The world of advertising is ever-evolving. As technology and people change, so must the tactics marketers use to effectively reach them. While marketers often start with expertise in one domain, brands need to develop familiarity and expertise across three different domains that impact how a customer experiences their product and brand: performance marketing, retention marketing, and brand marketing. The intersection of these three domains is crucial to any growth strategy.
But what are they, and what’s the difference? In this blog, we will talk about the difference between performance marketing, retention marketing, and branding and the importance of each. Let’s dive in!
What is Performance Marketing?
Performance marketing describes online marketing and advertising channels—such as social media platforms and search engines—where advertisers only pay when specific actions occur. These actions can include generating an impression, a lead, a click, a sale, and more. Performance marketing is how you reach customers.
What is Retention Marketing?
Retention marketing is a strategy that focuses on bringing back customers who have already done business with a brand. It is a shift from focusing only on the acquisition of countless new customers, to also focusing on the profitability of those you already have. For any company to thrive, it needs repeat customers. Whether your business is selling a product or providing a service, customer retention can be the difference between success and failure. Performance marketing is how you keep customers.
What is Brand Marketing?
Brand marketing is a long-term, strategic plan to continuously boost your brand’s recognition and reputation through an ever-growing base of loyal customers. This is achieved by continually and consistently communicating the brand’s story, visual identity, and unique positioning that customers can relate to or aspire to. Brand marketing not only increases the awareness and intent that captures new customers, it also continues to be reinforced at every touchpoint in the customer lifecycle. Brand marketing shares the story of why your brand exists with meaningful, emotional connection points.
Brands must move beyond the traditional silo definitions of growth and integrate the three domains of marketing to maximize customer retention, build brand loyalty, and create market differentiation.
At BuzzShift, we bridge the gap between Brand, Performance & Retention Marketing by understanding how each area informs and affects the others, and build stronger strategies where the three work in sync together to amplify your brand’s impact. (Extra) We do this by proactively assessing changes in the market, the customers, and the business that necessitate a SHIFT.
Want to learn more about the different types of marketing and how they can facilitate meaning growth for your brand? Contact us today!
About BuzzShift
BuzzShift is a digital growth strategy agency with a focus on mid-market, scaling DTC Brands. By combining the ideologies of branding, performance marketing, and retention agency, we are able to create memorable experiences with measurable results, and build long-term success for our clients with scalable, sustainable growth. Learn more about BuzzShift.
