Many people think that in today’s marketplace there really are really only two methods of marketing online - Push or Pull Marketing. So what is Push & Pull?

Push Marketing is simple, it’s is that type of marketing where you push your message out to your audience. Pull on the other hand is the type of marketing where you place ads or messages you hope will pull people to your website. In some cases you think you have no choice and push marketing is the only way you can reach your audience. But often, you do have an alternative, and that alternative is to practice "pull marketing."

On a good note, push marketing is proactive. You are taking your message to your market, usually interrupting what the they are doing. It is sometimes called interruption marketing for this very reason. Your strategy is simple – hope you get their attention long enough to create interest. This will use a large amount of marketing energy to try to push your business’ name onto people who may not be interested in what you have to offer. Instead of pinpointing your targets, you are trying to convert the masses.

Pull marketing on the other hand is for you to find where your prospects congregate, then to make your information available to them in informative ways and ideally give them incentives to come to you when they have a need for what you or your business has to offer. Unlike the singular monologue of push marketing, pull marketing creates a dialogue between you and the prospect.

As a rule of thumb, Pull marketing techniques have a very high success rate, because they are tactics designed to attract the attention of people who have already qualified themselves as someone who is interested in purchasing products or services in your industry. Search engine optimization, pay-per-click campaigns, social media sites, E-newsletters, tradeshows, blogging and strategic networking are all forms of pull marketing designed to "pull in" potential clients who are already looking for a company to provide them with a specific product or service. It will save you marketing resources, because instead of competing with every business that is advertising on the particular media for the attention of consumers, you are only competing with businesses that are in your industry.

Is push or pull right for you? Ultimately, you must decide based on your budget, audience, offer, how much time you can invest, and more.

One very important factor is this: almost all great marketing campaigns consist of both push and pull marketing. It’s all about the right balance.