What is Marketing?
In the beginning, the main goal of marketing was to use a set of techniques and strategies to sell a product or service.
Nowadays, it’s not exclusively centered on achieving new sales. It’s also focused on retaining customers, which means keeping clients who have already had an experience with the brand. Therefore, marketing now has two goals: attracting new customers with the promise of value, and retaining existing ones by increasing their satisfaction with the product or service provided.
So… How can we define Marketing?
We could say that marketing is the process or activity through which businesses, companies, and ventures implement different techniques and strategies to create, communicate, and exchange value offers with clients and partners, creating a relationship or instance of exchange that enriches both the client and the company.
Traditional Marketing
In traditional marketing, messages are addressed to the masses — that is, to a very large group of people. It does not allow for the detailed segmentation that is possible via social networks. Traditional marketing can be implemented by studying general aspects of the desired audience — for example: sex, location, salary, and other data.
This type of Marketing focuses on the 4 Ps: price, promotion, product, and place.
The message style is one-sided: you send a message, but do not have the possibility of receiving an immediate or interactive response from the client, so their role is passive.
These messages are promoted via mass media outlets (advertising on public roads, television, radio, cinema, etc.) to influence the purchasing behavior of the public. The ads appear in paid-for spaces in a specific location and time period.
This type of marketing does not allow for visualization of specific results and reports, although improvements may be seen after the campaign has ended. However, there is no definite way of knowing whether these improvements are actually due to the campaign.
Types of Traditional Marketing Strategies:
Outbound marketing is the traditional strategy for capturing customer attention with a product-focused message.
The message, along with the product information, reaches consumers who do not necessarily ask for it. Therefore, communication in this strategy is one-sided and impersonal.
Digital Marketing
We can define digital marketing as marketing actions and strategies carried out via digital channels and media. They can be purely advertorial or also commercial, but are always carried out in a digital space.
In Digital Marketing, you can generate messages aimed at specific segments of people. In other words, you can establish differentiated messages for specific audiences with clear interests, tastes, and consumption habits, speaking to them directly and seeking a specific reaction or action.
Through this process, communication becomes bilateral and interactive, unlike in traditional Marketing. We can receive a direct response from customers, who now have an active role. This enables the creation of relationships and conversations between the company and customers, improving credibility.
In Digital Marketing we have the 4 Cs: Content (created based on select segments), Community (the human connections that are built through the exchange), Connection (updating content for each platform), and Conversation (constant feedback from the client).
Another important aspect of this strategy is that it is more profitable, since we can alter our campaign at any time to achieve better results, without wasting any of the money allocated to the campaign.
In terms of measuring results, Digital Marketing allows businesses to access super-specific metrics. It is 100% measurable since it incorporates tools for calculating the effectiveness and scope of a campaign in real time.
Types of Strategies:
Inbound marketing is a customer-focused strategy. Its first objective is to get to know the audience to which the product or service is directed and understand their needs, to look at how strategies can be adapted to these factors.
Communication is interactive and two-sided. The consumer is the most critical aspect, and all actions are based on them. However, this is not an invasive strategy (at least, it shouldn’t be).
Evolution of Marketing
Digital Marketing began with the first websites, where messages were one-sided since there was no possibility of receiving messages or interaction from the public. Thanks to the creation of forums and the first social networks, what we understand today as online exchange began to occur. This had a somewhat revolutionary effect on the digital world, changing the focus of sales to customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Today, the user/client navigates this possibility of constant exchange in total comfort. Simultaneously, as technology continues to advance, algorithms and systems that store information about user navigation have become available, making it easier for platforms to provide users with advertisements for products or services that are in line with their tastes, consumption habits, or needs.