Friday, December 3, 2010

Push or Pull Marketing Strategies which is right for you?

With the acceleration of the internet as a major marketing tool many clients are looking at their marketing budgets and doing an evaluation of their marketing expenditures.


In a perfect world you may want push out to certain markets while pulling in others.

When you think of push and pull marketing, think of it in terms of a person either getting "pulled" in to see what the seller has to offer or the seller "pushes" out what he has to sell to the buyer.

Let’s review the concept of push and pull marketing:

What is pull marketing?

Pull marketing is where you develop advertising and promotional strategies that are meant to entice the prospect to buy your product or service.

Some classic examples are "half off!" or "bring in this coupon to save 25%" or "buy one get one free" or creating a blog with free information. Give away an eBook to access to an email address or speaking at an event. With pull marketing, you are creating urgency or creating a sense of increased time limited value so that the customer will come into your store to buy now.

So what are the pull marketing tactics you can employ to achieve this?

Blogging – blogging is one of the best marketing avenues at your disposal. Not only does it provide you with a way of increasing your brand exposure and trust but it also allows you to connect more deeply with your audience.

Social Media Marketing – social media allows you to engage with others online. It is the sharing of content, opinion and insight with the folks within your online following and friends. Twitter is an example of a social media service that relies on pull marketing extensively. People follow the conversations that interest them.

Build Community – build a sense of community around your business and people will return. Give people the opportunity to communicate with other like minded individuals and they will return to your business to do so – and indeed identify you as a leader in your industry.

Email Newsletters – offering additional information by way of an email newsletter is another great way to provide value to customers. It is a great way to educate your clients on the services that you offer and helps you stand out from the crowd.

Public Speaking – being seen is a great way to increase your authority. This is where you want to be, as having knowledge initiates questions from the less knowledgeable – and this leads to business.

What is push marketing?

Push marketing is the practice of ‘pushing’ your product towards an audience that may or may not know about it. Traditional advertising leaflets that drop through your letterbox or sales letters, advertising on TV, Radio and newspapers or cold calls.

All of these are examples of push marketing. Think about the last time you received a leaflet in the post. Was it relevant to you? Did you keep it or throw it out? Push marketing only gets results if the timing is right, and if the product or service caters to recipients needs.

Examples of some push marketing tactics you could use to generate awareness of your product:

Paid Advertising - There are many types of paid advertising available and their goal is largely the same: to obtain traffic that will hopefully convert into customers or leads

Create and Maintain an Email List. You should always aim to build an email list for both potential buyers and existing customers. This allows you to push information out to your customers in a very cost-effective way to generate sales.

Joint Venture with other Businesses - This is a variation of paid advertising. Offer to pay partners a referral fee if they refer prospects to your business. Non-profit communities or online associations are a good place to set up referral networks.

When deciding whether to pull or push you should consider that "pull" marketing lets a company focus on the development of the brand. "Pull" marketing wants to create loyal supporters by setting a certain standard for their brand. While "push" marketing is more concerned with short-term results

Both push and pull marketing strategies work well to achieve specific goals. An experienced marketing professional can help you integrate both strategies in a long term marketing plan which will be an effective way to promote any business or website and Build Your Business.

Fore more information contact:
Donald Robichaud
FloodLight Consulting
Build Your Business
Email
250-768-9415
http://www.floodlightconsulting.com/
http://donaldrobichaud.blogspot.com/

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