There is virtually no limit to the types of marketing strategies that an entrepreneur has at his disposal. And through the years, with new concepts and designs being discovered daily, the biggest problem that a business owner will face is choosing which one will suit best his new venture.

Basically, modern marketing can be divided into three general categories: the traditional marketing, word of mouth marketing, and the newest, online marketing.

• Traditional Marketing: Also known as offline marketing, traditional marketing used to be the only area that commanded the focus of marketers and business owners. This type of marketing strategy is further divided into two groups, print, and collectively, radio and TV. This may seem like a dinosaur to some but it is still highly effective and consistently produces good results. For new businesses, you can make use of printed materials like flyers, posters, and direct marketing through snail mail using catalogs for example. You can even use interactive and personal marketing by giving out products and samples. For those with a bigger budget, TV and radio ads are highly recommended to reach a larger audience and to effectively convey your message.
• Word of mouth Marketing: This is by far the most effective and powerful. It can instantly turn a consumer into a customer. This is because this type of marketing is the byproduct of the other two marketing strategies and the ensuing satisfaction for what was provided in exchange for their patronage. Because word of mouth marketing is placed on the shoulders of satisfied customers who then share this satisfaction with people who trust them, this trust is then transferred to the business. This lends an amount of credibility to the company for the new customer that no amount of media based advertising could ever achieve.
• Online Marketing: This is the newest, and may prove to be the most powerful, as it has opened a Pandora’s Box of different types of marketing strategies that have completely changed the face of marketing. Here you can find numerous methods for a new business to explore. Some of the best ideas would include affiliate marketing, article marketing, social networking, blogging. Affiliate marketing can take a similar form as print based traditional marketing by placing banner ads on websites, but can reach so many more people. Article marketing and blogging allow for two strategies at the same time. They can both be used to directly promote a product or service, or they can be used to help drive traffic to a website for the same purpose. Social networking is the online version of word of mouth marketing and has the ability to “personally touch” a huge number of people instantly with basically the touch of a button.

Whatever types of marketing strategies a new business decides to use, it would seem that the internet should figure prominently in that decision.