Push vs. Pull

Today’s technology has paved way to change, making companies reconsider all of their touch points and to decipher which campaign strategy is best. We have seen eCommerce and social media outlets reach outlandish audiences vs traditional schemes. This has made us think about what we can do to better our current positions, and to that extent, our global positions. So we ask, push or pull?

Push involves pushing your brand in front of audiences, usually by way of paid advertising or promotions.

Then there’s pull, which is pulling or implementing a strategy that is more organic in nature, it draws the consumers interest towards your brand or products by means of relevant and interesting content across all your touch points. This involves much more engagement, a well thought out strategy, and a continuous rollout plan.

It's About Timing.

You Have to Know What Stage You're In.

Push Marketing

Push marketing is highly useful when you take your brand directly to your target audience. Effectively, you ‘push’ your service, product line, or launch in front of them while maintaining full control over the timings, frequency, style, and content of your communication. Your goal is to improve your enterprising and business development.

Push marketing includes ads, PPCs, posters, print ads, paid advertisements or unfortunately, everything your audience doesn’t really want to see and might overlook.

Pull Marketing

In contrast, pull marketing focuses highly on pulling customers to you using intelligent and relevant tactics. With pull tactics, the customer is in charge of the timings. They choose you when they are ready, when they are looking for solutions, when they have a need, and it’s your job to be ready and there- thoughtfully delivered- and track record proven. It can be considered a form of sustainable enterprise development.

Pull is a more passive and subtle approach traditionally, but also well thought out and genuine as its relying on customers knowing of your brand and you building subliminal trust along the way for when they are ready. It can also be considered a creative form of brand identity management and a brilliant corporate identity development strategy. The focus is more on building brand awareness and reputation while encouraging customers to interact with your brand through websites, blogs, social media, events, and SEO.

In essence, Push Vs Pull both can be considered necessary methods while identifying and establishing brand positioning.

Examples:

Push marketing examples are more along the lines of paid social-media ad, or a sponsor campaign on instagram. These strategies that are similar to PPC (pay per click) or cost-per-thousand-impressions.

The most relevant form of pull marketing these days would be considered search engine optimization (SEO), creative social media content, word of mouth, collaborations, and customer reviews. These approaches are more genuine, authentic, and personal.

Push marketing and Pull marketing are at the core of the new and inclusive digital economy. In fact, it’s important to implement the best corporate strategy in strategic management and competitive strategies in management to succeed.

Push or Pull?

Push marketing was the go to method for getting conversions, tracking consumer behaviours, and delivering timely consistent marking. The issue is things have changed. People are no longer satisfied with just anything- consumer awareness has evolved and values and ethos are more important than ever. We are living in an ever changing economy and social responsibility is critical for people to begin to believe in brands, not just profit. People now spend time doing research, learning about competition and from there, they are more prone to act once they trust the brand. People believe in brands, they don’t buy them. That’s the difference.

Seeing the power of pull marketing doesn’t elude to the fact that push tactics are irrelevant It's about timing. Where are customers across the action channel.

Understand

Again, knowing the cycle and where customers are at within that cycle is key. If they are at the top of the funnel, they aren’t yet in the position to make a decision regarding the solutions/products/services you offer. This is your opportunity to broaden their awareness. Educate. Demonstrate. Instigate. Show. Facilitate. Raise their awareness and push them to think about what they can do better. Here, push tactics are very effective. Get an appropriate share of their attention and gain authority in your field. Study which types of social media they use and conduct a PPC campaign. This exercise will allow them to understand what you do and exposure them to your services/products. It’s been said it takes someone 7 times to see and hear your brand before they acknowledge it. Introduce yourself.

If your customer is a bit more progressive in the process, try pull tactics . Think inbound tactics; a podcast, blogs, an event, an unlikely collaboration, how-to videos etc. The key here is creating valuable content and building trust in your brand.

Attract

We’re all human and at some point or another we will all face a problem that will need a solution, inevitably the search begins when your customer starts looking for you. All the materials you used in you in-bound tactics must be intriguing and useful. It’s also a good idea to keep SEO in mind, as this will help make sure your website shows up for all the right people at the right time. Learn about your competition and know your keywords.

Execute

Eventually, your customers will become full circle in the business cycle and will approach the bottom of the funnel. This is when it’s all pull. By now, they are well read, researched, and know the market and options so chances are they are genuinely interested in your products or services. Try some finalising tactics here such as a free trial, discount code or an incentive package.

Maintain

Now that you have their attention, keep them close and stay relevant. Encourage brand loyalty. Get creative to build a long-lasting relationship that keeps them in mind as you evolve your business.

Summary

Having now a clearer understanding of push and pull marketing, you can see it’s all about timing and knowing where your customer is the cycle. Push creates more of a demand, while pull focuses on the execution and fulfilment. Each of these strategies pull their own weight so choosing will come down to awareness versus growing conversions.

If you need help in creating a strategy, drop us a line!