net-promoter-score

What Is The Net Promoter Score And Why It Matters

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of the ability of a product or service to attract word-of-mouth advertising. NPS is a crucial part of any marketing strategy since attracting and then retaining customers means they are more likely to recommend a business to others.

AspectExplanation
Concept Overview– The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a widely used metric to assess customer loyalty and customer satisfaction with a product, service, or brand. It is based on a single, straightforward question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product/service/company to a friend or colleague?” Respondents are categorized into Promoters (score 9-10), Passives (score 7-8), and Detractors (score 0-6). The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. The resulting score can be a positive or negative number. It is a valuable tool for understanding customer sentiment and gauging brand loyalty.
Key Characteristics– The Net Promoter Score is characterized by several key features: 1. Simplicity: It relies on a single, easy-to-understand question. 2. Focus on Advocacy: It assesses the likelihood of customers promoting the brand. 3. Promoter-Passive-Detractor Segmentation: It categorizes customers into three groups based on their responses. 4. Comparative Analysis: It allows for benchmarking against industry standards and competitors. 5. Real-Time Feedback: It can be collected and analyzed in real time for immediate insights.
Calculation– Calculating the Net Promoter Score involves three steps: 1. Survey: Ask the NPS question to customers. 2. Categorization: Categorize respondents into Promoters, Passives, and Detractors based on their responses. 3. Calculation: Calculate NPS by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. The score can range from -100 to +100.
Interpretation– NPS results are interpreted as follows: 1. Positive NPS (above 0): Indicates that there are more Promoters than Detractors, suggesting positive customer sentiment and potential for growth. 2. NPS of 0: Implies an equal number of Promoters and Detractors. 3. Negative NPS (below 0): Indicates more Detractors than Promoters, signaling potential issues with customer satisfaction and loyalty. The magnitude of the score reflects the degree of positivity or negativity.
Use in Decision-Making– Organizations use the Net Promoter Score as a tool to understand and improve customer loyalty and satisfaction. It provides insights into areas that need attention and helps prioritize efforts to convert Detractors into Promoters. NPS can guide product/service enhancements and inform customer-centric strategies. It is valuable for driving customer-focused decision-making.
Limitations– NPS has limitations, such as: 1. Limited Context: It provides a high-level view of customer sentiment but lacks detailed insights into specific issues. 2. Cultural Variations: Interpretation of scores can vary across cultures and regions. 3. Incomplete Picture: Relying solely on NPS may not capture the full spectrum of customer experiences and expectations. Organizations should complement NPS with other feedback mechanisms. 4. External Factors: NPS may be influenced by external factors beyond the organization’s control.
Continuous Feedback– NPS can be collected continuously, allowing organizations to track changes in customer sentiment over time. It is often used in conjunction with regular customer surveys or feedback mechanisms to monitor progress and evaluate the impact of customer experience improvements. Real-time feedback enables agile responses to customer concerns and preferences.
Benchmarking and Comparisons– NPS scores can be used for benchmarking against industry peers and competitors. Organizations can gain insights into their relative performance and identify areas where they lag or excel. Benchmarking helps set performance targets and align strategies to outperform competitors in terms of customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Strategic Implications– The Net Promoter Score can align with an organization’s strategic objectives. Improving NPS scores can be a strategic goal, as it directly correlates with customer loyalty and long-term business success. NPS-driven strategies may include enhancing customer service, product quality, and overall customer experience to foster advocacy and loyalty.
Communication and Reporting– Effective communication of NPS findings is essential for decision-makers and stakeholders. Clear presentations and concise explanations are crucial for conveying the implications of NPS analysis. Stakeholder buy-in and understanding are key for successfully driving customer-centric decision-making and initiatives.
Global Considerations– NPS is a globally recognized metric, and its application is not limited by geographic boundaries. However, cultural differences can impact interpretation and responses. Organizations should consider cultural nuances when collecting and analyzing NPS data in diverse markets. Understanding local customer sentiment is essential for effective global strategies.

Why does the Net Promoter Score matter?

While the old adage of “the customer is always right” may be somewhat outdated now, there is no denying that customer satisfaction is the ultimate benchmark of successful businesses.

Especially in the era of customer obsession.

customer-obsession

Word of mouth (viral engine) is very powerful, and among the engines of growth, and the Net Promoter Score is one of those simple, yet powerful metrics to measure that.

engines-of-growth

How is the Net Promoter Score calculated?

A survey is usually offered to customers to gauge their willingness to recommend products or services to others on a scale of 1-10. Depending on the results of that survey, the customers will fall into these three categories:

Promoters

Loyal customers who score either a 9 or a 10 are your biggest fans and will happily tell others about their buying experience.

Passives

Satisfied customers who score a 7 or 8 but who are not enthusiastic enough to tell others. Passives may be indifferent to repeat buying and could switch to a competitor.

Detractors

Unsatisfied customers who score between 0 and 6. Detractors are likely to share bad experiences with their friends and family and so are damaging to your brand.

How do you compute the Net Promoter Score?

The NPS score, then, is simply the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors.

Any score above 0 is considered a pass mark because there are more promoters than detractors.

However, the companies that experience the most growth will have scores in the range of 50-80.

Businesses can tap into this growth by incorporating NPS data into their marketing strategies.

Here are some of the benefits of doing so.

Case study: Imagine you asked 100 people to score your software. Of those, 30 were detractors, 30 passives, and 40 promoters.

Your net promoter score will be 10 (40 promoters – 30 detractors).

Clarifies customer satisfaction and marketing liabilities

Let’s face it; every business likes to think that it offers the best products in the world.

But is this reflected in reality?

The Net Promoter Score is a good way to find out because it compares the perceived level of customer satisfaction with the actual level.

If a difference of opinion exists between the marketing department and the customer, then the NPS will quickly identify where it exists.

These gaps often exist because of marketing liabilities such as:

  • Advertising claims that don’t live up to consumer expectations of reality.
  • Product defects, weaknesses, or flaws.
  • Improper or incomplete usage instructions.

The NPS allows your business to clarify where its marketing strategy is falling short.

Furthermore, it allows certain shortcomings to be rectified that have the potential to cause customer dissatisfaction and hurt the brand image.

Encourages employee investment and provides a relevant benchmark

Firstly, the NPS is easy to understand.

From the survey results, every member of the marketing department will be clear on what they are doing right and what still needs improvement. 

A high NPS not only increases customer satisfaction, but it also increases employee engagement.

Multiple studies have shown that engagement, or the emotional commitment an employee has to their employer, produces marketing campaigns that result in higher and repeated sales.

Secondly, the NPS is a universal benchmark.

It allows you to compare your efforts with publicly available data in your niche and also from your competitors.

NPS data also provides marketing teams with tangible information that they can use to demonstrate progress to clients and stakeholders associated with the company.

Fuels organic growth by identifying loyal customers

When businesses receive the results of their NPS surveys, the temptation may be to focus on customers who fall into the passive and detractor categories. 

However, it is important not to overlook the promoter category.

Research by Nielsen found that over 70% of study participants were more likely to buy a product if a friend mentioned it through email or social media.

A Harvard Business Review study also found that customers referred through word of mouth were worth 16% more in dollar terms than those who found a business through other channels.

Why are promoters so important?

There are several reasons:

Promoters fuel organic growth of your business through brand advocacy

To some extent, they become your marketing department.

They are more than happy to spread the word about your business for free.

Focus

Promoters allow your marketing strategy to focus on what matters and build a sustainable business model

By understanding what promoters love about your brand specifically, you gain clarity on what sort of marketing is most effective at recruiting new customers.

They spend more

Research by RJMetrics also suggests that promoters spend 30 times more money on your products than the once-off buyer.

Thus, developing marketing strategies that keep promoters happily engaged is important.

Loyalty programs, discounts on future purchases, and incentives for spreading the word are examples of effective strategies.

Allows your marketing strategy to be trackable

It might seem obvious, but you cannot improve what you cannot track. 

The most effective marketing strategies are backed up by hard data.

Tracking your Net Promoter Score allows the marketing team to refine their strategies based on how well certain changes are received.

With this feedback, they can devote more resources to strategies that work and less to those that do not.

So that you can build a viable business model, quickly.

Regular tracking also allows trends and seasonal changes to be identified quickly.

Technology, for example, is constantly evolving and some consumers will inevitably become passive or unsatisfied customers if they are left with outdated products.

Passive customers, as we have learned, are indifferent to your products and can be lost to competitors easily.

Since it is much easier to retain existing customers than it is to recruit new ones, marketing efforts must be directed toward converting passives into promoters.

Here, NPS survey data is invaluable.

It enables businesses to refine their products and associated marketing strategies.

Such strategies become more flexible to current trends and stand a better chance of retaining customers who might be potentially lost forever.

The net promoter score in the growth hacking context

The next promoter score is an important metric also in the context of growth hacking.

growth-marketing
Growth marketing is a process of rapid experimentation, which in a way has to be “scientific” by keeping in mind that it is used by startups to grow, quickly. Thus, the “scientific” here is not meant in the academic sense. Growth marketing is expected to unlock growth, quickly and with an often limited budget.

In short, in the growth hacking process, there are two elements which are crucial to develop a growth strategy:

  • The “aha experience.”
  • And the must-have product.

The “aha experience” represents the moment in which users or potential customers realize the full potential of your product.

This is critical, as no growth strategy can be built on a mediocre product.

From there, it’s critical to understand whether your product is a must-have.

In short, how much would people be disappointed if your product were withdrawn from the market tomorrow?

From there, the net promoter score helps grasp how much built-in viral growth the product has, and therefore you have the basis to push as much as possible!

Case Studies

Business TypePromoters (%)Passives (%)Detractors (%)NPSCase StudyDescriptionBreakdownAnalysisImplications
Online Retailer75%15%10%65Case Study: Online RetailerThis online retailer sells a variety of products online.Promoters (75%): Customers highly satisfied with products and service. Passives (15%): Satisfied but not enthusiastic. Detractors (10%): Dissatisfied customers.The high percentage of promoters suggests a strong customer base. However, addressing issues causing detractors can further improve NPS.– Improve customer service – Resolve issues promptly – Collect feedback from detractors – Enhance overall satisfaction.
Restaurant45%30%25%20Case Study: RestaurantA restaurant offering a diverse menu and dining experience.Promoters (45%): Customers who had a positive dining experience. Passives (30%): Satisfied but not overly impressed. Detractors (25%): Customers with negative experiences.NPS is positive but relatively low. It’s essential to identify reasons for detractors’ dissatisfaction and make improvements.– Conduct customer surveys – Address complaints – Enhance menu/service – Promote positive reviews – Boost NPS.
Tech Support Service30%25%45%-15Case Study: Tech Support ServiceA company providing tech support for various products.Promoters (30%): Satisfied customers. Passives (25%): Neutral. Detractors (45%): Unsatisfied customers.The negative NPS indicates significant dissatisfaction among customers. Immediate action is needed to address issues.– Conduct customer satisfaction surveys – Analyze complaints – Improve service quality – Train support staff – Raise NPS.
Streaming Service60%20%20%40Case Study: Streaming ServiceA subscription-based streaming platform.Promoters (60%): Highly satisfied subscribers. Passives (20%): Satisfied but not enthusiastic. Detractors (20%): Dissatisfied subscribers.The positive NPS suggests a strong user base, but there’s room to convert passives into promoters.– Enhance content – Offer personalized recommendations – Provide incentives – Promote more word-of-mouth recommendations – Boost NPS.
Healthcare Clinic40%35%25%15Case Study: Healthcare ClinicA medical clinic providing a range of healthcare services.Promoters (40%): Satisfied patients. Passives (35%): Satisfied but not enthusiastic. Detractors (25%): Unsatisfied patients.The NPS is positive, indicating general satisfaction. However, addressing detractors’ concerns can lead to further improvement.– Collect feedback – Reduce wait times – Improve patient experience – Invest in better facilities – Boost NPS.
Automobile Manufacturer25%45%30%-5Case Study: Automobile ManufacturerA car manufacturer with a range of models.Promoters (25%): Satisfied customers. Passives (45%): Neutral. Detractors (30%): Dissatisfied customers.The negative NPS highlights issues that need immediate attention. Dissatisfied customers can harm brand reputation.– Conduct quality assessments – Address manufacturing defects – Improve customer service – Turn detractors into promoters.

Key takeaways

  • Considering the ease with which NPS data can be collated, the benefits of using it to deliver marketing strategies are tremendous.
  • NPS data clarifies customer satisfaction and addresses gaps in a marketing message or product development.
  • NPS data is also easy to digest, increasing buy-in across different departments and increasing employee engagement.
  • It also provides a relevant benchmark that businesses can use to judge their efforts against others in their industry.
  • Perhaps most importantly, it allows businesses to devote their resources to where it matters most – their promoters.
  • Businesses with effective marketing departments understand that promoters are enthusiastic brand evangelists.
  • They offer a low-cost, high-profit opportunity for growth and by tracking the relative proportion of promoters over time, businesses can stay one step ahead of trends and prevent brand desertion before it occurs.

Key Highlights on Net Promoter Score (NPS):

NPS Definition and Importance:

  • The Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures a product or service’s ability to attract word-of-mouth advertising.
  • Customer satisfaction is a key benchmark for successful businesses.
  • Word-of-mouth is a powerful growth engine, and NPS is a simple yet effective metric to measure it.

Calculation of NPS:

  • Customers are surveyed to determine their willingness to recommend products/services on a scale of 1-10.
  • Three categories: Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), Detractors (0-6).
  • NPS is calculated as the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors.
  • A positive score indicates more promoters than detractors, and scores in the range of 50-80 are considered highly growth-oriented.

Benefits of NPS in Marketing Strategy:

  • Clarifies Customer Satisfaction and Marketing Liabilities:
    • Compares perceived and actual customer satisfaction.
    • Identifies gaps caused by marketing claims, product issues, or improper usage instructions.
    • Helps rectify shortcomings that could damage brand image.
  • Encourages Employee Investment and Provides a Benchmark:
    • Easy-to-understand metric for marketing teams.
    • High NPS boosts both customer satisfaction and employee engagement.
    • Provides a universal benchmark for industry and competitor comparison.
  • Fuels Organic Growth by Identifying Loyal Customers:
    • Focusing on promoters is important for organic growth.
    • Word-of-mouth referrals are valuable; referrals spend more and bring higher value.
    • Promoters become brand advocates and spread positive word-of-mouth.
  • Allows Tracking and Refinement of Marketing Strategies:
    • Data-backed marketing strategies are effective.
    • Regular tracking refines strategies based on feedback.
    • Enables identification of trends and seasonal changes for quick adaptation.
  • Improves Focus and Retention of Existing Customers:
    • Helps in converting passives into promoters.
    • Retaining customers is easier and more cost-effective than acquiring new ones.
    • NPS survey data refines products and marketing strategies, retaining potentially lost customers.
  • NPS in Growth Hacking Context:
    • NPS plays a role in growth hacking by understanding the “aha experience” and product’s must-have nature.
    • Identifies viral growth potential and informs growth strategies.

Visual Marketing Glossary

Account-Based Marketing

account-based-marketing
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategy where the marketing and sales departments come together to create personalized buying experiences for high-value accounts. Account-based marketing is a business-to-business (B2B) approach in which marketing and sales teams work together to target high-value accounts and turn them into customers.

Ad-Ops

ad-ops
Ad Ops – also known as Digital Ad Operations – refers to systems and processes that support digital advertisements’ delivery and management. The concept describes any process that helps a marketing team manage, run, or optimize ad campaigns, making them an integrating part of the business operations.

AARRR Funnel

pirate-metrics
Venture capitalist, Dave McClure, coined the acronym AARRR which is a simplified model that enables to understand what metrics and channels to look at, at each stage for the users’ path toward becoming customers and referrers of a brand.

Affinity Marketing

affinity-marketing
Affinity marketing involves a partnership between two or more businesses to sell more products. Note that this is a mutually beneficial arrangement where one brand can extend its reach and enhance its credibility in association with the other.

Ambush Marketing

ambush-marketing
As the name suggests, ambush marketing raises awareness for brands at events in a covert and unexpected fashion. Ambush marketing takes many forms, one common element, the brand advertising their products or services has not paid for the right to do so. Thus, the business doing the ambushing attempts to capitalize on the efforts made by the business sponsoring the event.

Affiliate Marketing

affiliate-marketing
Affiliate marketing describes the process whereby an affiliate earns a commission for selling the products of another person or company. Here, the affiliate is simply an individual who is motivated to promote a particular product through incentivization. The business whose product is being promoted will gain in terms of sales and marketing from affiliates.

Bullseye Framework

bullseye-framework
The bullseye framework is a simple method that enables you to prioritize the marketing channels that will make your company gain traction. The main logic of the bullseye framework is to find the marketing channels that work and prioritize them.

Brand Building

brand-building
Brand building is the set of activities that help companies to build an identity that can be recognized by its audience. Thus, it works as a mechanism of identification through core values that signal trust and that help build long-term relationships between the brand and its key stakeholders.

Brand Dilution

brand-dilution
According to inbound marketing platform HubSpot, brand dilution occurs “when a company’s brand equity diminishes due to an unsuccessful brand extension, which is a new product the company develops in an industry that they don’t have any market share in.” Brand dilution, therefore, occurs when a brand decreases in value after the company releases a product that does not align with its vision, mission, or skillset. 

Brand Essence Wheel

brand-essence-wheel
The brand essence wheel is a templated approach businesses can use to better understand their brand. The brand essence wheel has obvious implications for external brand strategy. However, it is equally important in simplifying brand strategy for employees without a strong marketing background. Although many variations of the brand essence wheel exist, a comprehensive wheel incorporates information from five categories: attributes, benefits, values, personality, brand essence.

Brand Equity

what-is-brand-equity
The brand equity is the premium that a customer is willing to pay for a product that has all the objective characteristics of existing alternatives, thus, making it different in terms of perception. The premium on seemingly equal products and quality is attributable to its brand equity.

Brand Positioning

brand-positioning
Brand positioning is about creating a mental real estate in the mind of the target market. If successful, brand positioning allows a business to gain a competitive advantage. And it also works as a switching cost in favor of the brand. Consumers recognizing a brand might be less prone to switch to another brand.

Business Storytelling

business-storytelling
Business storytelling is a critical part of developing a business model. Indeed, the way you frame the story of your organization will influence its brand in the long-term. That’s because your brand story is tied to your brand identity, and it enables people to identify with a company.

Content Marketing

content-marketing
Content marketing is one of the most powerful commercial activities which focuses on leveraging content production (text, audio, video, or other formats) to attract a targeted audience. Content marketing focuses on building a strong brand, but also to convert part of that targeted audience into potential customers.

Customer Lifetime Value

customer-lifetime-value
One of the first mentions of customer lifetime value was in the 1988 book Database Marketing: Strategy and Implementation written by Robert Shaw and Merlin Stone. Customer lifetime value (CLV) represents the value of a customer to a company over a period of time. It represents a critical business metric, especially for SaaS or recurring revenue-based businesses.

Customer Segmentation

customer-segmentation
Customer segmentation is a marketing method that divides the customers in sub-groups, that share similar characteristics. Thus, product, marketing and engineering teams can center the strategy from go-to-market to product development and communication around each sub-group. Customer segments can be broken down is several ways, such as demographics, geography, psychographics and more.

Developer Marketing

developer-marketing
Developer marketing encompasses tactics designed to grow awareness and adopt software tools, solutions, and SaaS platforms. Developer marketing has become the standard among software companies with a platform component, where developers can build applications on top of the core software or open software. Therefore, engaging developer communities has become a key element of marketing for many digital businesses.

Digital Marketing Channels

digital-marketing-channels
A digital channel is a marketing channel, part of a distribution strategy, helping an organization to reach its potential customers via electronic means. There are several digital marketing channels, usually divided into organic and paid channels. Some organic channels are SEO, SMO, email marketing. And some paid channels comprise SEM, SMM, and display advertising.

Field Marketing

field-marketing
Field marketing is a general term that encompasses face-to-face marketing activities carried out in the field. These activities may include street promotions, conferences, sales, and various forms of experiential marketing. Field marketing, therefore, refers to any marketing activity that is performed in the field.

Funnel Marketing

funnel-marketing
interaction with a brand until they become a paid customer and beyond. Funnel marketing is modeled after the marketing funnel, a concept that tells the company how it should market to consumers based on their position in the funnel itself. The notion of a customer embarking on a journey when interacting with a brand was first proposed by Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898. Funnel marketing typically considers three stages of a non-linear marketing funnel. These are top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU). Particular marketing strategies at each stage are adapted to the level of familiarity the consumer has with a brand.

Go-To-Market Strategy

go-to-market-strategy
A go-to-market strategy represents how companies market their new products to reach target customers in a scalable and repeatable way. It starts with how new products/services get developed to how these organizations target potential customers (via sales and marketing models) to enable their value proposition to be delivered to create a competitive advantage.

Greenwashing

greenwashing
The term “greenwashing” was first coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986 at a time when most consumers received their news from television, radio, and print media. Some companies took advantage of limited public access to information by portraying themselves as environmental stewards – even when their actions proved otherwise. Greenwashing is a deceptive marketing practice where a company makes unsubstantiated claims about an environmentally-friendly product or service.

Grassroots Marketing

grassroots-marketing
Grassroots marketing involves a brand creating highly targeted content for a particular niche or audience. When an organization engages in grassroots marketing, it focuses on a small group of people with the hope that its marketing message is shared with a progressively larger audience.

Growth Marketing

growth-marketing
Growth marketing is a process of rapid experimentation, which in a way has to be “scientific” by keeping in mind that it is used by startups to grow, quickly. Thus, the “scientific” here is not meant in the academic sense. Growth marketing is expected to unlock growth, quickly and with an often limited budget.

Guerrilla Marketing

guerrilla-marketing
Guerrilla marketing is an advertising strategy that seeks to utilize low-cost and sometimes unconventional tactics that are high impact. First coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book of the same title, guerrilla marketing works best on existing customers who are familiar with a brand or product and its particular characteristics.

Hunger Marketing

hunger-marketing
Hunger marketing is a marketing strategy focused on manipulating consumer emotions. By bringing products to market with an attractive price point and restricted supply, consumers have a stronger desire to make a purchase.

Integrated Communication

integrated-marketing-communication
Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is an approach used by businesses to coordinate and brand their communication strategies. Integrated marketing communication takes separate marketing functions and combines them into one, interconnected approach with a core brand message that is consistent across various channels. These encompass owned, earned, and paid media. Integrated marketing communication has been used to great effect by companies such as Snapchat, Snickers, and Domino’s.

Inbound Marketing

inbound-marketing
Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy designed to attract customers to a brand with content and experiences that they derive value from. Inbound marketing utilizes blogs, events, SEO, and social media to create brand awareness and attract targeted consumers. By attracting or “drawing in” a targeted audience, inbound marketing differs from outbound marketing which actively pushes a brand onto consumers who may have no interest in what is being offered.

Integrated Marketing

integrated-marketing
Integrated marketing describes the process of delivering consistent and relevant content to a target audience across all marketing channels. It is a cohesive, unified, and immersive marketing strategy that is cost-effective and relies on brand identity and storytelling to amplify the brand to a wider and wider audience.

Marketing Mix

marketing-mix
The marketing mix is a term to describe the multi-faceted approach to a complete and effective marketing plan. Traditionally, this plan included the four Ps of marketing: price, product, promotion, and place. But the exact makeup of a marketing mix has undergone various changes in response to new technologies and ways of thinking. Additions to the four Ps include physical evidence, people, process, and even politics.

Marketing Myopia

marketing-myopia
Marketing myopia is the nearsighted focus on selling goods and services at the expense of consumer needs. Marketing myopia was coined by Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt in 1960. Originally, Levitt described the concept in the context of organizations in high-growth industries that become complacent in their belief that such industries never fail.

Marketing Personas

marketing-personas
Marketing personas give businesses a general overview of key segments of their target audience and how these segments interact with their brand. Marketing personas are based on the data of an ideal, fictional customer whose characteristics, needs, and motivations are representative of a broader market segment.

Meme Marketing

meme-marketing
Meme marketing is any marketing strategy that uses memes to promote a brand. The term “meme” itself was popularized by author Richard Dawkins over 50 years later in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. In the book, Dawkins described how ideas evolved and were shared across different cultures. The internet has enabled this exchange to occur at an exponential rate, with the first modern memes emerging in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Microtargeting

microtargeting
Microtargeting is a marketing strategy that utilizes consumer demographic data to identify the interests of a very specific group of individuals. Like most marketing strategies, the goal of microtargeting is to positively influence consumer behavior.

Multi-Channel Marketing

multichannel-marketing
Multichannel marketing executes a marketing strategy across multiple platforms to reach as many consumers as possible. Here, a platform may refer to product packaging, word-of-mouth advertising, mobile apps, email, websites, or promotional events, and all the other channels that can help amplify the brand to reach as many consumers as possible.

Multi-Level Marketing

multilevel-marketing
Multi-level marketing (MLM), otherwise known as network or referral marketing, is a strategy in which businesses sell their products through person-to-person sales. When consumers join MLM programs, they act as distributors. Distributors make money by selling the product directly to other consumers. They earn a small percentage of sales from those that they recruit to do the same – often referred to as their “downline”.

Net Promoter Score

net-promoter-score
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of the ability of a product or service to attract word-of-mouth advertising. NPS is a crucial part of any marketing strategy since attracting and then retaining customers means they are more likely to recommend a business to others.

Neuromarketing

neuromarketing
Neuromarketing information is collected by measuring brain activity related to specific brain functions using sophisticated and expensive technology such as MRI machines. Some businesses also choose to make inferences of neurological responses by analyzing biometric and heart-rate data. Neuromarketing is the domain of large companies with similarly large budgets or subsidies. These include Frito-Lay, Google, and The Weather Channel.

Newsjacking

newsjacking
Newsjacking as a marketing strategy was popularised by David Meerman Scott in his book Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage. Newsjacking describes the practice of aligning a brand with a current event to generate media attention and increase brand exposure.

Niche Marketing

microniche
A microniche is a subset of potential customers within a niche. In the era of dominating digital super-platforms, identifying a microniche can kick off the strategy of digital businesses to prevent competition against large platforms. As the microniche becomes a niche, then a market, scale becomes an option.

Push vs. Pull Marketing

push-vs-pull-marketing
We can define pull and push marketing from the perspective of the target audience or customers. In push marketing, as the name suggests, you’re promoting a product so that consumers can see it. In a pull strategy, consumers might look for your product or service drawn by its brand.

Real-Time Marketing

real-time-marketing
Real-time marketing is as exactly as it sounds. It involves in-the-moment marketing to customers across any channel based on how that customer is interacting with the brand.

Relationship Marketing

relationship-marketing
Relationship marketing involves businesses and their brands forming long-term relationships with customers. The focus of relationship marketing is to increase customer loyalty and engagement through high-quality products and services. It differs from short-term processes focused solely on customer acquisition and individual sales.

Reverse Marketing

reverse-marketing
Reverse marketing describes any marketing strategy that encourages consumers to seek out a product or company on their own. This approach differs from a traditional marketing strategy where marketers seek out the consumer.

Remarketing

remarketing
Remarketing involves the creation of personalized and targeted ads for consumers who have already visited a company’s website. The process works in this way: as users visit a brand’s website, they are tagged with cookies that follow the users, and as they land on advertising platforms where retargeting is an option (like social media platforms) they get served ads based on their navigation.

Sensory Marketing

sensory-marketing
Sensory marketing describes any marketing campaign designed to appeal to the five human senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are enabling marketers to design fun, interactive, and immersive sensory marketing brand experiences. Long term, businesses must develop sensory marketing campaigns that are relevant and effective in eCommerce.

Services Marketing

services-marketing
Services marketing originated as a separate field of study during the 1980s. Researchers realized that the unique characteristics of services required different marketing strategies to those used in the promotion of physical goods. Services marketing is a specialized branch of marketing that promotes the intangible benefits delivered by a company to create customer value.

Sustainable Marketing

sustainable-marketing-green-marketing
Sustainable marketing describes how a business will invest in social and environmental initiatives as part of its marketing strategy. Also known as green marketing, it is often used to counteract public criticism around wastage, misleading advertising, and poor quality or unsafe products.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing

word-of-mouth-marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing is a marketing strategy skewed toward offering a great experience to existing customers and incentivizing them to share it with other potential customers. That is one of the most effective forms of marketing as it enables a company to gain traction based on existing customers’ referrals. When repeat customers become a key enabler for the brand this is one of the best organic and sustainable growth marketing strategies.

360 Marketing

360-marketing
360 marketing is a marketing campaign that utilizes all available mediums, channels, and consumer touchpoints. 360 marketing requires the business to maintain a consistent presence across multiple online and offline channels. This ensures it does not miss potentially lucrative customer segments. By its very nature, 360 marketing describes any number of different marketing strategies. However, a broad and holistic marketing strategy should incorporate a website, SEO, PPC, email marketing, social media, public relations, in-store relations, and traditional forms of advertising such as television.

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