Push vs Pull Marketing to the Scientific Sector

Push marketing is a strategy whereby a company will essentially ‘push’ the product towards you, as their target market, by actively promoting their products and services to you to capture demand. Pull marketing, on the other hand, is the process of ‘pulling’ potential customers to their product or service by creating demand. For example, using informative and engaging content marketing strategies.

Let’s break this down further…

PPC: Did you find yourself researching online for your new supplier and your Google search showed up a number of Google Ads for exactly what you’re looking for? One of them may have had the headline ‘20% off first 3 orders’ or ‘Free Service Contract Included’. This is a great example of push marketing.

Telesales Cold-calls are a classic example of push marketing as you are actively reaching out to prospects to promote your products and services; you are creating an opportunity for immediate engagement by generating demand.

Promotional Email Marketing: Sending emails to your target market is another example of push marketing since you are proactively sending promotional materials; pushing your product or service information towards the customer.

Trade Shows: Participation at relevant industry events gives you an opportunity to showcase your products and services in front of your target audience.

Distributor Partnerships: Again, partnerships with distributors are a form of push marketing because they involve the active promotion and distribution of your products and services through established channels.

Content Marketing: Our personal favourite (hey, you’re reading this aren’t you) involves drawing your target audience in with the creation of informative content that addresses their needs and interests. This could be in the form of blogs, whitepapers, articles, etc. An important aspect of pull marketing is customer-led content, so testimonials and case studies work well to create a ‘pull’.

Search Engine Optimisation: SEO is a form of pull marketing and goes hand-in-hand with your content strategy. Creating optimised content for your website will improve your visibility in search engines and drive more traffic to your website where conversions can take place.

Email Newsletters: Not to be confused with promotional email marketing campaigns, and example of push marketing. Newsletters are designed to be more informative and engaging to your market, driving traffic and conversions.

Social Media Marketing: The creating of engaging, topical and industry relevant posts provides the perfect opportunity to engage with your target audience. Creating and nurturing online communities on platforms like YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn, for example, is a highly effective strategy for raising brand awareness.

At Network Scientific, we strongly believe that using holistic sales and marketing strategies to sell your products and services will achieve the greatest results. Leave no potential revenue stream stone unturned!

Creating a balanced approach to engaging your target audience by combining your push and pull marketing strategies offers several benefits:

• Fuels your Market Research: Combining the data received from your cold calling efforts and trade show attendance, along with data from your social media interactions and content marketing metrics offers enhanced customer understanding and buying patterns. Thus allowing you to create more effective marketing campaigns.
• Maximises your Market Awareness: Integrating your push and pull marketing strategies allows for maximum market coverage. Not only do you reach a larger number of prospects, but your push marketing will raise your brand awareness while your pull marketing will enhance your brand trust.
• Creates Short and Long Term Opportunities: Push marketing generates you immediate interest while your pull marketing efforts will generate you more longer-term leads by building those long-term customer relationships.
• More Cost Effective: Being specific about what push and pull strategies you use for what marketing deliverables can offer a more cost-effective approach. For example, push marketing can be more effective for creating immediate demand for new product launches, while pull marketing has more potential to help build your customer base, and generate incoming leads, over the long-term.
• Increased Conversions: Harmonising your push and pull marketing efforts in a strategic way can provide enhanced lead conversions. An example is a strategically worded and informative email campaign about upcoming legislation changes, which is then followed up with a telesales campaign to discuss how your products and services can help maintain your compliance. Here, the push and pull provides an effective and credible approach to your sales and marketing efforts.

In summary, by combining your push and pull marketing strategies when selling to the scientific sector you can, not only generate immediate leads, but do so while also effectively communicating with your target market, building your brand awareness and credibility. Capturing and creating demand is the best of both worlds!

Network Scientific offer a wide range of push and pull marketing services, all flexible to your requirements. Get in touch to discuss how we can help you by identifying any gaps in your current strategy.