The 6 fundamental marketing strategies
Brands are faced with an ever-growing array of marketing choices | |
Marketing can be split into different strategies, that work well in different situations | ||
Doing one strategy well is more likely to drive growth than spreading your efforts | |
Works best for
Critical success factors
More info
1. Brand Advertising | |
Build a brand in the minds of many consumers
- Repeated purchases
- Offline audiences
- Products in mass distribution (e.g. supermarkets)
- Non-lifestyle categories
- Reach & frequency
- Advertising quality (branded impact)
2. Social & Influencer | |
Engage others in your marketing; benefit from the reach & credibility they bring
- Lifestyle categories (related to self image)
- Socially-active audiences
- Categories with “category practitioners” (e.g. bartenders)
- Successful brands “bring something to the table” enabling them to co-create with influencers
- Brands which treat this like advertising may find it expensive and ineffective
3. Content / Inbound | |
Attract prospects to your owned content, and convert them to customers
- Categories where customers actively research
- Highly priced products & services, which support a sales funnel
- Ability to produce a consistent stream of relevant content
- Management of inbound leads through funnel
- Hubspot (for high priced services) or Zoho or EngageBay (lower cost)
- 1-page guide to SEO strategy for marketing
4. Affiliate | |
Pay content owners for leads that convert to purchase
- Categories where customers need help from experts to navigate it
- Brands whose sales process is standardised and automated
- Attractiveness & marketing of affiliate offer
- Management of affiliate links & commissions
- Set up your own affiliate program with a tool like Tapfiliate, Ontraport or ReferralCandy, or one of the Shopify affiliate apps
5. Conversion driven | |
Targeted ads; Paid Search
- Consumers who don’t already have a consideration set of brands
- Categories where offerings are well defined (e.g.florists)
- Ability to achieve positive ROI
- Test & learn
6. Word of mouth | |
Do a good job; let the marketing take care of itself
- Services targeted at a local area or defined community
- Where global solutions are not applicable
- Quality of service
- Barriers to entry (in markets where other marketing models work well, they may overwhelm word of mouth brands)
Marketing can start with a business model
Marketplace
Create a place where other people can buy and sell
Franchise
Attract franchisees by giving them everything they need to make money
Growth loop
A software growth strategy. Is your Grandma on LinkedIn? How did that happen?
Multi-level marketing
Representatives recruit more representatives
Marketing fundamentals generally apply to all brands
Brand positioning
Positioning is timeless, and distinctiveness is more important than ever
Ollie makes “human grade” dog food in “open kitchens”
Product
For product to drive growth it needs to be dramatically better than alternatives
Olaplex built a $1bn brand with a differentiated product
Price
All brands need to make pricing decisions. This can form part of the positioning
Retailer incentives
Brands that have retailers must think about retailer profitability
TIGI Copyright helps hairdressers sell more