Marketing has undergone significant evolution since traditional marketing transitioned to digital marketing. New types of marketing continue to emerge.

What are the different types of marketing that marketers can use today?

I have compiled a list of 35 marketing types that I am aware of.

A company can use account-based marketing to reach its target audience. It can then convert and engage them.

Global marketing can also be utilized as part of a marketing strategy. By combining these marketing types, the company can effectively achieve its goals.

The different types of marketing

Let’s dive into the different types of marketing that you can use today.

1. Traditional or offline marketing

Traditional marketing involves offline marketing tactics. These include billboards, flyers, and radio advertisements. They were around before the Internet was created.

This type of marketing is referred to as offline marketing because many of the marketing tactics were not digital.

You see the words’ offline’ and ‘traditional’. Still, this type of marketing remains prevalent. It includes advertising in print magazines, newspapers, and TV channels.

2. Digital marketing

Digital marketing involves utilizing the internet to promote products or services. It is an umbrella term for digital marketing strategies. These include search engine optimization and websites.

This type of marketing utilizes technology to reach a target audience. This type of marketing uses search engines, social media, email, mobile apps, and websites to connect with its audience.

3. Outbound marketing

Outbound marketing involves engaging with audiences in traditional or digital spaces. It interrupts these audiences to deliver product and service messages.

It is typically referred to as cold calling, emailing, direct mail, and most types of advertising. This type of marketing targets its messages to people who do not want to get them.

4. Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing focuses on attracting customers rather than interrupting them. It typically falls under the umbrella of digital marketing. The audience contacts a company via its website, email, or phone.

For example, a person searches for an answer to their problem on Google.

They then stumble upon a piece of content that solves that problem. They contact the company to speak with someone who can give further explanation.

5. Content marketing

Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing content to its target audience. It is typically a form of inbound marketing, but it can also be incorporated into outbound marketing.

Content marketing is used to generate leads or potential customers. This is achieved through blog posts, white papers, e-books, and other content. Content is usually developed to help leads or potential customers with answers to their questions.

6. Search engine marketing (SEM)

Search engine marketing, or SEM, involves marketing through search engines like Google and Bing. It is divided into two categories: paid advertising and organic.

Paid advertising, also known as pay-per-click (PPC), is when marketers pay for their ads. Companies create and manage PPC campaigns.

These campaigns bid on keywords to get their ads shown to a target audience. They use ad management tools for this purpose.

Organic is about creating content that the search engines love because it’s relevant and helpful to searchers.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is commonly used to enhance your content. This ensures that your content appears on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs).

7. Product marketing

Product marketing is about driving demand for a company’s products. It’s about taking product pictures, launching marketing campaigns, and creating product adoption through positioning, messaging, and market research.

Product marketing works with sales, marketing, and customer success teams to launch products.

They create content to help sales understand the best way to discuss a product. This includes communication with potential or current customers.

8. Business-to-business (B2B) marketing

B2B marketing involves promoting products and services to other businesses by businesses themselves.

For example, a manufacturing company sells its products and services to an oil and gas company. Marketers use this term to differentiate their audience from business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing.

9. Business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing

B2C marketing involves promoting products and services directly to consumers. The term refers to selling directly to consumers, who are the end-users of a company’s products and services.

A good example is Amazon and Walmart, where individual customers buy directly from them.

10. Account-based marketing (ABM)

ABM is a marketing approach that focuses on specific accounts or companies. Marketing teams create content, events, and campaigns for employees at those accounts or companies.

ABM enables companies to allocate their limited resources to targeted, personalized campaigns for their ideal customers.

They focus their time and resources on a select few companies. These companies are the ones most likely to buy their products and services.

11. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a partnership between a company and a partner. The company pays a commission for traffic or sales generated by the partner.

The partner receives money whenever someone clicks on a link or makes a purchase via that link. The paying company awards its affiliates for helping grow its sales.

12. Brand marketing

Brand marketing is a type of marketing that promotes a company’s brand and its respective products and services.

A brand is about a long-term, strategic plan to increase a company’s recognition and reputation.

Some good examples of brands you will know: Apple, Mastercard, BMW, and Coca-Cola.

13. Social media marketing

Social media marketing uses several platforms to promote a company’s products and services. These platforms include LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

The goal is to grow a company’s social media audience and then engage with them. Tactics include publishing content, responding to comments, and running social media ads.

14. Email marketing

Email marketing involves a brand connecting with potential and current customers via email. It is used to increase brand awareness, promote content, and nurture leads toward a buy.

Companies must adhere to regulations, like the CAN-SPAM Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

15. Direct marketing

Direct marketing is a method where a company communicates directly with its target audience. This is done through various channels. These channels include snail mail, email, and social media.

It was chosen for its lower cost and personalized messaging.

For example, a company sells its products in its own store. It does this instead of using a wholesale distribution channel, like Costco Wholesale.

16. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing involves a company collaborating with influential individuals to promote its products and services.

An influencer has a large social media fanbase or is an authority in a specific field. Influencer marketing is effective because people trust influencers’ advice.

17. Word-of-mouth marketing or buzz marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing is a strategy where a company encourages and influences honest discussions about its products and services.

This can result from exceeding their target audience’s expectations, and the target audience shares their positive experience.

Word of mouth is also known as buzz marketing. A company creates a “buzz” through publicity in the media or with top influencers.

18. Event marketing

In event marketing, a company uses events to market and communicate with its target audience. This is done to promote its products and services.

This type of marketing aims to create a memorable experience. It engages event participants through demos.

Participants are also involved by attending lunches or dinners. Networking events and attending concerts also play a role in engagement.

19. Guerrilla marketing

Guerrilla marketing involves a company using unexpected or unconventional marketing tactics. These tactics are low-cost and creative.

They use public places, like streets and shopping malls. These spaces help create a lasting impression on their target audience.

The goal is to create word-of-mouth and emotional connections through concise, straightforward messages.

20. Video marketing

Video marketing involves creating videos for platforms, like YouTube, websites, emails, and social media.

These videos enhance brand awareness and spark conversations. They also solve the target audience’s questions on specific topics.

21. Cause marketing

Cause marketing is a strategy in which a company aligns itself with social causes. It also aligns with charitable causes. Meanwhile, it promotes its products and services.

For example, a company advertises its brand and donates some of its revenue to a specific charity.

The goal is to align their brand with a particular cause and encourage their target audience to get involved.

22. Relationship marketing

Relationship marketing focuses on building new relationships or strengthening existing ones with potential and current customers.

The goal is to enhance customer loyalty. We aim to foster deeper, more meaningful connections. This ensures the target audience becomes a long-term customer.

Certain companies are concerned about their Net Promoter Score, which measures a customer’s experience and predicts growth.

Companies want customers to turn into raving fans of their products and services.

23. Voice marketing

Voice marketing involves companies communicating with their target audience through smart speakers. These include Amazon Alexa, Google Nest, Apple HomePod, or Sonos One. They answer questions about specific topics.

Companies are optimizing their websites for voice search.

24. Conversational marketing

Conversational marketing involves engaging in one-on-one conversations with your target audience. These conversations take place across multiple marketing channels, including live online chats, texts, emails, and other media.

25. Partner marketing

Partner marketing, also known as co-marketing, involves a company partnering with another company on a marketing campaign. They collaborate and share the results.

Companies engage in this type of marketing to reach similar target audiences. They also aim to expand their target audience, which they have not yet reached.

26. User-generated marketing

User-generated marketing involves utilizing a target audience’s content in their marketing efforts.

Tactics include:

• asking the target audience to do an activity
• sharing photos and videos
• using specific hashtags in their social media posts

27. Campus marketing

Campus marketing involves a company visiting a college campus to promote its products and services.

This type of marketing typically involves student brand ambassadors who raise awareness of a company among their fellow students.

Tactics include setting up booths, hosting campus events, and distributing promotional items.

28. Proximity marketing

Proximity marketing targets a user’s location to show the most relevant products and services.

For example, if a user goes grocery shopping, they can get discounts from the store.

29. Experiential marketing

Experiential marketing is about creating a magical experience for attendees. It provides them with something to take away after the event.

Experiential marketing immerses customers within a product. It deeply engages them, not just buying a company’s products or services. Instead, it encourages them to experience the brand.

The goal is to create a lasting emotional connection between the company and its consumers.

30. Interactive marketing

Interactive marketing involves a user engaging interactively with the brand. The company adapts its approach based on the user’s behavior.

For example, when you search for a specific book on Amazon, they show similar books. These are shown during your next visit. They recommend books based on your search.

31. Field marketing

Field marketing involves selling products and services directly to a target audience in the field, promoting them on-site.

Companies can distribute product samples, organize demonstrations, and distribute brochures at events, in neighborhoods, or in communities.

32. Multicultural marketing

Multicultural marketing involves targeting diverse ethnicities and cultures within a specific audience.

It is about researching those communities. Then figure out the right messaging that resonates with those groups’ needs and values.

33. Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing involves using neuroscience to gain insights into a consumer’s decision-making process and predict their behavior.

Research can include eye-tracking, analyzing brain scans, and monitoring physiological responses to marketing messages.

34. Controversial marketing

Controversial marketing focuses on controversial topics. It aims to capture a company’s target audience’s attention. This strategy sparks a discussion about a specific topic.

It helps generate some buzz around your company. Yet, the tactic can hurt a brand and deter potential customers.

35. Global Marketing

Global marketing is scaling your marketing efforts to a worldwide audience. How does your marketing, geared toward an American audience, resonate in Europe and Asia?

It’s about determining how to adjust your messaging, pricing, and advertising to reflect the local area better.

For example, how does marketing work better in Germany than in the United States?

Bringing it all together

There are many types of marketing. Some help a brand differentiate itself from other brands, and others cater to a target audience’s behaviors, values, and needs.

Marketers have many options in the modern marketing world to achieve their goals.

Knowing the options is an excellent place to start.

The key to marketing is engaging your target audience. It is essential to offer a return on investment.

Marketing also aims to generate leads and acquire new customers. Ultimately, it strives to grow a company’s revenue.

---

Join my email newsletter for a free eBook and more helpful insights.