When it comes to marketing, most people think about ads on Google or online banners promoting products. While those are still very much a part of modern marketing, there’s also an entire world of online marketing outside of Google that can help your product gain popularity.
Whether you’re selling an app or a service, you can use online marketing to grow your audience, find new customers, and increase your conversion rates.
The Various Forms Of Online Marketing
If you’re curious about what online marketing is and how it can help your technology company grow, here’s a brief guide to the various types of online marketing and why you might want to consider each one.
Paid Marketing
Paid marketing is simply marketing done for a fee. This can include ads on Google, Facebook, or other similar platforms; paid social media posts to attract potential customers; and even offline ads like radio or TV spots. You can use various platforms like Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads to gain popularity amongst consumers.
Earned Marketing
Earned marketing is just what it sounds like – marketing that you’ve actually acquired yourself. This can include getting people to share your content or contacting potential customers via email to get them to purchase your product or service. You’ll want to measure the effectiveness of your earned marketing efforts to determine what’s working and what needs to be changed.
Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing is essentially the same as earned marketing but often includes various paid and non-paid methods that were popularized in the 20s, 30s, and 40s. Things like magazine ads, billboards, radio spots, and TV infomercials are all forms of traditional marketing. There’s still a lot of value in these traditional methods, especially when used in combination – for example, you might want to run an ad in a popular magazine to attract potential customers who then go on to watch an informative video about your product on YouTube.
Socially-aware Marketing
Socially-aware marketing is when you try to understand and analyze the behavior of your audience whilst also being mindful of your ethics and brand values. This form of marketing aims to have a measurable, positive impact on your target audience’s life whilst also not doing harm to society. Think of the difference between a TV commercial and a viral YouTube video – although they both aim to get people to purchase a product, the means by which they do so are very different. A TV ad might plant a flag in the mind of the viewer whilst a viral video might make them think and then share the information with their friends. In today’s world, all of these forms of marketing can coexist and be used effectively together.
Mobile Marketing
Finally, let’s not forget about mobile marketing. A lot of digital marketing was originally designed for use on mobile devices so it’s not surprising that many still prefer to use these smaller, more portable devices to consume content and make purchases. Because of this, you’ll often see marketing done on mobile devices resemble a combination of the above. You might see an ad on a popular social media platform like Facebook followed by a call to action to visit a website for more information.
When To Use Which Marketing Channels
Now that you have a general idea of what each form of marketing entails, you can begin to decide which ones to use for your technology company. This will depend on your product, target audience, and available resources. You might want to consider using ads on Facebook or Instagram to target millennials interested in your product or service and using TV ads along with online ads to target older generations. If you have a physical store, you can use in-person marketing strategies like having a salesperson wear a branded hat or using display posters to draw attention. Think about what works for your specific situation and use that to develop a plan.