Marketing Activities: 5 Types of Marketing Activities

Marketing activities are tactics and strategies that a business employs to encourage customers to buy goods or services. Marketing activities can also include initiatives to better understand consumers, such as market research.

Companies use different marketing activities—such as email campaigns, paid advertisements, or search engine optimization—to reach returning and potential customers. An effective marketing plan includes various marketing tools and tactics and tracks marketing metrics to gauge efficacy and results.

There are many marketing activities that small business owners or e-commerce companies can use to increase brand awareness and reach their target audience. Consider these marketing tactics and tools as you build a robust online marketing strategy or business marketing plan.

1. 1. Content marketing: This marketing strategy includes coordinated content creation that provides potential customers with relevant text, video, and audio content. Examples of pieces of content used for this type of marketing include advertising memes, entertaining videos, podcasts, and blog entries. You can promote this content on your landing page or other marketing channels like your newsletter or social media.
2. 2. Digital ad marketing: This category covers many marketing tactics. Digital ad marketing includes web ads, podcast ads, email marketing, and webinars. Unlike content marketing, digital marketing focuses on actual ads rather than website content that may or may not contain information about your business.
3. 3. Market research: By gathering information about the behavior of potential and existing customers and analyzing and interpreting that information, businesses can make informed decisions about the development of a new product or service. Implementing marketing research can also help companies improve their customer experience by better understanding the needs and demographics of their customer base. You can use market research to find new customers, identify your ideal customer or target market, or research market trends.
4. 4. Search engine optimization (SEO): This tactic focuses on attracting targeted traffic to a website through organic or nonpaid rankings on a search engine results page (SERP). Unlike paid results such as pay-per-click advertisements, search engine optimization involves the creation of organic content that answers user queries and features relevant keywords.
5. 5. Social media marketing: This digital marketing method engages new customers on social media platforms. Social media marketing campaigns include video ads, in-feed static ads, or paid partnerships with influencers.

Become a better communicator with the MasterClass Annual Membership. Spend some time with Daniel Pink, author of four New York Times bestsellers that focus on behavioral and social sciences, and learn his tips and tricks for perfecting a sales pitch, hacking your schedule for optimal productivity, and more.