Marketing refers to all activities organized by a business to promote its brand, products, and services. Marketing would relate to the product or service of your business, the price of your product/service, the primary place of focus of your product/services, and the promotional activities of your business. 

What is field marketing?

Field marketing is a form of direct marketing that involves people distributing, selling, and sampling promotions in the ‘field’- out in public.

You may have seen someone approach you out in public to advertise a certain product/service to you, showing and demonstrating why you should patronize them. This is a good example of field marketing. 

What are the advantages of field marketing and how can I apply it?

• Field marketing allows you to have personal face-to-face interactions with your customers to see how they react to your product/service. It can be applied to street promotions, where marketers flood the streets in high-traffic areas to promote the product.
• Field marketing gives room for merchandising, which is displaying fancy retail attractions at retail stores which will entice customers to make a purchase.
• It provides a means for applying Guerilla marketing, which refers to using the already existing environment as a foundation for building creative experiences for the prospective customers. For example, turning an abandoned garage into a creative customer service centre as a means of reaching out to more people.

What is online marketing?

Online marketing can be described as a set of tools employed by businesses to promote their products and services through and over the internet.

Any form of advertisement done over social media or other platforms can be seen as online marketing. 

You would have seen sponsored posts of businesses on Facebook or Twitter. These are good examples of online marketing.

What are the advantages of online marketing and how can I apply it?

• Online marketing bridges the gap between the business and the customer as you would always remain in touch with the customer or prospective customer at any point in time, no matter where they are.
• It offers a customized advertising approach to customers. You would always have a variety of options on how to reach your customers online. You may even decide to craft out your business approach to customers. 
• It is largely inexpensive and has a wide reach. A relatively little amount spent on online marketing could go a long way to making your business gain international attention.

Field marketing Vs. Online marketing

This section of this article compares and contrasts the two forms of marketing based on their benefits and their approach toward customers:

1. Both forms of marketing are tailored toward attracting the prospective customer’s attention. 
2. Both forms of marketing involve some level of interaction with the prospective customers to ensure that their attention is being maintained.
3. Both forms of marketing are cost-effective, that is, they always end up achieving the objective to secure customers.
4. The field marketing approach creates a stronger bond with customers than the online marketing approach as it involves face-to-face interaction with the customers.
5. Online marketing has a wider audience than field marketing. Online marketing can secure international attention for your business, unlike field marketing which is only limited to areas that are reached.
6. Online marketing is largely inexpensive. Field marketing oftentimes required substantial amounts to be spent on just reaching a particular area or region.
7. Clients secured through field marketing tend to trust the business more than clients secured through online marketing as there would always be a constant fear of fraudsters or products/services being of lower quality than expected.

Conclusion

Generally, the best form of marketing to adopt would largely depend on the features of your product or service. For example, a field marketing approach would be best for marketing fragrance/perfume products, however, an online marketing approach would be more suitable for a logistics service business.

You may also decide to employ both forms in your business. This wouldn’t be such a bad idea, provided the finances are available.

Regardless of the form of marketing employed, there remains a need to always maintain contact with your clients and customers. SmartSMSSolutions is here to help you with this. We can help you spread your business information and promotions through Bulk SMS.

To register with us, simply visit us to create an account or log in here if you already have an account with us.

If you enjoyed reading this article, you may like our article on the role of SMS marketing in your business.