What Is Marketing?-Direct and Indirect Marketing.

What Is Marketing?

 

Marketing refers to the activities which a company undertakes to promote the purchase or sale of a product or service. Marketing involves advertising , selling and delivering products to consumers or other businesses. Some marketing is carried out by the affiliates on behalf of the company.

Understanding Marketing

Marketing as a discipline includes all the steps that an enterprise undertakes to develop and maintain customer relations. The networking with potential and past customers can also be part of the job and include writing thanks to your emails, playing golf with potential customers, quick return of calls and emails and meeting customers for coffee or dinner.

Marketing is aimed at connecting goods and services of the businesses with consumers who want access to these items at its basic level. Basically, customizing goods assures productivity.

The Four P's of marketing are product , price , places aand promotions. The four P's make up the essential mix of products or services which a company needs to market. The theory of the marketing mix and the Four P's concept was popularized by Neil Borden in the 1950's.

What is Direct Marketing?

Direct marketing is a type of advertising that includes the transmission of product , service or company details directly to the consumer. All promotional information shall be communicated without intermediaries or third parties.

Thanks to the word 'direct' some people would believe that direct marketing means 'personal approach.' Indeed, direct marketing may be the case but it's a little more complicated.

Direct marketing can be seen as an effort to convince a customer to buy.

Direct marketing sources include:

– In-person calls
– Print advertisements
– Telephone calls
– Email advertisement campaigns
– Direct mail or sales letters
– Promoted or paid social media advertising
– Ads on YouTube and other video platforms

All these types of marketing are essentially saying “Look what we can do for you, please buy from us” to your customer.

A Smart Way to Get Started

Direct marketing benefits from being able to generate more sales and leads quickly. If you market to them directly, you will receive attention from prospects.

Indeed, a direct marketing program is being introduced for most profitable companies to expand. This can be an effective tactic for certain businesses depending on the advertisement budget.

However, the danger of direct marketing is that you might fall into spamming people. Whenever you choose direct marketing, you 're essentially interrupting their day by asking them to buy. Some people are open to this distraction, others are resistant. Most people, especially with younger generations, are very used to advertising and tend to ignore most of it.

You need to consider the impact on your brand and reputation with any direct marketing campaign. The more your direct marketing is in-line with the behavior of your customer, the better it is received.

Direct marketing can be a great way to get started in growing your business. Be conscious of cost, and keep tweaking the approach as you go.

What is Indirect Marketing?

Indirect marketing is a form of promotion in which the company using it does not communicate directly to its customers.

It is the new kid in the block. It's basically the 'Friends First' or 'awareness' approach to increasing customer loyalty.

Indirect marketing is found in many forms some of them are :-

– Search Engine Optimization
– News articles and press
– Sponsorships
– Useful blog posts
– Social media fan pages
– Social media influencers
– Product placements
– Word-of-mouth
– Referrals
– Online reviews

If you think about the brands that you buy regularly, there was a time when you didn't know who they were. But over time, you have started to feel a increasing connection with them. This 'feeling' has arisen because of indirect marketing.

The advantage of indirect marketing is that it will increase the company 's tremendous loyalty. Most specialist businesses, such as law firms or accountants, can have decades of business development as a result of indirect marketing and referral. Restaurants and service companies may also benefit greatly from an indirect approach and increasing online feedback.

With enough time, large-scale loyalty can be established. Brands such as Tesla, Apple, MailChimp, Nike, Trader Joe's, Glossier, Starbucks, Vans and many others have shown that brand loyalty will pay with the right approach.

Seth Godin, one of the founding fathers of modern marketing, has to say that

"The role of the marketer is to tell a true story, one that resonates, one that matters to people, and to repeat it frequently enough that it generates interest."

In the modern era of marketing, you will gain a lot of dedication to social media channels that can turn into real sales. If a brand (or a person) has a enough powerful follow-up, it can mean that their loyal customers will buy almost all they make.

Patient and Persistent

Perhaps one of the main benefits of indirect marketing is that it costs less than direct marketing. There is no direct cost to get your customer's attention.

It takes time , patience and consistency, however. You can't presume that writing a blog post or getting a strong online review can boost your sales. The return on investment from indirect marketing will take years to see.

Some marketing experts will say anything you do, and tell your customers it's a form of marketing. Every time you sell to or serve your client, your willingness to buy or refer you is increasing. It's really important to note that.

Both direct and indirect marketing can have high success levels when properly designed and properly targeted.

The secret to success in both indirect and direct marketing is to maintain consistency on who you represent, why they buy from you, and how you can better bring value to their lives.

Brandastic is a digital advertising and marketing firm with offices in Orange County, Los Angeles and Austin. We work with companies to improve their SEO and digital marketing, branding and customer reach. Get to know us today about stepping up your online marketing game.