29 Different Types of Marketing, Explained
There are so many different kinds of marketing, it can feel overwhelming. What’s the difference between inbound and outbound marketing — or community marketing and local marketing? We have answers.
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The marketing industry has a lot of different ways to say “marketing.”
Some view these terms as redundant buzzwords, meant to “create anxiety and reinvent the wheel,” as Everyone Hates Marketers host Louis Grenier put it in a LinkedIn post.
If you coin a new term for something every marketing team already does, you can create FOMO from nothing — and rake in some consulting fees!
In some cases (cough, “agile marketing,” cough), that’s true.
But there actually are a lot of different types of marketing, and the right terminology can come in handy. It helps companies hire qualified candidates, and helps marketers describe their skill sets precisely.
As long as everyone has a shared understanding of what the terms mean, that is.
So, what do they mean? What’s the difference between inbound and outbound marketing — or community marketing and local marketing?
After consulting with MarketerHire’s in-house experts, we have answers.
Why are there so many marketing terms?
Before we get to the glossary, a word about why there are so many types of marketing. They’re not all synonyms — often, they’re disciplines and subdisciplines.
Marketing spans many different industries and niches, and different types of marketing help businesses…
A one-size-fits-all view of marketing isn’t going to get you far. Instead, strategists who know what they’re doing build custom marketing plans for each client that blend multiple types of marketing.
29 types of marketing, explained in one (1) glossary
To help everyone have more meaningful marketing conversations, we broke down some popular, frequently referenced types of marketing: what they mean, how they’re measured, what they look like in the wild, and what skills a marketer needs to do them well.
A caveat: There will always be new channels emerging, new markets to tap, and new ways people talk about all of it. This isn’t guaranteed to cover everything. But if you’re talking to someone referencing tons of marketing disciplines outside this list, we officially cosign you saying “Huh?”
Let’s get started.
1. Traditional marketing.
If you’re realizing your team doesn’t have the skills to execute the type of marketing you need, you’re not alone.
Marketing moves fast, and it’s accelerating. In the past 20 years, we’ve seen at least twice as many new marketing channels as we saw in the whole twentieth century.
MarketerHire keeps up, though — and we can help.
Our vetted freelancers can’t do everything, but they can do a lot. Of the 29 types of marketing on this list, they can tackle 25, and support the rest.
We can fill the gaps in your team, and help you prove the value of new full-time roles. Try us today.
Mae Rice is senior editor at MarketerHire. A long-time content marketer, she enjoys interviewing marketing experts and learning about the weird and wonderful feedback loops that connect marketing and culture. She also loves any ad that makes her say "Huh?!" — especially Tim and Eric's ad for Totino's pizza rolls, which she watches way more often than you would think.