When companies buy traditional ads (newspaper, television or website banner ads), they are proclaiming a message to people who may or may not be actively seeking those goods or services and hoping the ad will trigger interest. With ever-increasing access to the Internet, relevancy plays a larger and larger role in bringing buyers and sellers together. With traditional advertising, information is “pushed” toward the potential buyer; “pull” marketing draws attention to your information because it answers a request.
Push marketing uses traditional tools like ads, brochures, press releases, etc. filled with product features and service benefits. The Internet is similar, filled with websites, banner ads and paid search word tactics. These messages are all created with outbound sales strategies.
Pull marketing uses the premise that people find companies and their products because they are looking for them. This method uses social sites to listen to, contribute information and otherwise engage people. Tools like organic search allow web content to be ranked according to the user’s keyword searches. You draw people in with relevant content in the hopes of engagement. Content strategies, optimization, keywords in articles and headlines, tag blog posts, etc. pull in your prospect rather than push out to them.
PR is an example of a tool that can be both push and pull marketing. No longer do you need to solely rely on rigid printed press releases (although they are still important). You can embed video, images, slide shows, and more into social media releases (SMRs) to be shared on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.
While push marketing is more concerned with short-term results, pull marketing exists to create loyal supporters by setting a certain standard for their brand. At VIA, we’ve always talked about the media mix. These days, the mix needs to include both push and pull marketing strategies for getting customers to purchase your certain brand, product, or service.
For more information about how we can help you market your service or process, give us a call at 219.769.2299 or send an email.
Let’s talk about it.