Marketing is marketing—it’s all basically the same selling tactics, dressed up in different forms, right?
While that has some truth to it, it drastically understates the complexity of the field. With so many avenues and approaches to “get the word out” these days, marketing has grown into an immense industry with loads of different niche areas. Nowadays, with digital marketing tactics becoming widespread, there are many types of marketing specializations to accommodate this dynamic profession.
But just because the field is complex, doesn’t mean you need to be stuck swimming in executive suite jargon or acronyms trying to make sense of it. We created this handy guide to help you cut through all of the terminology and help you gain a true understanding of these different types of marketing specializations.
Market research
What is market research? How do you know if a product, service or message will stand out to a particular audience? You do your research. Market researchers employ several tactics for picking the brains of the public and gathering information.But that’s only one half of the equation. Another key component of market research is actually interpreting the data. The best market researchers are able to tailor their questions to encourage more meaningful answers. For example, asking, “What do you like about this product?” could yield a much different answer than, “As a parent, what do you like about this product?”
Content marketing
What is content marketing? Have you ever read a recipe on the side of a box of cereal? Did you notice how the ingredients always seem to include brand name products conveniently produced by the same company? That’s actually an example of early content marketing.Content marketing is all about creating content—basically any consumable piece of information—that serves a purpose beyond just promoting a product. Think of it as advertising by offering something that is actually useful to the consumer. Content marketing can build positive sentiment for a brand by attaching the brand to something genuinely helpful or entertaining. When done successfully, consumers won’t even realize they are being marketed to—or they’ll at least tolerate it more than a pop-up ad or commercial.
Search engine marketing (SEM)
What is search engine marketing? Some in the industry use SEM as a broad term encompassing both search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and paid search advertising activities. For the purpose of this article, we’re referring to the narrower definition that strictly refers to the paid search marketing side. This type of marketing is all about serving advertisements to people using search engines like Google® or Bing®. Search engine marketers bid to buy ad space on popular keyword terms related to the businesses they represent—for example, an appliance wholesaler buying ad space for the phrase “microwaves for sale.”It may sound simple, but there is a lot of work that goes into optimizing a paid search campaign. Search engine marketers need to be analytical, strategic and willing to experiment and tinker with their campaign strategies to excel in this role.
