Indirect Marketing: What Is It and How to Apply

By Mike Reiss- Apr 01, 2022 175

Indirect marketing is an option for those who want to gain authority by saturating or bombarding customers with traditional themed ads. 

This is a less aggressive way of advertising, this kind of marketing is very effective and can create a positive effect for your visitors. Because he escapes from these click actions and does not let the customer feel pressure while buying any product. Through indirect marketing, you can build authority, relationships, and brand recognition. 

If you want to know more about indirect marketing and how to apply it in business marketing strategies, we will tell you what you need to know in this article.

 

What is Indirect Marketing?

Indirect marketing can be defined as the promotion of a product, service, or brand outside the context of advertising. In other words, the promotion has no commercial purpose and your product is placed in a secondary position without any major importance. 

So, indirect marketing works so that your product or your brand is recognized by your target audience. So that when the customer sees your brand or product again, they will remember that they have already contacted it. 

Therefore, they are placed in a strategic position or in a context that is easy for the viewer to see. So that your service or brand can get better acceptance from these visitors. Thus, we can say that the focus of indirect marketing is to gain people's trust.

 

Direct and Indirect Marketing, which is better?

The answer is: it depends. 

Each case is different and as we have seen before, the goal of indirect marketing is not to convert, but the customer must remember that they have already seen your brand. Thus, indirect marketing can be considered as an alternative, but it does not replace direct marketing. 

Even indirect marketing is able to arouse the curiosity of the customer so you can use both strategies to create a greater desire to buy the customer. 

But the great advantage of indirect marketing through direct marketing is the fact that consumers are not forced to drop bombs or know the product, as is the case with conventional advertising. Direct marketing is more aggressive and uses more aggressive strategies such as ad usage, phone calls, call to action, etc ... 

We know that often using ads can have a bounce rate by the target audience, especially in online environments where it is almost impossible to avoid seeing any ads. Ads may appear and even disrupt consumer activity, creating a certain level of discomfort about the product actually being displayed. Thus, indirect marketing does not make the customer feel uncomfortable, because most of the time he is placed in a context that is suitable for his promotion.

 

Where is indirect marketing given?

Indirect marketing is part of our daily lives, and you probably don't realize you're affected by it. 

There are several channels that carry this type of media, so we now know the main and most common:

 

Movies, series, and soap operas

This is probably the most common context where indirect marketing is served, as it ranges from Hollywood film production to small productions. 

In the UK, soap operas and programs are widely used to manage indirect marketing. 

See details with some scenes where the restaurant has a character, for example, you see people drinking certain brands of soda.

It’s a way to make your product relevant, but contextualization doesn’t always feel so good that you don’t realize that the scene is promoting something. But most of the time everything is well thought out so that the consumer can make some connection with the brand also to the attachment of the artist of their choice.

 

TV commercial

TV ads can also be considered as indirect marketing unless the infected image is cleared as an ad. 

Tesco Group, a very famous supermarket chain in London, is well known for its attractive advertisements that touch the hearts of the public to tell stories. 

In these ads, the brand does not sell any specific products, only sends messages that usually appear on memorable dates.

 

Club shirts

Often, just displaying the logo can have a positive effect on indirect marketing. 

If you've been in football, you've already noticed the logos of sponsorship vehicle manufacturers and key team sponsors of soft drink brands. 

The names usually appear on the front or back of the shirt but it is also common for us to identify them on the sleeves of the shirt. So, we ask you which brand sponsors your favorite team? It is a good example of indirect marketing.

 

Football stadiums

In the days of football matches, for stamping players ’shirts, it is very common to find stands that sponsors give as gifts and more that reveal their brand. 

In stadiums, we also get the right to name, a great place to promote brand names.

 

Backdrops

Backdrops also stand in favor of the possibility of conducting indirect marketing at large events. 

These are used as backgrounds for events, interviews, press conferences, and presentations. 

In the case of indirect marketing, your goal is to take pictures of an athlete or artist and take advantage of indirect exposure during the interview. 

It is quite common in sports, but it is also used in international awards, promotional events, and more.

 

How to get indirect marketing in the virtual context?

The Internet and the virtual world cannot be excluded from the promotion of indirect marketing, and there are several contexts for the application of indirect marketing. 

 Let's explore each of these contexts now. Check out:

 

Content Marketing

Content marketing lets you apply indirect marketing through posts, blogs, podcasts, videos, and other media or platforms. 

The main purpose of content marketing is to show authority when you deliver valuable content to your audience. Great way to put a product into context without explicit advertising. That's how digital influencers and YouTubers manage to captivate their audience. 

Those who work with authorized marketing also have ways to promote their products in content marketing. So, learn about a course that will make all the difference for those of you who want to use content marketing to promote your products. 

The Influencer Marketing Course is a complete course for skill development that allows you to present interesting content and engage your audience.

 

SEO

This can serve as an extension for content marketing, such as SEO or search engine optimization, to build a website ranking among the top positions in the Google search engines. 

Also, it is possible to use SEO strategies to optimize your content so that they meet the interest of your visitors. 

For example, if you want to promote your product on a blog, you only need to register on authorized platforms. So that people can create content to promote your product and use SEO strategies to appear among the top places on Google.

 

Social networks

Content creators aren't just blogging, they're social media as well. 

Digital Influencers can promote a product through videos, photos, and posts on social media. By telling stories they put their product in a context so that the audience gains confidence. With the popularity of social networks like YouTube and Instagram, which allow their users to create videos. 

Some channels or digital influencers take advantage of the high number of followers to add sponsored products to their videos. 

Most of the similarities, like exhibition movies, soap operas, and series, the only difference is that there are some influential people in the online environment and on the internet. 

After all, who has never seen the presence of a specific brand by a digital influencer? Or by some familiar and famous channel? 

Start noticing the brands that these people are representing.

 

Games

In digital games, it is very common to see indirect marketing activities. It can be in sports games or adventure games. 

In racing games, it is very common for billboards to display logos of famous brands. And as they can be served in a context like soap operas, games can also have video scenes. 

There are many opportunities for indirect marketing in the game universe.