A successful business needs effective marketing planning. This article explores the types of marketing planning, how they work, and the benefits for your business. Before settling on a marketing agency, familiarise yourself with the different types of marketing planning so you can make it easier.
- Direct Marketing
In direct marketing, a business promotes its products and services directly to their consumer. For successful direct marketing, you should send messages only to potential prospects.
Direct marketing campaigns include channels such as; email, mobile messaging, customised promotions, and public advertising. Direct marketing is popular because you connect directly with your target audience.
It is suitable for businesses on tight budgets who can utilise digital platforms instead of expensive television and internet campaigns.
- Indirect Marketing
Indirect marketing is a strategy that focuses more on your business than on the product or service. One of the major ways companies employ this strategy is through charity donations and sponsoring events.
It is an intelligent tactic to put forward your brand to your target audience without directly asking them to purchase. Indirect marketing minimises disruption to the consumer by inviting them to learn more about what you offer rather than pushing them to buy.
It is an excellent way to build a lasting relationship with your consumers. Other types of indirect marketing are content marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO). They help you grow your brand’s exposure, forming a familiarity between the consumer and the brand, which is likely to prompt them to purchase.
- Cause Marketing
It is a form of indirect marketing that connects businesses and companies to social causes. For example, companies are increasingly advertising their products as eco-friendly to appeal to environmentally conscious consumers with the rising concern of environmental issues.
The strategy is to influence consumer conscience to attract them to your brand.
- Relationship Marketing
The business prioritises consumer satisfaction and appreciation for long-term customer engagement and loyalty in relationship marketing. It involves incentives such as; offering discounts, low-cost upgrades, and promotional offers to current customers.
Most of the interactions with customers occur online, especially on social media. Consumers want easy and tailored access to a brand’s information at the click of a button. It involves creating an easy medium for communication between customers and a business. A business can track its customer’s activity and provide information that suits the customer.
- Niche Marketing
Niche marketing focuses on reaching a forgotten target audience or offering your products and services to a specific limited audience. In a niche market, you identify what your customer wants and develop a unique solution to meet the customer’s needs.
A business that perfects niche marketing becomes a market leader in the specific segment of products or services they offer. A benefit of niche marketing is little or no competition in the niche segment, which helps the business enjoy a price monopoly.
Conclusion
Marketing planning is a structured way of evaluating marketing opportunities, available resources and how to utilise them for a successful enterprise.
