Strategizing the best marketing approach to target your prospects and customers depends on your business model. Are you looking to promote a product in front of a customer? Or, are you looking to generate demand for your product(s) or service(s)?

Should you implement a “push” or “pull” marketing strategy? Here are the differences:

Push marketing (outbound) is known as traditional marketing. It’s placing products in front of prospects with reach and frequency. It can build awareness of a company or create awareness of a new service and/or product offering.

Push tactics include:

• Advertising (print, radio, TV, outdoor)
• Direct mail
• Brochures and flyers
• Catalogs
• Telemarketing/CRM
• Trade shows
• Events

The key to effective push marketing is connecting the message with the audience, consistency in the design, and use of your branding. Your customers and your prospects should automatically be able to recognize that the communication is from your business.


Pull marketing (inbound), on the other hand, “pulls” a prospective customer into your business where they seek out additional information about your product(s) or service(s).

Pull tactics include:

• Blogs
• White papers
• Website content and graphics
• Social media
• E-newsletters
• Offers
• Surveys

Effective pull marketing creates a demand for your products and/or services by attracting prospects and customers to your website. Creatively; relative, fresh content and graphics arecrucial to your website and social media strategy.

So, is push marketing more effective than pull marketing?

Bottom line, marketers need to understand their prospect and customer behaviors in order to determine the most effective tools to reach them. Often, developing a successful marketing strategy combines seamless integration of both push and pull vehicles. Businesses should no longer think push or pull; rather they should focus on how to inspire their prospects and customers to want what they offer.