing degree will enrich your knowledge regarding what’s a marketing strategy, marketing research, marketing science, and marketing management, among other things. 

There are several types of marketing degrees, depending on your level of education:

• Associate’s degree: it takes two years; you can access it with your high school diploma. It’s perfect for students who are not ready to embark on an extended degree.
• Bachelor’s degree: it takes three or four years; you can also access it with your high school diploma or an associate’s degree.
• Master’s degree: it takes two years; you need to have earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing to access it. It’s perfect for those who need to get more advanced information.
• Doctorate degree: it takes four to six years; it’s the highest education you can get in marketing; usually, you need a master’s degree to access it. 

Entry Level Marketing Jobs

Entry level marketing jobs can no doubt influence your future. So, you must understand what kind of jobs are there before you apply for any of them. You need to bear in mind your interests as well as those things you’re good at.

Marketing is such a broad field with many career paths. You must know what kind of jobs best suit you and your career goals. An entry level marketing job will lead you in one specific direction. You can change your path if you don’t like it, though it’s quite challenging.

Here is a list with some of the most common entry level marketing jobs:

• Marketing coordinator.

A marketing coordinator is in charge of helping the marketing team with quantitative research, planning, and analysis. Besides, a marketing coordinator takes part in the development and execution of marketing strategies.

• Marketing analyst.

A marketing analyst, as the name implies, is in charge of analyzing data. What’s more, marketing analysts must report their findings to the executive team as these are vital for decision making. 

• Marketing assistant.

A marketing assistant supports other marketing team members, such as the marketing manager or even executives, to develop the marketing strategy and whatever they may need help with.

• Account coordinator.

An account coordinator serves as the link between the marketing team and a client or group of clients. His/her role is to ensure everything works as expected. So, an account coordinator must check out deadlines and customer satisfaction.

• Communications specialist.

A communications specialist is responsible for managing the communications of a business or organization. To become a communication specialist, you need excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.

• Content marketing specialist.

A content marketing specialist works in the content marketing team. This person is responsible for helping in developing, creating, and executing the content marketing strategy. He/she will also have to promote, publish, and manage content.

• Digital marketing assistant.

A digital marketing assistant monitors and helps in the management of digital marketing strategies. A digital marketing assistant manages online marketing channels, tracks, and monitors critical metrics, writes reports, etc. 

• Sales representative.

A sales representative may either work inside or outside of the company. An outside sales representative tries to sell company products and services to prospective customers; they may have to travel a lot. Whereas inside sales representatives work from the office, and their role is to keep existing clients satisfied.

• Junior business analyst.

A junior business analyst assists senior members of the marketing team. A junior business analyst usually has to monitor account management systems and create reports to hand in to his/her supervisor.

• SEO specialist.

An SEO specialist has to come up with and implement an SEO strategy. Other responsibilities could be to acquire backlinks, track SEO performance, and website optimization, among other things. 

• Social media specialist.

A social media specialist handles online communities and aims at generating a positive image on an organization’s social media networks. They may also have to create social media campaigns and monitor their performance.

• Email marketing specialist.

An email marketing specialist works in the implementation and execution of the email marketing strategy. He/she will have to create email campaigns, segment your target audience, A/B test, send newsletters, grow your email list, etc. 

• Recruiter.

A recruiter is a professional responsible for attracting top talent to the company they work for or a client if they work for a recruitment agency. They must be good at people, create trust, and be good at reading people. 

• Public relations coordinator.

A public relations coordinator has to work with and organize several marketing teams. He/she might be involved in planning events, writing press releases and pitches, working with the media, managing communications over a crisis, writing public statements, etc.

Marketing Internships

Marketing internships consist of short-term working experience that companies offer to marketing students or graduates to get entry-level exposure to the working environment. 

Internships can last from one week to twelve months. They can be paid or unpaid, depending on the industry and the company that offers them. They are an excellent opportunity to learn about a specific field, make connections, work on projects, and develop soft and hard skills.

Internships are a great chance to work with industry professionals and learn from them. They also serve to realize whether you would like to perform a specific job in the future or whether it’s not for you.

Most companies positively value that applicants to job positions have spent some time working in an internship since it gives them working experience. There are times when experience counts as much as courses and studies.

Some employers use internships to attract talent to their enterprises. They may hire new graduates or offer future job opportunities for undergraduates. Besides, internships are the best chance to put some of your knowledge into practice.

Depending on the company and the year’s time, marketing internships can either be part-time or full-time. They are vital to helping marketing students or new graduates to decide what they want to be and determine their career aspirations. 

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And that’s all for marketing jobs. Now you’re familiar with all those jobs that belong to the marketing field. In the next chapter, I’ll talk about the marketing mix, so you can’t miss it!

Chapter 4

The Marketing Mix

In this chapter, I’ll focus on the marketing mix. I’ll start by providing a marketing mix definition. And then, I’ll talk about the 4 Ps of marketing, which I’ll explain in detail.

Marketing Mix Definition

The marketing mix is indispensable to make better marketing decisions. In other words, the marketing mix allows businesses to become more competitive and improve their profits. So, the marketing mix is necessary to adapt your strategies to your audience preferences and the target market.

The marketing mix helps brands understand their place within the market so that they can learn about their strengths and weaknesses. Thus, the marketing mix is detrimental to develop your marketing strategy. 

Consumer trends have dramatically changed due to technological improvements. Now, consumer preferences change more frequently than before. This means that marketers need to be up to date and know what their customers want. 

The marketing mix aims at satisfying both the customer and the seller. Using the marketing mix properly is key to success. What’s more, the marketing mix is not only decisive to make better decisions when launching a new product, but it’s also critical to revise the effectiveness of existing ones.

The 4 Ps of Marketing

The 4 Ps of marketing is a concept that comes from the 1960s when E. Jerome McCarthy published his book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. 

The marketing mix concept was coined by Neil Borden, who talked about key elements to promote your brand’s products and differentiate yourself from your competitors. 

However, it was McCarthy who simplified Neil’s list and left just the elements we know as the 4Ps today. 

Although these two concepts have been there for a while, they’re still valid today. 

Depending on the industry, the 4Ps system can be extended to 7 Ps if you consider other aspects like people, consumer processes, or physical evidence.

Still, the 4 Ps are the backbone of any marketing mix system. It’s worth mentioning that both the marketing mix and the 4 Ps are widely used all throughout the world. Let’s have a look at the 4Ps in more detail!

Here is a list of the 4Ps of marketing:

Product

A product is every single thing that is purchasable by consumers, from a therapy session or a massage to clothes or food. Thus, a product refers to a tangible good or an intangible service that meets any specific customer need or demand.

What’s more, each and every product follows a logical order in the product’s life cycle. This matters since it helps marketers to find any challenges a product might face and solve them. A product must meet consumers’ expectations.

You must know the benefits your product offers in comparison to your competitors. Besides, each product is a unique selling proposition. So, you need to know what features make it stand out. 

Price

Price refers to what it costs to purchase a product. It depends on the market and your competition. Your product’s price is also conditioned by how your customers perceive the value of your product.

Lower prices make products available for the average customer. At the same time, higher prices are preferable if you sell exclusive goods/services. Your product’s price affects how it sells. 

The price must be higher than the cost of production, or else you won’t make a profit. Your competitors’ prices might influence how much you charge for your products.

Price affects how your target audience perceives your brand, marketing strategy, profit margins, supply, and more. Coming up with the right price is not at all a piece of cake. Yet, it’s mandatory you set the right price. 

Place

Place has to do with any physical or online location where your customers can purchase, use, or access a product. In other words, place refers to distribution channels. You need to become familiar with the best locations or channels to convert prospects into customers.

There are lots of possible locations out there where you could distribute your products. You must know which ones work best for you. Anyway, place also includes aspects such as transport, warehousing, or franchises. 

Promotion

Promotion involves advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, special offers, and public relations. There are many channels where you can promote your products or services, such as billboards, catalogs, internet ads, social media networks, and press releases.

Promotion comprises the message that is communicated and who it is communicated to. It also deals with how often the promotion happens and how to reach your target audience across marketing channels.

The channel you choose for your promotions must be suitable for the product, or else you won’t succeed. Besides, promotion aims at presenting your message in the most effective way. Not surprisingly, promotion is critical to maximize your ROI.

If you want to know more about how to promote your product/services and succeed, do not hesitate to check our Promotion Strategy post. It covers from the basics to the most advanced information regarding promotions, including digital advertising, mobile marketing, public relations, etc. 

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And that’s all for the marketing mix and the 4Ps of marketing. In the next chapter, I’ll explain the types of marketing. Keep on reading to learn more or to find out whether you know them all!

Chapter 5

Types of Marketing

I’ll comment on digital marketing, social media marketing, affiliate marketing, content marketing, email marketing, network marketing, inbound marketing, outbound marketing, guerrilla marketing, and multilevel marketing.

Besides, I’ll also explain what influencer marketing is, direct marketing, online marketing, B2B marketing, experiential marketing, SEO marketing, product marketing, video marketing, mobile marketing, SMS marketing, and marketing 360.

There are lots of marketing types these days, and the list keeps on growing. This is due to the fact that marketing is constantly evolving as a result of marketing research and technological changes. 

Some marketing types can be more effective and relevant than others for your business since there’s not one size fits all. What works for other brands doesn’t have to be the best choice for your business. 

Below there is a list of the top marketing types so that you can get some inspiration before you decide what’s best for your company:

Digital Marketing

The use of the internet has significantly increased over the last years, and it will go on rising because now people can purchase products and interact with brands online. Digital marketing targets those customers that communicate with businesses online. 

More and more people have access to the internet today. You must meet your customers where they are. For this reason, reaching out to your customers and prospects while they are surfing the internet is detrimental.

If truth be told, almost anything can be considered as a digital marketing asset – from your website to images, videos, blog posts, reviews, and more. It is because of this that there are lots of different possibilities to interact with your target audience thanks to digital marketing.

Besides, digital marketing is crucial for your brand awareness. Most brands have a presence online, such as their website or social media platforms. What’s more, your audience expects you to have an online presence. So, digital marketing is a must.

Digital Marketing Agency

A digital marketing agency differs from traditional marketing agencies since digital marketing agencies use copywriting, graphic design, the latest technology, and marketing techniques to deliver quantifiable results and boost other brand’s development and lead generation, among other things. 

Digital marketing agencies usually offer various services such as search engine optimization, social media marketing, website design and development, content creation, email marketing, etc. 

A digital marketing agency helps companies to grow and develop their brand awareness through several digital channels. Besides, digital marketing agencies will help you to target only those who are interested in what you sell. So, they’re great at finding cost-effective solutions.

There are lots of marketing agencies out there. How do you know which one is best for your brand? Well, it depends on your objectives and how much help or guidance you need. Some agencies specialize more, while others offer a wide range of services. 

Digital Marketing Jobs

Since computers, smartphones, and the use of the internet have become popular, many jobs require digital marketing skills. For example, SEO jobs, social media marketing jobs, design jobs, web development jobs, marketing analytics jobs, etc. 

Thus, there are lots of digital marketing jobs out there. I’ll comment a bit on the most relevant ones below:

Digital marketing manager.

A digital marketing manager is in charge of planning and executing a digital marketing campaign. Among his/her responsibilities, it is to manage the budget, establish a timeline, design the project, etc. 

A digital marketing manager needs to be good at organizing others and make them collaborate. Not to mention that digital marketing managers need to possess excellent communication skills.

Community manager.

A community manager is responsible for building online communities around a brand. He/she must interact with them and ensure there is a long-lasting relationship. This job requires being good at interpersonal relationships. It’s critical to provide prompt answers and be organized.

UX/UI designer.

A UE/UI designer is in charge of ensuring the best navigation experience in blogs, websites, and apps. Thus, they design sites and apps in such a way that they help consumers through the user journey until they reach the desired action. They generally aim at improving sales, customer retention, predict unexpected difficulties, boost leads, etc. 

Data analyst.

A data analyst is someone who collects, organizes, examines, and analyzes data for companies. Not surprisingly, this helps enterprises make better decisions regarding their marketing campaigns based on verified data and not on assumptions. 

Content strategist.

A content strategist is responsible for developing content that matches specific objectives from another company. What’s more, a content strategist creates content for a particular target audience. 

Content strategists need to identify topics that can engage a particular brand’s target audience and drive traffic to this company’s website. They must have strong writing skills and be familiar with SEO.

Digital influencer.

A digital influencer is someone who has a specific audience that brands might be interested in targeting. So, what a digital influencer does is create original and personal content. Digital influencers might have to share their opinion about a product, their lifestyle, and how this product has changed their lives. 

Email marketing specialist.

An email marketing specialist is in charge of creating email marketing campaigns. This professional must have excellent writing and editing skills. They also need to know how to use segmentation and analytics like open, click and bounce rates to their advantage.

Virtual reality developer.

A virtual reality developer uses virtual reality in digital marketing campaigns. This job is for high-tech professionals that are deeply creative. Virtual reality is becoming more and more popular. Many brands are starting to incorporate it into their digital marketing campaigns. 

Bot developer.

Likewise, a bot developer uses artificial intelligence to improve customer service. Bot developers create and program chatbots to provide a better customer experience, solve doubts, and more. Many enterprises are already using them.

Social media manager.

A social media manager creates and monitors social media campaigns among several social media platforms. Social media managers use analytics to check the results of their campaigns. They aim at attracting and engaging new and existing customers. They must make sure there is consistency across networks.

SEO/SEM specialist.

An SEO/SEM specialist is responsible for making your website or blog reach the best results on search engine pages. They know how to create high-quality content to ensure your target audience sees it. An SEO/SEM specialist has to be good at programming and be up-to-date regarding changes that have to do with search engines.  

Social Media Marketing

More and more people use social media networks these days. What’s more, not only do we check social networks regularly, but most of us have a look at them more than once during the day.

Unsurprisingly, this is an excellent opportunity for marketers who want to reach their target audience. What better place to interact with them than while they’re connected on social media platforms? It’s an extraordinary marketing opportunity.

I mean, each platform appeals to particular audience groups since each of them has its own preferable content. For example, Instagram is known because of its pictures, YouTube due to its videos, Twitter is more for expressing your opinion, etc.

This means that social media platforms need different strategies. You cannot create a piece of content and share it everywhere, you have to adapt it to each platform’s audience preferences, and requirements or no one will pay attention to it. 

What’s more, you can also use social media marketing to monitor social media conversations about your brand. Not to mention that social media networks allow you to target highly segmented audience groups, which will improve your chances of driving engagement. 

There are lots of social media platforms out there, around 200 and the list keeps on growing. Some of them become famous and are widely used worldwide, while others disappear soon after they are launched. Yet, you should use the ones that are most commonly used by your target audience. 

The truth is that you can’t manage all of them properly, and it would be a waste of time to use them all. Select those your target audience spends most of their time in and put the hours to post, interact, and engage with your audience regularly. 

Social Media Marketing Agency

A social media marketing agency aims at improving social media marketing efforts on behalf of a business. Social media marketing agencies do a lot more than publishing your posts on social media platforms.

Social media marketing agencies also provide solutions to their clients. Apart from publishing posts, they usually offer a social media audit, competitor research, help brands with their social media marketing strategy, manage and create social media profiles, manage social media campaigns, etc. 

As you may well have noticed, a social media marketing agency is in charge of everything that is digital and has to do with marketing. Yet, they need an in-depth understanding of your brand, goals, and strategies to lead you to success. 

Ensure you provide them all the data they need to come up with relevant content for your social media networks. They will also manage your accounts so that they can grow. Social media agencies base their decisions on analytics and reports.

It’s worth hiring them to increase your brand awareness and the profits that come from social networks. They can also help you boost engagement and deal with your audience’s positive and negative comments. 

Social Media Marketing Strategy

A social media marketing strategy consists of understanding your audience’s needs and how they can align with your goals to create a plan that will guide your actions on social media networks. 

Your social media strategy must be concise and attainable. Without a social media marketing strategy, you’ll be lost. You must know your goals and design a plan to achieve them. A social media marketing strategy is key to attract a wider audience.

What’s more, you can have more than one social media marketing strategy. In other words, you can have a social media marketing strategy for Facebook, another for Instagram, another for LinkedIn, etc. 

A social media marketing strategy will help you create personalized messages based on your audience preferences, expand your reach and engagement, focus on the most effective channels, measure your performance, and create a strong social media presence. 

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing can help you make money, no matter when or where. It has become popular because it can easily drive sales and generate online profits. Indeed, affiliate marketing is a win-win solution since it is beneficial for both affiliate marketers and brands.

Affiliate marketing works through links from one website to another. It’s considered a pretty effective marketing strategy since there exist shared responsibilities and shared profits. There are several people involved: the seller, the affiliate, and the consumer. 

The seller can be an individual or a large business. The product can be a physical object like a table or a service such as a tutorial. Anyway, the affiliate can also be a person or a company. The affiliate’s responsibility is to promote the product/service to convince consumers to purchase it.

Consumers are those who buy the product or hire the service, while the seller and the affiliate share the profits. However, consumers are not generally charged more due to affiliate marketing. Affiliates can get paid per click, per lead, or per sale. 

Affiliate Marketing Programs

Affiliate marketing programs consist of agreements between businesses. In other words, an affiliate program takes place when a business pays another business or person a commission so that the latter convinces others to click on a link to visit the former’s website, video, blog, review site, etc.  

The affiliate can send traffic or promote sales through social media networks, web content, or product integration. There is an affiliate link from which clicks are tracked. What’s more, there are several types of affiliate programs, such as search affiliates, influencers, email marketing, review sites, and coupon sites. 

Amazon Affiliate Marketing

Amazon Affiliate Marketing, also known as the Amazon Associates Program, consists of advertising products from Amazon.com. Associates such as content creators, website owners, and publishers monetize their traffic through links.

Thus, Amazon associates make use of link-building to drive their site’s visitors to Amazon.com. This way, associates can earn a commission. It’s quite simple to become an Amazon associate. And it’s free for bloggers and website owners. 

Besides, Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) offer effective tools to get qualifying leads. You won’t only stand out from your competitors, but you’ll also get traffic to amazon’s product pages. What AMS does is to help sellers or advertisers to get their products in front of a huge market on Amazon.com.

Content Marketing

Many leading brands use and benefit from content marketing these days. Still, content marketing is also helpful for small businesses. No matter your company’s size, content marketing is crucial to increase sales and get more quality leads. 

To succeed, content marketing must focus on sharing content that resonates with your audience. You can use content marketing to tell your brand story in such a way that you’ll convince your audience to take the desired action.

Not to mention that content marketing drives measurable results and ROI. So, if you’re not already using it, you should give it a try!

On top of that, content marketing matters since it’ll help you boost conversions, educate your audience, strengthen your relationship with your customers, and show your audience that you care for them.

There are several types of content marketing, like infographic content marketing, social media content marketing, blog content marketing, video content marketing, and podcast content marketing. Whether you should focus on one or another depends on your audience. More often than not, you’ll need to combine several content marketing types.

To succeed at content marketing, you must have a content marketing strategy. You’ll also need a content calendar. Content marketing differs from average content because content marketing is customer-focused.

If done well, content marketing offers exponential growth. You’ll also benefit from a bigger brand presence, which will make it easier to achieve your goals. Yet, you must create content that resonates with your audience, or else you won’t succeed.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a practical way to connect with your leads and turn them into your customers. It’s got lots of perks, though the most well-known one is that it still provides the best return on investment compared to other channels. 

Make sure you follow regulations and do not annoy your audience with unnecessary emails. It would be wise to ask them to opt-in before you send them any email. And stay away from buying an email list; you must create your own.

Please send emails to keep the conversation going, not for the sake of sending them. There must be a great reason, such as sharing news about company updates, promotions, exclusive deals, etc. 

Email marketing is effective in nurturing leads and increase loyalty. You can benefit from email marketing since it’s highly cost-effective as regards other channels. Not to mention that once you have a contacts list, you own it, whereas your social media accounts are owned by the app.

Most people have an email account these days. So, email marketing is an effective way of reaching them. If done well, email marketing can help you drive traffic to your site. Thus, it will also increase your sales.

Make sure your emails are customized for your target audience groups. Besides, your emails must be optimized for mobile devices. And do not forget to respect your customer preferences. 

Email Marketing Services

There are lots of options as regards email marketing services. Still, choosing the right email marketing service can make it or break it. If you want to produce a successful email marketing campaign, you must analyze what they offer before making a decision. 

What I mean is that you shouldn’t only pay attention to the pricing. Though finding an email marketing service that fits your budget is crucial, there are other aspects you need to consider. For example, you should check whether it’s easy to use and matches your industry requirements. 

Most email marketing services offer perks such as email list segmentation, contacts management, automation, analytics, integrated forms, monitoring and tracking the performance of your email campaigns, etc. 

Email Marketing Software

Thanks to email marketing software, you’ll be able to manage your contacts list better. It also helps you to enhance the design of your emails and to check whether the emails you send are opened or read by your recipients.

Email marketing software offers text-based marketing solutions. Yet, depending on your goals, you’ll need one email marketing software tool or another. Make sure the software you select aligns with your budget and is easy to use. 

Below there is a list of well-known email marketing software tools:

• Hubspot – Popular tool among B2B companies.
• Moonmail – Best tool for developers.
• Autopilot – Popular automation tool.
• Convertkit – Best tool for bloggers.
• Rejoiner – Best software for managed email marketing.
• Active Campaign – Popular for small enterprises.
• Omnisend – Popular software for eCommerce brands.
• Sendinblue – Well-known software for transactional emails. 
• Campaigner – Popular tool for advanced marketers. 
• Salesforce Pardot – Well-known tool for large businesses.
• Constant Contact – Popular tool for large enterprises.
• Sendinblue – Well-known tool for beginners.
• Drip – Popular marketing automation tool.
• AWeber – Email service provider for small businesses.
• MailerLite – An affordable email service provider.
• Mailchimp – An all-in-one tool.
• GetResponse – Popular tool for webinar marketing.
• Keap – A popular tool for customer service and sales.

Network Marketing

Network marketing is a combination of direct marketing and multi-level marketing. Though it started in the 1930s, where there was no internet marketing, it is believed to be even more lucrative today due to eCommerce platforms and social media networks. 

Examples of network marketing companies are Avon, Tupperware, or Mary Kay Cosmetics. Network marketing has been there for a while, and it’s still effective. Distributors usually have to make a low investment. Then, they sell the product/s to their family, friends, and acquaintances. 

Sometimes, distributors are also asked to recruit other sales representatives. Thus, they will make a profit from their sales and from the sales of their recruits. Anyway, network marketing is quite a lot profitable for companies too.

Brands don’t have to spend money on marketing, nor do they have to hire employees. It’s a win-win solution for everyone. In the past, distributors had to go door-to-door, yet social media networks play a significant role in network marketing.

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing differs from traditional outbound marketing in that with outbound marketing; you may bother your audience with content they don’t necessarily want or need. However, inbound marketing only promotes content that matches your audience’s needs. 

The inbound marketing method involves the fact that enterprises have to do their best to establish a long-lasting relationship with their audience. It concentrates on helping customers all throughout the several phases of the buyer journey.

Thus, you’ll first have to draw your audience’s attention, then provide them with a solution, and finally convince them to make a purchase. Therefore, inbound marketing is about forming connections and solving your customer’s problems.

The idea is that if your audience is searching for solutions online, checking several websites and products, and you provide them quality content, they’ll be interested in your brand. If you align the content you publish on your website or blog with your target audience’s interests, you’ll not only drive more traffic but you’ll also get the attention of those who can convert. 

Content marketing is not the only example of inbound marketing; blogging, SEO, and opt-in emails also form part of inbound marketing.

Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing is an entirely different marketing approach. Inbound marketing takes more time, and you’ve to wait for customers to find you. However, outbound marketing is a more aggressive method, so it drives faster results. 

Outbound marketing includes TV ads, radio ads, newspaper ads, magazine ads, brochures, flyers, cold emails, cold calls, trade shows, and more. Outbound marketing is more expensive than inbound marketing.

Still, many organizations and enterprises spend around 90% of their budget on outbound marketing. It is more intrusive than inbound marketing but effective if done right. Besides, outbound marketing has immediate results in comparison to inbound marketing.

You must make sure your offer is relevant to your audience, or else you might annoy them. There are blocking techniques your audience can use if you disturb them, such as spam filters or the do not call list. ]

Guerilla Marketing

Guerrilla marketing is a term that first appeared in the 1980s. Jay Conrad Levinson used it in his book Guerrilla Marketing. As the name implies, guerrilla marketing consists of beating your competitors through less typical marketing efforts.

It aims at catching people by surprise during their daily routine. It can either be outdoor, indoor, at events or experimental. It requires creativity and imagination to caught people unexpectedly and create social buzz. 

Guerrilla marketing might have numerous goals, though more often than not, it is used to launch a new product or strengthen brand awareness. It was originally created for small businesses. Still, both small and large enterprises have used this marketing tactic.

Examples of guerrilla marketing are very diverse. It entails from placing objects in outdoor spaces like sidewalks and streets to unexpected appearances at events. The possibilities are endless.

Multi Level Marketing

Multi-level marketing is also known as network or referral marketing. It is profitable for both brands and distributors. Enterprises have the chance to reach a large audience without having to pay fixed salaries, while distributors can make extra money with lots of flexibility.

Sales representatives or distributors are encouraged to recruit other representatives. Thus, they’ll later make money from the products they sell and a commission from the products the representatives they recruited sell.

Multi-level marketing differs from the pyramid scheme. To begin with, the former is legal and legitimate, while the latter is illegal. In multi-level marketing, the aim is to make profits from products that are sold at a fair price. 

However, the pyramid scheme focuses more on recruiting representatives than on selling products. That’s why it’s not a legal practice since many participants can lose money. On the other hand, MLM has multiple levels of commissions, but the aim is to generate revenue through selling products, not by recruiting others.

Multi-level marketing sales representatives usually work from home and set their own flexible schedules. Still, the sales representatives in lower tiers generally have to work harder than those above them.

There are lots of well-known brands that make use of MLM, such as Nu Skin, Herbalife, Tupperware, Avon, Mary Kay, Cosway, Amway, etc. 

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is here to stay. Integrating influencers into your marketing strategy is advantageous for both brands and influencers. Yet, not any influencer will work for your brand. You must first carry out research, set your budget and objectives.

These days, anyone can be an influencer. Yet, businesses looking for a partnership with an influencer must ensure that the influencer in question is the right match for them. So, it’s vital they check the influencer’s reach but also their relevance to promote their brand’s products/services.

This matters since influencer marketing only works if you’re interested in the influencer’s target audience. Besides, you must allow your influencer some freedom. They need to be creative and keep on with what works for their audience.

You can provide some general guidelines, but it’s not advisable you insist on telling them what content they must create. You can also share your influencer’s content on your Instagram stories so that people know you’re working together.

There are several networks where you can benefit from influencer marketing, such as Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. You must set campaign goals and track the influencer’s performance. You can use affiliate codes or tracking links, for instance.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is a practical marketing approach. Nowadays, many businesses ask for permission to avoid the friction caused by sending unwanted messages to their target audience. 

There are several forms of direct marketing such as emails, phone calls, text messages, coupons, newsletters, flyers, brochures, etc. Whatever the medium you use to conduct a direct marketing campaign, it must be measurable.

Among its benefits, it’s worth mentioning that direct marketing will help you reach your target audience quickly. It is quite efficient since you can customize your campaigns to address those you think might be interested instead of targeting the general public. 

Besides, direct marketing will help you to boost customer loyalty. Not to mention that direct marketing is cost-effective, and it has a high ROI because you’ll only target those who are likely to buy your products or hire your services. 

Direct marketing is not only great to attract new customers; it’s beneficial for your current customers too. It will help you to strengthen your relationship and generate more sales. The main goal of direct marketing is to convince your target audience to take action. 

Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail marketing is one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising. It consists of sending physical correspondence to your prospects and customers. It is minimally intrusive and highly customized, thanks to audience research and list building.

Indeed, there are several forms of direct mail marketing, such as postcards, flyers, catalogs, letters, brochures, booklets, and more. Not surprisingly, there exist many organizations and businesses that still use this form of marketing.

For example, politicians send campaign postcards, restaurants, and grocery stores send coupons and promotions, charities and non-profit organizations use it for fundraising, among others. 

The truth is that direct mail marketing still works today since you can be quite a lot creative. There is not as much competition as in other channels, it allows you to reach a wide audience that might be interested through segmentation, and it’s interactive.

Direct Response Marketing

Direct response marketing is a marketing approach that focuses on encouraging prospects to take prompt action and opt-in to an offer. It doesn’t take long to see whether the campaign is effective or not. It’s low-cost, and its results are easily measurable. That’s why it’s perfect for small to medium businesses.

Besides, direct response marketing can appear in lots of advertising forms like websites, online ads, TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, direct mail, email, etc. It aims at generating leads straight away, not to increase brand awareness or promote your brand’s image. 

Direct response marketing aims at generating immediate response. Its purpose is to send prospects targeted messages so that they take specific actions, such as buy a product or join an email list.

Direct response marketing is trackable, measurable, and targeted. Other features include the fact that it’s personalized, and it has a clear CTA in the offer. Its main goal is to generate revenue from immediate sales. 

Online Marketing

Online marketing, also known as internet marketing, is a must nowadays. It differs from traditional marketing that employs channels like television, billboards, and radio, among others. Internet marketing uses channels such as email, social media, video, webinars, display ads, PPC ads, content marketing, etc. 

Internet marketing allows you to monitor and measure your performance on each channel. You’ll also be able to know how visitors interact with your website. What I’m trying to say is that when your audience converts, you’ll be able to know where they came from. Thus, you’ll be able to find out what channels are more effective in online marketing. 

Online marketing will help you to increase your visibility. Not to mention that internet marketing is key to discover and engage with your target audience. And it helps you to adapt your marketing strategies to their needs. 

Another benefit of internet marketing is that thanks to segmentation, you’ll be able to target your audience with more precision. I mean, you can use digital channels to target the right people at the right time. Thus, increasing your chances of success. 

It comes as no surprise that online marketing will help you reach a wider audience and boost your brand awareness. And, you’ll also be able to spy on your competitors so that you can beat them. The benefits are endless.

Growth Marketing

Growth marketing is an approach that entails attracting, retaining, and engaging customers. Not to mention that it focuses on experimentation and bases its marketing strategies on users’ preferences. This is precisely what helps growth marketing optimize your business and make it grow rapidly.

Traditional marketing only focuses on the top of the funnel. However, growth marketing makes use of innovative ways and experimentation to drive user acquisition, keep customers engaged, retain them and convince them to become your brand advocates.

Growth marketing adds more layers to the strategies employed by traditional marketing. In other words, growth marketing uses traditional marketing strategies. Still, it also includes aspects like A/B testing, high-quality blog posts, SEO optimization, data-driven email campaigns, creative ad copy, and analyzes user experience.

Thus, with all the data collected, you’ll be able to create better marketing strategies that are not only sustainable, but they’ll drive you to rapid business growth. Growth marketing goes beyond the top of the funnel.

What’s more, growth marketing aims at optimizing each and every aspect of the user experience so that your customers end up being more engaged. It makes use of traditional channels. But it also innovates and looks outside the box to find out new ways to grow your business.

Growth marketing experts have to be creative and relentlessly experiment and test new ideas. They must understand your product’s value and create highly personalized campaigns. This helps to reduce churn and improves your customer lifetime value.

Not to mention that if your marketing approach is highly personalized, you can cut down on customer acquisition costs. As you may well have already noticed, the benefits of following a growth marketing approach are endless.

B2B Marketing

B2B marketing differs from B2C marketing. The latter targets individual consumers, whereas the former targets other businesses. In B2B marketing, it’s fundamental you establish a relationship with decision-makers, while in B2C marketing, there is no need for that.

Business marketing buyers make decisions based on profit potential, expertise, efficiency, and ROI, not on emotions, as happens with B2C customers. It is for this reason that B2B marketing aims at creating valuable relationships with clients. 

On top of that, B2B marketers must understand their customer needs in advance. Business marketing is more specialized. I mean, B2B marketing services are tailored to clients’ needs. B2B customers make decisions based on logic.

There are lots of strategies you can use in business marketing, such as email marketing, digital marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, etc. B2B marketing is employed by businesses that manufacture products or provide services. 

Experiential Marketing

Experiential marketing is a practical way to enlarge your brand awareness through face-to-face contact with your audience. It is vital to develop brand loyalty. You can use it to let your target audience know more about your brand. And at the same time, you can get consumer insights from surveys, for instance.

What’s more, it involves face-to-face and offline techniques to boost your brand awareness, create new business opportunities, and strengthen customer relationships. Experiential marketing can happen in several settings like tradeshows, events, contests, product samplings, immersive experiences, stunts, roadshows, festivals, digital campaigns, in-person surveys, etc.

Yet, using experiential marketing may lead you to face some challenges such as it can be difficult to measure the success of your marketing campaigns, proving ROI is challenging, or it can end up being expensive and time-consuming. 

Still, if you employ the right approach, you’ll be able to overcome whatever challenges you may have to face. Experiential marketing will allow you to create long-lasting brand impressions. To succeed, you’ll need to engage your audience in unexpected ways. 

SEO Marketing

SEO marketing, also called Search Engine Marketing, is mandatory nowadays. If you do not optimize your website and use SEO tactics, you’ll lose many qualified leads. But, if you do your best to improve your Search Engine Marketing, you’ll benefit from more traffic, brand awareness, leads, and much more. 

Besides, Search Engine Marketing aims at making your website more friendly and trustworthy to increase the chances of your site ranking well enough on several search engines. There are many factors that search engines take into account to determine how to show websites. 

You can either rank organically or with PPC ads. As to organic results, search engines collect data about your site like its speed, title tags, internal linking, backlinks, content, etc. They later use this data to decide how websites rank.

The higher you rank on SERP, the better. It means you’ll have more visibility, more traffic, more chances people convert, better ROI, and so on. Search Engine Marketing is something you’ll never stop improving. You must monitor your performance regularly so that you can make any necessary changes.   

Product Marketing

Product marketing’s primary purpose is to understand your target audience and promote your products to them. Product marketer managers can have several responsibilities depending on who they work for.

For instance, PMM could be responsible for product positioning, driving demand, messaging, product launch, and post-launch. Depending on the campaign and brand, a PMM could be in charge of one or all of these facets.

This makes product marketing quite difficult to define since not all definitions comprise all aspects that take place in product marketing. 

Product marketing involves many aspects such as audience and competitors research, audience segmentation, content creation, and product launch, among others. Indeed, it doesn’t stop once the product has been launched to the market. 

You must ensure you target the right people and collect feedback. Thus, product marketing starts and ends with your customers. In other words, product marketing involves catching your customers’ attention to buy your product. Yet, you must listen to them once they’ve made a purchase.

It comes as no surprise that you must measure the performance of product marketing. KPIs will vary depending on the product and team. Yet, you must evaluate them and collect feedback from your customers. 

Video Marketing

Video marketing has become extremely important. It’s easy to consume, and many people favor video content nowadays. It dominates most social networks too. As a brand, you wouldn’t want to be left behind. Thus, you must invest in video marketing as an individual marketing strategy.

There are loads of video types such as brand videos, customer testimonials videos, animated videos, demo videos, event videos, how-to videos, live videos, and more. 

Video marketing is mandatory to increase your SEO and boost your conversion rates. Besides, videos are cost-effective and easily accessible to almost everyone. But, above all, video marketing is crucial to make your content go viral. 

Video marketing is a must since video popularity has dramatically increased over the last few years. The average person seems to prefer authentic videos, even if these are low-quality instead of high-quality artificial videos. 

You must plan your video strategy beforehand. Even live videos need some preparation. Make sure all your equipment works well. You should edit your videos and add subtitles too. Once you’ve finished, you’ll be ready to post your video on your website, emails, social media channels, YouTube, etc. 

Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is a must since users spend a great deal of their free time on mobile apps and mobile websites. Thus, you should target your audience where they are. Mobile devices are portable. And you can target your audience at the right time and place with personalized messages that match their needs. 

What’s more, mobile marketing consists of designing ads so that they can appear on smartphones, tablets, PDAs, portable gaming consoles, etc. There are several mobile marketing strategies like search ads, image ads, in-game mobile marketing, app-based marketing, QR codes, location-based marketing, and SMS. 

Mobile marketing has many advantages, such as it’s cost-effective and relatively easy to use. It also allows you to target your local audience, and it’s got a high CTR. Not to mention that you can automate your mobile marketing campaigns. 

The messages you create must be clear and concise. Ask your audience to opt-in to receive content and bear in mind their preferences. But, above all, do not forget to benchmark your results. It’ll help you repeat what works and stop wasting your money and efforts on what it doesn’t. 

SMS Marketing

SMS marketing strategy consists of businesses sending messages to their target audience through SMS. It is an efficient method to reach your customers since there’s no bounce rate, like in email marketing. 

SMS marketing allows you to reach a wide audience. You can design creative messages to interact with your audience, such as ads, reminders, notifications, news, product launches, promotions, updates, offers/sales, etc. On top of that, you can benefit from its instant delivery.

SMS marketing is convenient for both customers and brands. Most people spend a great amount of time with their mobile devices every day. So, SMS marketing is perfect for communicating with them. 

Enterprises can monitor and track the effectiveness of their SMS marketing campaigns. For example, they can see who clicks the links or unsubscribe. Most people that receive SMS read them on the spot. 

Marketing 360

360 marketing offers viral exposure. It is a creative marketing strategy that combines several elements. This method has its roots in the holistic marketing philosophy, which claims that integrating elements is mandatory to achieve better results. 

Besides, 360 marketing will allow you to improve your brand’s positioning in the eyes of your audience. Many brands also use it as a rebranding strategy. Anyway, you must carry out audience research and use consistency to your advantage.  

360 campaigns are a bit challenging as you must communicate, monitor, and track your messages simultaneously. But, you still have to send the right message to the right people at the right time. 

Optimal times and message copy may vary across channels. So, make sure you know the rules and regulations and follow them. As you may well have noticed, 360 marketing will ensure you deliver the message.

International marketing

Brands following the international marketing approach will need to customize their products so as to match the needs and preferences of the target country’s potential customers. Watch out for cultural differences and check whether what you sell has an international appeal. 

If truth be told, international marketing might be riskier than doing business in your home country. Still, there are lots of opportunities available, and you can significantly benefit from targeting untapped markets.

International marketing is the exchange of goods and services among foreign countries. However, you might need to adapt your products, advertising, labeling, and so on and so forth. Not to mention that it’s more than advisable that you collaborate with local agents and distributors. 

International marketing will help you make use of surplus production as well as expand your marketing activities and increase brand awareness. Yet, there is a lot of competition, so planning in advance is critical.

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And that’s all about marketing types. Now, you know what all of them are. So, you’re familiar with them, and you’re ready to make a better choice. In the next chapter, I’ll deal with marketing resources. Keep on reading to find out what they are!

Chapter 6

Bonus: Marketing Resources

In this chapter, I’ll focus on marketing resources. Therefore, I’ll talk about marketing templates and marketing tools. Let’s have a look at them!

Marketing Templates

There are lots of free marketing templates out there. The ones I’m about to share with you below will make your job a lot easier. There are times when it’s complicated to create content from scratch. Thus, templates are there to help you with this task.

Not to mention that, more often than not, marketing templates are customizable. So, they not only provide you with a content structure, but you can modify it as much as you need. Not surprisingly, the amount of templates available is huge.

It is for this reason that I’d like to share a list of the best free marketing templates currently available. They’ll make your job way easier. Let’s have a look at them in more detail!

Hubspot marketing templates.

Hubspot offers a collection of roughly 400 free, customizable content marketing templates. That’s to say, you’ll find content management and calendar templates, social media content templates, email content templates, design content templates, and written and editorial content templates.

What are you waiting for to visit their thorough list of marketing templates?

CoSchedule marketing templates.

Likewise, CoSchedule also provides a complete list of 86 marketing templates that you can download for free. They’ve compiled templates from several individual posts to provide a wide variety of templates. 

You can choose from calendar templates, marketing campaign templates, content marketing strategy templates, content marketing templates, social media templates, email marketing templates, etc. 

Sounds interesting, right?

Adobe Express marketing templates.

Adobe Express offers professionally designed templates. Not to mention that they also empower you with their intuitive editor. So, you won’t need any previous design experience. Thanks to Adobe Express you’ll be able to create extraordinary content in a matter of minutes. 

Slidesgo marketing templates.

Slidesgo provides lots of marketing presentation templates. You can choose from a wide variety, including social media templates, brand guidelines templates, agency templates, newsletter templates, campaign templates, and marketing plan templates. 

Canva marketing templates.

It comes as no surprise that Canva offers marketing presentation templates too. Thanks to Canva’s templates, you’ll be able to create marketing presentations in a few clicks. Besides, Canva allows you to customize your templates with images, illustrations, icons, and more. 

Teamwork marketing templates

Teamwork offers ready-made marketing campaign templates that can help you get up and running right away. As well as the marketing campaign template they’ve also created a content plan template, a PR plan template, an advertising campaign template, an event marketing plan template, and more. Sounds like an easy way to get your marketing campaigns off to a flying start right?

StockLayouts.

StockLayouts gives you the chance to download 2700+ business marketing templates. They provide marketing templates for almost any type of content. On their site, you’ll find brochure templates, newsletter templates, flyer templates, ads templates, business card templates, and a lot more.

Marketing Tools

There are too many marketing tools out there, making it hard to choose some tools instead of others. Marketing tools are those tools that you can use to promote your brand, products, and services. 

Besides, there are marketing tools that are critical to monitor and analyze your performance, boost your SEO efforts, improve your content, enhance your reputation, strengthen your team collaboration, etc. 

Below, there is a list of the best marketing tools for 2023 and a brief explanation of each of them. 

If you need a detailed explanation, check our post about Marketing tools. There, you’ll find the complete list of marketing tools and all you need to know as to marketing tools to grow your business.

Web Analytics Tools

Web analytics tools allow you to analyze how users interact with your website. You can use key metrics to check whether you’ve achieved your marketing goals, such as to get email addresses or when visitors make a purchase.

You can also check which of your links are successful. It is thanks to web analytics tools that you can improve your website and how it works. If you don’t know how your visitors behave, you won’t be able to make changes based on verified data. 

Lucky Orange

Lucky Orange is a web analytics tool with features like heat maps, visitor recording, live chat, form analytics, polls, and more. This heat mapping tool will help you to understand how your website visitors interact with your site.

Besides, it’s affordable in comparison to similar tools. And the data it provides is more reliable. Lucky Orange detects when users stop browning your website. So, you can use this information to solve interaction issues.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics tool that’s quite simple to use, and it’s free. It’ll help you to track your website analytics, conversions, behavior flow, and goal tracking, among other features.

It’ll give you information about your website traffic and visitors. On top of that, it’s worth mentioning that you can integrate it with your Adwords accounts. It provides real-time reporting, and it’s very dynamic.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools

SEO tools are those that explore the potential of web pages on SERPs. They’ll give you verified information about keywords, backlinks, content, traffic, social media, and more. Besides, they’ll also provide insights regarding your competitors. 

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an SEO tool that many experienced digital marketers choose. That’s because of some of its powerful features like keyword management, competitive analysis, in-depth SERP analysis, domain monitoring, keyword suggestions, etc.

On top of that, it’s a strong backlink analysis tool. It’s got one of the most prominent indexes of backlinks online. Thus, it’s critical for link building. Ahrefs will help you to make decisions based on solid data.

Google Search Console

Google search console is an SEO tool that helps you monitor and measure your website’s search traffic and performance. It will empower you to fix any issues your site may face so that you can improve your Google search results. 

This tool gives you detailed information about your URL. You can later use this data to ensure your website’s user experience is as satisfactory as possible. 

Local SEO Marketing Tools

Local SEO marketing tools are vital to helping you with your local SEO efforts. A powerful local SEO presence is detrimental to boost your conversions. The tools listed below focus on optimizing local search rankings. 

Yext

Yext is a local SEO marketing tool that will help you ensure that your brand appears in local directories. It’s empowered with listings, pages, and reviews to increase brand awareness and traffic. Therefore, it will also help you to multiply your sales.

Besides, Yext can help you to manage duplicate listing suppression and data cleansing. Not to mention that its local pages are optimized so that your business can appear in search engines when mobile users search for the nearest locations. 

Moz Local

Moz Local is a local SEO marketing tool that will help you enhance your brand’s local visibility. It’s crucial to ensure your business listings are both consistent and correct. It also helps you to deal with duplicate business listings. 

On top of that, Moz Local has features like review monitoring, real-time update distribution, and Google My Business Sync. Not to mention that it informs you about where your incomplete listings are so that you can make them more consistent. 

Digital Advertising Tools

Digital advertising tools are essential to make the most out of your search engine marketing campaigns. These tools are crucial to handle your PPC campaigns. They’ll also help you to research, manage, and analyze your digital ads.

SEMrush

SEMrush is a digital advertising tool that will help you with your keyword research and competitor analysis. It provides you valuable data as regards your competitors. It also helps you with ideas on relevant keywords to target. 

It has a feature called Domain Overview that can help you elaborate a list of your competitors’ websites. SEMrush is useful to spy on your competitors’ strategies, but it’ll also help you to find converting advertising keywords for your campaigns. 

Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a digital advertising tool that is free to use. To access, you need to have a Google Ads account. You can either use it to find keywords or check the search volume of keywords to see how they might perform. 

It allows you to filter results by language and location. Moreover, its keyword bidding feature tells you how much advertisers are willing to pay for particular keywords. To benefit from its database, you don’t need to create a campaign with Google Adwords. 

Content Marketing Tools

Content marketing tools will help you optimize your content so that people can find you. Well-optimized content is critical to improve your SEO rankings and get more backlinks. These tools are mandatory to make the most out of your content marketing strategy. 

Content is something you have to monitor regularly. The tools I’m about to mention below are fundamental to develop your content marketing strategy. If you use them, you’ll be able to improve your time management and get better results. 

BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a content marketing tool that helps you to find trending topics and keywords. You can also use it to spy on your competitors. On top of that, it gives you a list of the most shared content.

This tool offers social analytics insights too. And you can use it to find influencers that are relevant to your brand. Since you can see what kind of content your competitors create, it’ll help you to create content that is better than theirs. 

Prepostseo

Prepostseo is a complete set of tools that you can use in the content marketing field and getting beyond expectation results. In content marketing, you must keep an eye on duplication of content and grammar mistakes. Through this website, you will get tools to check plagiarism, grammar mistakes in your content, and rewrite wrong phrases or lines.

It is the best choice for content marketers because it will be helpful for them in all dimensions of work. You can check the keyword ratio in your content and optimize it too according to requirements. In short, it will help you to cover content marketing campaigns from start to end.

Grammarly

Grammarly is a content marketing tool that helps you with grammar mistakes in real-time. It also provides you with alternative sentences or suggestions so that you can improve your writing skills. 

It’s got several features, such as spelling check, plagiarism, grammar, punctuation, and writing style. You can benefit from basic corrections for free. It’s got advanced features too. It will help you to make sure your message is clear.

Social Media Marketing Tools

Social media marketing tools will help you to save time and manage your social media accounts more efficiently. Using the right social media marketing tools can make a difference in your marketing strategy. 

Social media marketing tools are vital to attract new audience groups and drive more engagement. But, as there so many tools out there, it’s essential you find one that fits your needs. 

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media marketing tool that can help you handle several social media accounts from the same app. Besides, thanks to its content calendar, you’ll be able to schedule your next social media posts easily. 

You can use it for collaboration among your team members. It’s got online social media courses for free to help you with social media marketing. What I like the most about Hootsuite is that you can integrate it with social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc. 

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a social media marketing tool that offers social media management and analytics. It’s got strong reporting capabilities too. It’ll help you to manage your social media accounts cohesively.

On top of that, Sprout Social provides social listening and influencer identification. Not to mention that it’s got some customer relationship management (CRM) functionalities. It is for all these reasons that Sprout Social is one of the best all-in-one social media marketing tools. 

CRM / Email Marketing Tools

CRM and email marketing tools are vital to handle your subscribers’ management and deal with customer service. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are critical to enhance your customers’ loyalty. 

Thus, a CRM tool is necessary to manage your contact information. Email marketing tools will help you to convert contacts into qualified leads. Thanks to email marketing tools, you’ll be able to segment your contacts and automate and customize your emails. 

Optin Monster

Optin Monster is an optin and lead generation tool. This software will help you to grow your email list and increase your sales. Besides, Optin Monster can help you to lessen your cart abandonment and boost your onsite retargeting. 

Thanks to this tool, you would be able to create appealing optin forms. It’s fairly easy to use, and it’s got many features. You can integrate it with your email marketing services too. It allows you to target your audience by platform, page, location, etc.  

MailChimp

MailChimp is an email marketing automation tool. It allows you to build personalized email marketing templates. It’s got an in-built CRM you can access to. It has a free plan for small businesses, or you can pay-as-you-go. 

MailChimp offers thorough reporting. This tool is an all-in-one solution for inbound marketing campaigns. You can integrate it with other tools. It allows you to segment your audience so that you can better target them with customized emails. 

Reputation Management Tools

Reputation management tools are used to promote brands and learn about negative customer reviews or comments. They help brands to understand how customers view their business. You can use reputation management tools for monitoring, outreach, and publishing.

Common features of reputation management tools include search and monitoring functionalities, real-time notifications, integration, and reporting and analysis. You can use these tools to deal with customer complaints, grow your online presence, create a positive brand identity, etc. 

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a reputation management tool that allows you to stay up to date and manage your online mentions. Besides, it’s free to use. And, it will enable you to segment data by demographics, location, language, etc. 

What it does is send notifications about your keywords. It is incredibly relevant. You can also use it to track your competitor’s mentions online. It’s got a simple design. Thus, it’s easy to use. 

Whitespark

Whitespark is a reputation management tool that checks your business reviews and ratings online. It offers features like automated requests and reminders, branded designs, survey questions, 1st-party and 3rd-party reviews, etc. 

Besides, Whitespark can help you with your customers’ feedback and testimonials. It provides you with insights as regards your customer experience. You can use it to boost your online reviews and enhance your reputation across the web. 

Collaboration Tools

Collaboration tools are tools that you can use so that your team can work together while they achieve a common goal, such as solve a problem, create a product, etc. These tools serve to organize activities and communicate among team members. 

The purpose of collaboration tools is to enhance communication. Most of them offer real-time text, voice, and video. They help brands to manage and organize certain activities. They enable groups of people to collaborate and discuss topics on the spot. 

Slack

Slack is a collaboration tool that you can use to monitor and track your team projects. It’s intuitive and relatively easy to use. This messaging app is highly customizable, and it integrates with many other marketing tools. 

It allows you to communicate with your team members both in real-time and asynchronously. It’s an effective way to collaborate with partners and colleges. You can share files, send messages, and make video calls. 

Trello

Trello is a collaboration tool you can use to organize your projects into boards. It allows you to see at a glance who is working on what, whether something is in progress or if it’s finished, and more. It’s got an unlimited number of cards, lists, and boards. 

You can add several features and integrations, such as social media. This tool allows you to easily manage projects, track their progress, and achieve your goals. It’ll help you manage your team’s workflow too.

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And that’s all for marketing resources. Now you know what marketing templates and marketing tools can do for you!