Did you know that SEO, blog posts, press releases, and so on are a part of a strategy called indirect marketing?
It’s a form of marketing that’s quite different from what you’re used to, but it’s marketing, nonetheless. It gets you to buy a product/service as the end goal, but it does that in a different, indirect way.
If the purpose is the same, what makes this method effective and why should you consider it? Isn’t running ad campaigns more straightforward?
Yes, it is, but indirect marketing is a crucial part of the other areas in your business’ marketing strategy, such as brand loyalty, awareness, and so on. Keep on reading to learn what it is and why it’s important.
1. What is Indirect Marketing?
Indirect marketing doesn’t involve direct communication with customers. It doesn’t involve waving the product right in front of their faces to attempt to sell it to them.
These are otherwise what happens in direct marketing, which is the type of marketing you’re familiar with. It targets customers through advertisements, sales calls, flyers, and more. It allows you to target a particular demographic and record their immediate response, which are great reasons to use direct marketing.
With indirect marketing, you’re not telling your customers to buy from you. Instead, other people do it for you. It’s also used if you only want to catch their attention.
2. Why Is It Important for Your Business?
You can’t expect an immediate response from your audience with indirect marketing. So why is it an important part of your strategy? Aren’t all forms of marketing for getting customers to buy from you?
That’s correct. Although indirect marketing does it differently, it’s still the goal. Let’s learn how it works first.
How Indirect Marketing Works
Indirect marketing uses a different route to get to the customers. It can use a third party to do the talking for them, instead.
An example is getting bloggers or media outlets to feature your products/services. This can make your offerings known by other people. It can generate interest without you having direct communication with the audience.
Another example of indirect marketing is posting a press release or a news article about an update or the latest event of your company. These methods aren’t selling anything, yet they can generate interest in your brand.
Aside from these indirect marketing examples, it comes in many other forms; some of which are:
- Search engine optimization
- Blog posts
- Referrals
- Online reviews
- Product placements
Let’s give you a final example of it works before we go into its benefits. Say you want to develop a social media page to review your product.
There’s a good and bad way to do this. The bad way is for the page to only feature your product with loads of “Buy Now” ads plastered all over it. The good way is to publish other posts reviewing other products.
Why is the latter good? Because it sparks curiosity about your product due to a supposed third party having shown interest in it. With the former, it’s obvious you’re only marketing your product, to which people don’t respond well.
3. Benefits of Indirect Advertising
In this case, the different route is the long way to get to your customers. Why do companies still choose to do this? Because it provides the following benefits:
Increasing Brand Awareness
Notice how a brand seems familiar even if you haven’t seen its ads? The brand likely used indirect marketing to raise brand awareness.
You may have read some news about it or an article from one of the influencers you’re following, for instance. Through these methods, the brand made its presence known, but it didn’t push you into buying something.
It’s all about familiarity, which is what many companies are banking on. Consumers use it as a major factor in their purchasing decisions. And so, brand awareness has an indirect effect on your company’s bottom line.
Building Brand Loyalty
You can also build brand loyalty this way. Indirect marketing focuses on building relationships with your customers. It focuses your efforts into making sure your brand stays on their minds for a long time.
You grow your brand by always publishing helpful posts, news articles, and such that will keep your customers interacting with you. Because these are more helpful than intrusive, they’ll consider it a positive experience on their part. Positive reviews from third parties also lead to them choosing your brand over and over.
If you keep giving your customers positive experiences, they’ll turn into brand evangelists in time.
Lowered Costs
This is one of the biggest appeals of indirect marketing. There are not many costs associated with this type of marketing; it often only involves the cost of hiring marketers and writers to write copies, blog posts, press releases, and such. You also pay for the cost of maintaining your social media accounts and else.
What indirect marketing will cost you, however, is time. It takes time to build a strong presence on the internet to make this form of marketing effective enough.
4. Keep This in Mind
The long way requires you to have patience and persistence to reach your goal. It takes time and consistency for it to boost your sales and build a brand following. This means it also takes time to see an ROI.
Moreover, because you can’t see an immediate response to your efforts, you have to take a different way to measure the effectiveness of your strategy. You’ll have to prepare questionnaires, for example, as a follow-up. This will allow you to gain insight into their experience with your brand.
However, doing this right can be tricky as it may not give you real results.
Learn More About Indirect Marketing
Like other forms of marketing, you have to do it right to make it effective for your brand. You have to know how to use indirect marketing alongside direct marketing to grow your brand.
Learn more about it and marketing, in general, by reading our other articles. We cover other great topics for you to read and learn.
