That is why it is also referred to as mass marketing. The communication language and message created is in such a way that the audience can understand and connect to it easily. ATL Marketing is done at the macro level, to cover a mass audience. It includes non-targeted advertising activities having a wide reach, so as to create a brand image. In this, advertising through TV, radio, internet, newspaper, posters, banners, billboards, and magazines. Further, when ATL media is used the primary focus is to create brand awareness, educate customers about the offerings and boost sales.
It is mainly adopted by B2C business to consumer companies as they seek to reach a large number of people in just one go. Below the line marketing or otherwise known as BTL marketing involve direct marketing activities, as they intend to build targeted relationship amidst the marketer and final consumer, as well as it provides ease in testing effectiveness and conversions. BTL marketing is unconventional, carried out at the micro-level as it focuses on specific group either geographically or demographically on the basis of interest or on a niche segment.
It involves specific, catchy and direct means of communication to promote the product. It is mainly deployed by B2B business to business companies, however, some B2C companies also opt it. The primary focus of the BTL strategy is to convert leads into paying customers. It includes activities such as direct mail campaigns, sales promotion, public relations, text marketing, gift vouchers, shopfront activity, telemarketing, exhibition, social media marketing, trade shows, flyer distribution, catalogues, sponsorships etc.
The objective here is to get a holistic view of the market and communicate with customers in every way possible. The major challenge of TTL activities is the cost associated with implementing various promotional campaigns. It is usually only established or financially secure companies that can implement TTL activities successfully.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to marketing. Everything depends on how well marketers read the market and whether there is a fit between the customer and the communication. This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jonathan Furman. Learn how to publish your content on B2C. Jonathan got his start through an Advertising agency. He began in the production department and eventually worked his way up to managing a small team.
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This kind of marketing is the kind of marketing that has a very broad reach and is largely untargeted.
Think about a national TV campaign, where viewers across the nation see the same advert aired across the various networks. This kind of marketing is the kind of marketing that targets specific groups of people with focus.
For example, a leaflet drop in a specific area, a Google Adwords campaign targeting a certain group or a direct telemarketing campaign targeting specific businesses. This kind of marketing is really an integrated approach, where a company would use both BTL and ATL marketing methods to reach their customer base and generate conversions.
It might seem obvious, although not all marketing campaigns are like this — some are ATL only and some are BTL only it would be much more common to see a BTL-only marketing campaign in practice though. An example of Above The Line marketing would be a television campaign run by a cereal company. The ad would be aired across the nation, with every viewer seeing the exact same message. An Example Of Below The Line Marketing Activity The same cereal company could also run a direct marketing campaign in a large city, targeting commuters on the way to work.
They might offer free cereal samples along with vouchers that could be used in a local store. This would be a strategy designed to target a specific group of people and to try and encourage quick purchases, or conversions.
A similar example of this that you might have seen before is the Red Bull Mini shown below. An Example Of A Through The Line Marketing Activity In this example, a pizza company could launch a nationwide Youtube campaign that would show different video ads to different users according to where the users lived, featuring a promotional code for a discount on purchases made at their local outlet.
Are they relevant to small businesses? I guess that they would all be relevant to small businesses, depending on the business, the type of product they have and the target audience they have in mind.
For example, BTL marketing can sometimes be the best solution for a small business serving a local catchment area. The reason for this is that put simply;. Plus, as small business owners, we now have the tools and resources at our disposal to run truly effective TTL marketing campaigns, such as social media networks, sites such as YouTube as well as PPC platforms such as Adwords. They give us the reach and the focus to implement marketing strategies that have a wide reach, yet narrow focus.
However, the following points are probably worth bearing in mind when thinking about this in practice:. However, the distinction described so far was mostly due to the fact that marketers and advertisers were much more limited as to what they could really do with platforms they had available to them. However, we have many more platforms and much more technology available to us. One such case in which it becomes difficult to classify whether a promotional activity should be termed ATL, BTL or TTL is when you use images within your social media campaigns.
You realise that social media offers a huge reach and hefty exposure — meaning it could be considered ATL — but that it can also be very highly targeted, so it could be BTL too. So, does that mean it should just be considered TTL then? In every case the answer depends on a couple of variables, although you should be able to work it out by asking yourself the questions outlines above.
All of the ATL promotional methods below are very similar in intent, they only differ in advertising medium therefore there is little point in me writing different descriptions for each. As discussed above, there is no direct response element here, they are only deployed to increase brand awareness and goodwill.
Telemarketing, but not as you know it. You can read more about this in my free 12, word guide on modern day telemarketing. Targeted leaflet drop.
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