You’re running a brand new or well-established business and are trying to get the word out about your products and services? When planning promotional tactics to grow your brand and establish customer loyalty, you need to understand the two main categories that encompass all advertising efforts, push and pull marketing. Without a combination of the two, no marketing strategy can be truly comprehensive.In the offline world, push and a pull are opposite forces, meaning they move objects in different directions.
We all know that a pull is a force that brings an object or person closer towards something, whilst a push is the force that moves an object or person away from something. When it comes to marketing, pushing and pulling work a little different. Instead of opposing each other, they work together to create the perfect marketing mix. It is still important to understand the in’s and out’s of each, because just like when you’re trying to open a door if you are pushing when you should be pulling, you won’t make it to your destination. For the first instalment of our two-part series, we’ll be exploring push marketing.
In part two, we’ll delve deeper into the ins and outs of pull marketing!
Push and Pull Marketing at a Glance
If all that talk about pushing and pulling has confusing you left from right, let’s take a step back. What does it take for your marketing efforts to be successful? You have to think smart and be creative to get your message across. But, you also need to be precise and intentional in your approach. Two forms of marketing can do both: Push marketing and pull marketing. You may be pushing your brand in front of your audience, for example with pay-per-click or social media advertising, and pulling customers in by creating interest in your brand, services or products, usually with relevant and interesting content.
Let’s take a closer look at what you should know about push marketing!To read more about pull marketing, visit part two of the push and pull marketing series.
What is Push Marketing?
Also known as ‘outbound’ marketing or direct marketing, push marketing looks to proactively build awareness of your products and services by bringing them directly to the customer. Push marketing targets potential customers with the aim to generate sales quickly, as opposed to establishing a long-term relationship with loyal customers. It often does so by creating a sense of urgency. A great example of this are Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.
In this form of advertising you as a marketer are very much in the driver’s seat. You’re controlling not only what your audience sees, but also when, where and how often. Push marketing can be very helpful when it comes to launching a new business, releasing a new product, clearing out product stock or running promotional campaigns. It is most commonly used to target new leads and new customers.
Types of Push Marketing
Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is a great way to get the most out of your marketing budget. It’s fantastic if you want to reach a new, highly targeted audience, and that fast. Lead generation and web traffic campaigns push customers to make a purchase or booking, particularly if they are unaware of your product and brand existing, but are looking to buy. Facebook is a particularly great platform if you’re looking to get started with social media advertising.
Pay-per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC ads are a type of push marketing that extends far beyond search results. It offers marketing and remarketing opportunities across Google's massive Search and Display network. Targeting audiences with a clear intent and sending them directly to your website, PPC is particularly valuable. Google data suggests that businesses make an average of $2 of every marketing dollar spend on Google Ads.
Targeted Emailing
Sending automated marketing emails to inform prospects who meet certain criteria, such as age and interests, can help you spread the word about new products and services, discounts and special offers. Email marketing software such as Mailchimp allows you to segment lists based on gender and location to make your marketing campaigns more personalised and ensure that any message you send is relevant to the customers that receive it. Whilst all this sounds awesome, you should be aware of some of the downsides, too.
Yes, push marketing is great if you’re looking to increase sales, but it does come at a cost. Google alone makes billions of dollars of annual revenue from online advertising. Pay-per-click (PPC) and paid social media campaigns are popular methods of push marketing, but they do come with a price tag. Forced to pay-to-play, it is, however, an opportunity most businesses will find hard to pass.And keep in mind, since push marketing favours short term sales, building brand loyalty can be challenging with an outbound strategy alone. That’s where your pull strategy comes into play!
Push and Pull Marketing in Practice
So which way to go, left or right? Push or pull? To craft a marketing strategy that best serves your business goals, a combination of both is likely to be the most effective solution. If you’re a marketer trying to build buzz and get the word out about your products and services, use push strategies. If you want to bind loyal customers to your brand, pull is the tool that’ll get you there. Use SEO and organic traffic to draw in your customers, and push marketing to retarget visitors with PPC and social media ads.
If you have questions or concerns about your marketing strategy, don’t hesitate to contact our marketing team here at Anchor Digital! We’re looking forward to hearing from you!
