In part one of our push and pull marketing guide, we discussed the ins and outs of push marketing and the difference between push and pull advertising. Just in case you’ve missed it, here is a quick refresher!
What’s the Difference Between Push and Pull Marketing?
The two terms are referencing the ways in which your marketing efforts either “push” or “pull traffic”.
In push marketing, you are promoting a product or service to a large audience with the aim to quickly generate sales. Push marketing is also referred to as ‘outbound marketing’: You are initiating the conversation with your audience by sending out a message. The downside: It can be interruptive and pushy (think pop up banners). As a result, many people are oversaturated with this type of marketing.
Social Media advertising is a great push channel, so are targeted emailing and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. It also includes more traditional approaches, such as cold calling, radio and television ads and telemarketing.
Pull marketing, on the other hand, spreads brand awareness and draws potential consumers towards your business by creating content tailored to them. Because of it, you are engaging an audience that is generally composed of more qualified lead prospects. Pull advertising efforts are also called ‘inbound marketing’. As opposed to outbound marketing, that advertises to masses of people and compares to the search for the infamous “needle in the haystack”, your customers now find you when they need you.
Search engines such as Google and Bing are great examples for pull marketing channels. Inbound marketing involves SEO, blog and social media content creation, email newsletters, and other content that your customers actually want to consume. Now, let’s take a closer look at pull marketing!
What is Pull Marketing?
Pull marketing, also referred to as ‘inbound marketing’, allows you to advertise your brand to new and existing customers, so they think of you when they have an interest or need for your product or service.
Pull marketing is about making your products or services visible to prospective customers. Pull marketing is highly relationship-focused. Marketing channels like search engine optimisation (SEO), email marketing and social media can help you pull in those customers.
With social media and email marketing, you can use the audience you already have by allowing them to engage with your content or remarketing to them. Great content is at the heart of all pull marketing efforts: If someone loves the blog or social media posts you’re sharing, they’re much more likely to come back to you when they are ready.
Just imagine you were trying to buy a new bicycle. Before making a purchase decision, most of us turn towards the internet to do some research. In this particular case, you’d search for, let’s say “bicycle for commute”. Consequently Google presents you with a list of results targeted to your search request. The results that catches your eye is an article by BikeRadar, titled “Best Commuter Bike - What’s the best bike for commuting?”.
Next thing, you’re clicking on the link to check out the brands and models of bicycles. What did just happen? Well, you got ‘pulled’ in by BikeRadar, drawn in by the promise of them having just what you’re looking for. As you can see, in the age of mobile internet access and consumers educating themselves before making a purchase decision, pull marketing increasingly helps to build brands and establish the demand for products and services. Here’s a great example of pull marketing in action: Food delivery service Hello Fresh uses email marketing campaigns that feature delicious images and juicy discounts to remind customers of their dormant accounts. Makes it pretty hard to say no, doesn’t it?
Types of Pull Marketing
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO is one of the most effective pull marketing strategies. Whilst paid search results are paid for, ranking high in organic search engine results has to be earned differently: By optimising your website for search engine algorithms. Part of this is identifying the keywords that make you attractive to both users and search engines and are expected to match the users’ search queries. But that’s not it. We’re not going to dig deep into SEO, but feel free to visit our previous post about increasing traffic to your site.
Content marketing should be a vital part of your pull marketing strategy. In a way, SEO and content marketing blend quite a lot. Without high-quality content, ranking highly in search engine results pages will be nearly impossible. For sustained business growth, you should therefore invest in content that aligns with your target audience’s goals and interests.
Google Ads
Some marketers say that pay-per-click advertising does not count as an inbound marketing channel, as it is a form of paid advertising. We don’t agree with this notion. On the contrary, PPC should absolutely be a part of inbound marketing! It is different from traditional advertising and often disruptive outbound marketing.
Google Ads target customers at the right time and place, when they’re actively searching for a product or service. At that stage, marketers can target a large audience using broad keywords to capture traffic.
When to Push, When to Pull?
Push marketing might be more cost-intensive, but pull marketing requires more work and effort to connect and engage with prospective customers. So which one’s better?
Ideally, you’d want to include both tactics into your marketing strategy. Let’s say, you’d pull in customers with great content and then push them to make a purchase by offering a discount for their first purchase. There is however a key to success: You need to know when to pay for traffic and when to optimise your site and create content. With most pull strategies it is harder to target the right audience. You need to know exactly who they are and what they’re looking for before you can connect with them.
A great majority of brands don’t have the in-house expertise to successfully run push and pull campaigns. Anchor Digital specialises in both inbound marketing and outbound marketing. If you want some help creating your first Google Ads or Facebook campaigns, get in touch with us today!
