Marketing activities to attract customers and increase sales

To attract customers and increase sales, marketing activities are essential. Today, companies can choose from a variety of tools that can effectively improve their market position.

In this article you will learn:

• What are marketing activities?
• How to plan marketing activities?
• What are traditional marketing activities?
• What are online marketing activities?
• What are non-standard marketing activities?

In addition to the above, they are carried out to increase sales, improve brand image, attract new customers or retain existing ones. Most often, they are part of a broader marketing strategy, the implementation of which is intended to contribute to the achievement of specific business objectives. They may involve a variety of methods and techniques tailored to the specific market, target group, product or service and the organisation’s objectives.

Marketing activities are usually carried out by marketing professionals who may work within the organisation or may be external consultants or agencies. They often require the application of different skills and knowledge from consumer psychology, market research, communications and technology.

Marketing activities are deliberate and planned strategies carried out by companies, organisations or individual entrepreneurs to influence market behaviour and increase sales by improving the perception of their products or services. These methods, tailored to the specific market and target group, include various communication and promotion techniques to attract new customers and retain existing ones.

Definition of marketing activities

The key to effective marketing activities is to understand the target audience and to create messages and experiences that they will perceive as appealing and compelling. In the digital age, marketing activities must also take into account changing trends and technologies to keep up with competition and consumer expectations.

Remember that marketing planning is an ongoing process. The market, your customers and even your own business will change, so your marketing strategy should be flexible too.

• Define marketing objectives – the first step in planning your marketing activities is to define your objectives. These can be sales goals, such as increasing sales by a certain percentage, but they can also be about brand image or increasing brand awareness among your audience. Whatever the scope, the objectives should be clear, feasible and measurable.
• Situation analysis – once you have defined your objectives, you need to perform a SWOT analysis of your business and your competitors. This allows you to understand your brand’s strengths and weaknesses and identify opportunities and threats in the market.
• Understanding your audience – you need to know who your audience and target group is. You should know their needs, preferences, motivations and how and where best to communicate with them.
• Creating a marketing strategy – once you know what you want to achieve, know your situation and understand your target audience, you can start to create a marketing strategy. This should include choosing the right communication channels, as well as defining your marketing message.
• Competitor analysis – to determine the scope of your activities, it is good to know what your direct and indirect competitors are doing. This will also allow you to find areas underserved by others that you can use in your own marketing efforts.
• Budgeting – once you have developed your strategy, decide how much money you can and want to spend on marketing activities. This may require splitting the budget between different marketing activities and channels.
• Execution and monitoring – implementing the plan means taking specific marketing actions and then monitoring their effectiveness. Monitoring should include tracking KPIs to help assess whether marketing objectives are being met.
• Evaluation and adjustment – based on the data collected, evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing activities undertaken. If targets are not being met, the plan may need to be adjusted and optimised.

The choice of specific solutions always depends on the specifics of your brand and industry, target group or market requirements. The most traditional marketing activities include:

Advertising

Advertising, as one of the traditional marketing activities, involves the paid communication of information about products, services or entire brands. The marketing message (which should be attractive to the audience) is intended to attract their attention, interest and persuade them to purchase the goods or services offered. It can be presented through a variety of media, depending on the target group, such as television, radio, press or advertising posters. Each of these media has its own unique characteristics and makes it possible to reach specific market segments.

Public Relations (PR)

Public Relations (PR), also known as social communication, are the strategies and activities undertaken by companies to build and maintain positive relationships with their audiences. The main objective of PR is to create a positive image of the company and manage its reputation. This includes a wide range of activities, such as issuing press releases that inform the media and the public about important events and company achievements, organising events that allow direct interaction with customers and partners, and managing crises, which is key to maintaining a positive corporate image, even in difficult circumstances.

Direct marketing

Direct marketing is a strategy that relies on an individual approach to potential customers. It uses direct communication channels, such as mail, e-mail or telephone, to reach the audience directly. The aim is to establish and build close, personal relationships with customers, resulting in increased engagement and loyalty. This gives the brand the opportunity to personalise communication and offers with precision.

Sales promotions

Promotions are short-term marketing activities that aim to quickly increase sales of products or services. They use a variety of techniques to stimulate demand, such as discounts, coupons, competitions or special offers. They can also include direct price reductions, purchase bonuses, ‘buy one, get one free’ offers or loyalty programmes. By introducing an element of urgency, such as a ‘limited time offer’, they encourage customers to take action, leading to increased sales.

Personal selling

Personal selling is a direct form of marketing in which sales representatives or salespeople make personal contact with potential customers. During this interaction, they present and sell products or services, tailoring the offer accordingly. It is the most direct and interactive method of selling, enabling the customer to gain trust and better understand their requirements.

Event marketing

Event marketing is a strategy in which a company organises or participates in various actions, events or meetings to build a relationship with customers, gain new audiences and promote its brand. This includes participation in trade fairs, conferences, festivals, exhibitions, presentations, webinars, etc. This allows you to have face-to-face interactions with potential customers, enables you to showcase your products or services and is invaluable in gathering feedback and establishing customer relationships.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship is a marketing activity in which a company collaborates with other organisations, events, athletes, teams, celebrities or institutions to promote its brand or products. This allows it to gain greater visibility and positive associations by being associated with an event or person who is well-respected by its target audience. This can be part of a strategy to build brand image, increase product awareness, endorse specific values or goals, and increase customer engagement and loyalty.

They enable companies to reach global audiences, increase brand visibility, target audiences more effectively and measure the effectiveness of campaigns. The constant development of technology and the growing number of internet users make digital marketing an extremely important part of promotional activities today. They include a wide range of activities such as:

Social media marketing

The use of social media marketing activities on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn is a key element of marketing activities in the digital age. Your company can communicate directly with customers, respond to their questions and react to feedback. The aforementioned platforms also allow you to create and share a variety of content, such as photos, videos or blog posts.

Online advertising

Advertising campaigns on Google Ads, Facebook Ads and other advertising platforms allow you to precisely target your chosen audience. Thanks to advanced targeting tools, you can focus your adverts on specific demographic characteristics, user behaviour or interests. This allows you to reach selected customers more effectively, contributes to increased conversions and enables you to use your advertising budget efficiently.

Content marketing

Content marketing involves the content creation, such as articles, blogs, videos or infographics, is an essential part of marketing strategies. They engage customers and provide them with useful information, solutions to problems or inspiration. Through content marketing campaigns, your company can build trust and expertise in its field, which contributes to gaining loyal customers and increasing visibility and positive brand image among your target audience.

SEO

The positioning of your pages and the material on them is a key part of your SEO strategy. By adjusting content, keywords, metadata and other factors accordingly, a company can improve its rankings in search results. This makes the website more visible to users, which increases the chances of gaining new customers and strengthens your brand’s position in the market.

Email marketing

Sending personalised email marketing messages to customers allows you to effectively reach your chosen audience. These activities can take the form of both cold emailing (i.e. sending messages to potential customers) and specialised email campaigns aimed at a specific target group. Thanks to personalisation, mail content is tailored to the preferences and behaviour of the recipients. Your company can regularly inform customers by email about news, special offers or events, which increases brand awareness and stimulates them to return to the website.

Influencer marketing

Influencers are people with a large number of followers on social media who value their opinion and advice. By working with influencers, or influencer marketing, your business can reach a large, engaged audience and your brand can be promoted in an authentic and compelling way, which can lead to increased sales.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is nothing more than working with partners. It is similar in operation to influencer marketing and is an effective strategy for companies that want to increase their online presence and sales. Affiliates promote a brand’s products or services on their websites or social media channels and receive a commission for each sale they make. This works on a pay-for-performance basis, which reduces financial risk for the company and translates into more motivation for partners to promote the brand effectively.

Video marketing

Creating video content (ads, product reviews or tutorials) is a key element of marketing strategies in the digital age. Video marketing is one of the most engaging formats and stimulates emotions and increases engagement. Videos allow your products or services to be presented in an appealing way, while reviews and tutorials provide valuable information to help customers make purchasing decisions. Remember, however, that creating video content requires creativity and diligence, but can yield significant results in terms of increased conversions.

Audio marketing

Audio marketing is a promotional strategy that uses sounds to build a connection with customers and increase your brand recognition. It is based on the use of various audio forms such as radio commercials, podcasts, jingles and the music and sounds present in advertisements. High-quality sounds, unique melodies and relevant noises can effectively influence the emotions of the audience, resulting in positive brand associations. Audio marketing is particularly important in the digital age, where audio content is increasingly popular and new technologies such as smart speakers and voice assistants offer new opportunities to reach customers.

Mobile marketing

Activities targeting mobile users are an important part of marketing strategies today. SMS campaigns allow customers to be reached directly with personalised offers and information. Also, the creation of responsive websites is important in providing an optimal user experience.

A specific form of mobile marketing is the promotion of mobile apps through advertising campaigns. This helps to increase the number of downloads and overall awareness of the app. Equally important is ASO (App Store Optimisation), which involves optimising an app’s attributes in the shops (e.g. App Store or Google Play) to improve its visibility and position in search results.

They encompass a variety of unusual and surprising approaches to attract customer attention and interest.

Custom marketing activities are effective because they stand out from traditional promotional methods. However, they require ingenuity, creativity and a careful understanding of the target audience in order to be successful and gain audience sympathy. Some examples are:

Viral marketing

Creating attractive and entertaining content is an important element of marketing strategies based on the phenomenon of viral spread. Content that evokes positive emotions, sparkles with humour or contains an element of surprise motivates users to share on their social networks. This is intended to be a self-perpetuating process, leading to the organic spread of content on a large scale. Remember, however, that viral content creation requires originality, tailoring to the target audience and the ability to balance content with subtle brand promotion.

Experience marketing

Hosting unconventional events allows customers to experience the brand directly and interactively. This can include unusual events or happenings, but it is important that such events engage customers’ senses and emotions, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of the brand’s values and create positive associations. Directly engaging customers in interactions with the brand creates memorable memories, while unconventional activities allow you to stand out from the competition and capture the attention of your audience.

Ambient marketing

Ambient marketing, also known as contextual marketing, is an innovative promotional strategy that uses unusual spaces and elements of the environment for advertising messages. Advertisements or messages are placed on pavements, walls or even everyday objects, in places often not associated with advertising. This allows a brand to be exposed in a unique and unconventional way, which can generate positive associations. It is also an effective way of using public space as an advertising medium and surprising the audience.

Guerilla marketing

Guerilla marketing is a form of promotion that uses small budgets, creativity and surprising ideas to attract a lot of attention and evoke strong emotions in the audience. It uses unconventional marketing methods and actions, such as flash mobs, happenings or displaying advertisements on unusual locations. It also relies on the element of surprise, which can lead to a rapid spread of the message and build brand awareness without requiring a large financial investment.

Aromamarketing

Aromamarketing, also known as scent marketing, uses scents to influence customer feelings and behaviour. By using specific aromas in retail spaces, offices or hotels, your business can evoke desired emotions and increase the time customers spend in a particular location. It can also influence memory and evoke memories, which in turn influences purchasing decisions.

Co-created marketing with users

Co-created marketing with users, also known as participatory marketing, is a strategy that involves customers in the process of creating content or products. By soliciting customers’ opinions, ideas and suggestions, it is possible to better understand their needs and expectations, leading to a greater alignment between the offer and the actual needs of the market. In addition, the participation of customers in the creation of the brand makes them more likely to recommend and promote the brand’s products, which contributes to increased recognition.

Reverse marketing

Reverse marketing, also known as reverse marketing, is an approach in which consumers pay a company to receive special offers or advertising. In this model, the customer becomes the payer, which is a reversal of the traditional role where the company pays for advertising. Such a mechanism acts as a form of loyalty programme, where customers receive exclusive benefits or access to unique products in exchange for a fee. Not only can this increase customer engagement, but it also provides an additional source of revenue for the company.