Difference Between ATL Marketing, TTL Marketing & BTL Marketing

The first question is: What are the differences between ATL marketing, TTL marketing & BTL marketing, and why are these marketing techniques being used by the audiences? How do these marketing techniques help the audiences in case of awareness? Are there any similarities between these marketing methods?

Marketing methods never go out of fashion respective of the times we live in. As you are trying to reach your targeted audience using some marketing tools you can create products/services with utility for them. Earlier the standard business was allowed to use effective marketing to build their brands and engage customers with their service.

But let us first introduce the term “Marketing”. What does it mean and how is it used by the various profiles in terms of advertising and promoting brands? Are the ATL marketing, TTL marketing & BTL marketing types of marketing?

Marketing can be said as the art and science of getting traction in what you have been looking for. Because whenever you are going to create marketing campaigns to promote your brand, it will include the considerations to help you build the right strategies. To do so, one of the approaches to reach customers is the marketing strategy. 

To target your customers and reach them there are different ways, you can hit the audience at once, approach a bunch of individuals or else use a combination of both approaches. 

But in the world of marketing, a commonly asked question is arising: what is the difference between ATL marketing, TTL marketing & BTL marketing? Let’s just summarize the basic meaning of these marketing approaches, what are these methods? In the next section, we will discuss where the term “the line” comes from and how it started to be used.

The quick definition of ATL, BTL & TTL marketing can be as:

“ATL MARKETING DEFINITION: ABOVE THE LINE - REACH A WIDE AUDIENCE WITHOUT TAKING INTO ACCOUNT BTL MARKETING DEFINITION: BELOW THE LINE - FOCUSES ON INDIVIDUAL AND GROUPS OF CUSTOMERS TTL MARKETING DEFINITION: THROUGH THE LINE - COMBINES BOTH MARKETING METHODS ATL AND BTL MARKETING STRATEGIES”

Where Did The Term “The Line” Come From?

The definition of marketing approaches was first used in 1954 when the proctor and gamble started to pay separately to different firms at different costs. These approaches were used for direct promotional activities and advertising campaigns which distinguished the two approaches. 

In the way of marketing strategies, “the line” was used by several marketing agencies to make the difference between the direct and targeted marketing campaign from one of those general and aimed campaigns at brand activeness. Also, the marketing approaches used to track the return on investments, as well presence & absence of results. 

And this is a considerable thing if “the line” is blurring with the rapid use of social media today which gives a broad exposure of marketing & advertising. This could be ATL which highly targeted BTL marketing therefore are all social media marketing TTL? 

In the whole process, the one important point is to consider intent. When you are going to promote or advertise something with a direct response element it could not be ATL, and if it is TTL marketing the promotion messages should show on a page that is not as targeted to the audience.

The first one ATL marketing (Above the line) generally refers to the untargeted, massive campaigns to create awareness towards your brands/services to reach the people. BTL marketing (Below the line) indicates the small and highly targeted individuals in the world of ads.

With BTL marketing you can easily track the returns on investment. And TTL marketing (Through the line) you can use both of these approaches to gain both widespread brand awareness and focused, targeted returns.

The term “the line” originated for the use of different marketing activities that have mass penetration (above the line) to that method which had specific penetration (below the line). Due to increased competition and development in technology, engaged through the line marketing strategies which include the use of both ATL & BTL advertising approaches blurs the line.

The marketers conduct promotional activities with the two marketing strategies. With these marketing approaches, the marketers advertise the product to a bunch of individuals and a focus group for communications. Nowadays these marketing ways are differentiated into two methods: Above the line (ATL marketing) & Below the line (BTL marketing).

The trends shift constantly with consumption, and marketers should find a way of addressing these changing demands of markets. The marketing approach Through the Line (TTL) marketing allows marketers to use an integrated approach to reach their audience to advertise products simultaneously.

We will help you to explain and summarize these marketing strategies in detail with their benefits and advantages.

What Does Mean By ATL Marketing: Above The Line

ATL is short for Above the line. ATL marketing refers to a marketing strategy that does not focus on particular clients or clientele. Here, advertisers reach a wide audience without taking into account the wants and preferences of a small group.

ATL marketing is frequently carried out on a massive scale without the marketers being close to their prospects or clients. If you want to expand the reach of your business, raise brand awareness, and appeal to a larger audience, you can use this marketing strategy.

Conversions are not a major priority of ATL marketing. The goal of this strategy is frequently to employ mass marketing techniques to get your message out there. ATL campaigns are more targeted on the media platforms used for spreading the promotional messages of the brands. 

In the ATL marketing messages, everyone has the access to the chosen media platforms for marketing purposes and can be on the receiving end of this marketing approach.

The best benefit of ATL marketing is to focus on forwarding the communication to the mass market. Because as we know that when we promote the business, the message target is not fixed, which means they do not focus on a specific group of targets. 

ATL marketing gives the idea to inform the customers about the availability of the product/services. Whereas Marketers via ATL marketing seek to encourage customers to visit their stores and actively look for the product. To create brand visibility and reach a larger company this strategy will help you with it.

How to implement ATL activities:

Television: can directly advertise or promote the products at the regional or national level.

Radio: radio broadcasts the marketing messages at PAN India or PAN-city.

Print Media: through online or offline marketing methods in newspapers, online articles, and advertisements. 

Examples Of ATL Marketing (Above The Line) Advertising

• Television 

  With time and over decades, ATL marketing is one of the most important and widely implemented marketing techniques. With this ATL marketing, it allows several businesses over the world to reach their customers on a variety of platforms. Instead of replacing television and print ads with digital alternatives rapidly, it helps the brands across the brand to get a lot of traction.

  Still in the age of Google and YouTube banner ads, the only matter of prestige for a brand should be featured in a leading magazine.

  One of the most often used media for advertising is television. TV is viewed because it is entertaining and educational. They have access to information about your job, residence, and earnings. Use above-the-line advertisements if you want to reach people.

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  Companies pay for advertisements that appear above the fold. Public service announcements, infomercials, advertisements, and product placements are examples of this style of advertisement. Although these advertisements are more expensive, they increase interest in your brand.

  To include in your above-the-line campaign, you can pick from a variety of advertisement kinds. Here are a few instances:

  -Local advertisements: These are frequently seen on billboards, at bus stations, etc. They frequently appear close to residential areas.

  -National advertisements: National advertisements are considered to be ads that are most visible during prime time or late night hours. They could be seen via cable channels like CNN, Fox News, etc.

  -International advertisement: As its name suggests these ads are typically seen on foreign channels like BBC World News, Al Jazeera English, etc.

• Print Media Advertisement

  The print media advertisement in ATL's marketing strategy includes the newspapers and magazines approaches. There is a reason behind using this advertisement approach to target the audience at a large scale quickly. This method has been used for decades although, today more people are attracted to using the internet to access content & information online.

  As compared to other mediums of ATL marketing local, regional and national print mediums have a very high reach to the consumers. If we talk about the newspaper medium it has fixed ad slots given where daily it publishes some promotional messages by the marketers to give information to customers or brand offers. 

  Whereas magazines medium exists in niches and it makes the way easy for marketers to target their audience directly through them. 

  The municipal, regional, and national levels all have access to this kind of media. This platform can assist companies in narrowing their market focus and boosting brand recognition. Newspapers offer a variety of predefined slots from which one can select based on their brand and product. A variety of magazines are published, covering topics like politics, the financial market, marketing, beauty, and fashion. Therefore, you may choose whose readership you want to write for.

• Radio

  When it comes to another medium for ATL marketing, radio marketing is considered the oldest medium used by people at times of driving, working, and even at home. Therefore advertisers can have different prospects to reach their message to the customers. 

  Radio marketing is an effective medium for marketers & businesses due to its affordability. Even small businesses can also have their benefits with a small budget. We can suppose radio ads are good for consumers' recall and call-to-action. However, it can target local, national, or as well international audiences.

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  According to psychologists, a consumer must be exposed to an advertisement at least three times before it starts to sink in. When it comes to this frequency, no other medium offers such affordability as radio.

  The best alternative for marketers to meet the frequency and creative requirements of an advertisement is the radio. Radio should have a similar national, international, and local presence as television.

• Outdoor Advertising

  The last ATL marketing strategy is outdoor advertising which is usually done in public places and continuously on display, based on the location it could have a greater reach. Outdoor advertising includes Flags, Banners, Wraps, Billboards, etc.

  This advertising way is the most creative way to promote your brands and create product awareness among a large number of people. The outdoor advertisement gives features to marketers to take the attention of users by being minimalistic as possible.

  Especially people do not have time to read long texts so they pay attention to the billboards and hoardings which encourage them to look at them. This is a very effective strategy of ATL marketing if it is used perfectly.

  Outdoor advertisement helps marketers to increase the recall value of your brand, and end up engaging with your business right away with the prospects.

Advantages Of ATL (Above The Line) Marketing

• Wide Reach: 

  As per research, we can say ATL marketing has a wide and insane customer reach. Let’s take an example: a 20-second of ad space during the 2019 Super Bowl final costs upto $3 million. 

  This is just because there are over 111 million viewers for the game in the US alone. And the Super Bowl commercials have made as much of a big deal as the game itself, it encourages the people to tune in every year just to see them.

• Better Connect With The Audiences

  The best advantage of ATL marketing is that the mediums like TV and radio use audio-visuals which serves a better connection with the audience. 

  These Mediums like television and radio are the better option to spread your important information by using a mixture of audio and visuals to connect with audiences as opposed to still images.

• Brand Building Effectively

  Because a brand is ultimately created by its customers, media advertising is a crucial element in shaping brand identity. As a result, ATL advertising is essential to brand development since it enables marketers to communicate with as many potential customers as possible and notify them of the existence and advantages of the product or service.

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  To define and realize brand identity, media advertising is an essential tool. Customers build a brand. It is the responsibility of marketers to effectively communicate the benefits of the product or service to as many potential customers as they can in order to build a brand. As a result, building a brand relies heavily on above-the-line marketing.

What Does Mean By BTL Marketing: Below The Line

Now we are going to discuss the second marketing approach which is BTL (Below the line) marketing which is more focused and directed toward a specific group of consumers. BTL (Below the line) marketing is highly focused on the way advertisements create effectively in mind the demographic and psychographic characteristics of the segments of particular customers.

BTL marketing can be described as (Below the line) marketing. Unlike ATL marketing, this marketing strategy focuses on individuals and groups of customers as well to promote the business products/services. Because BTL marketing is all about engaging the customers in one personalized and centralized manner.

The only purpose of this marketing approach is to gain conversations and highly personalized communication. The best benefit of BTL marketing is we can track the results of the marketing campaign. In this, the ROI is also high. These BTL marketing campaigns could be tailored within a single segment for different subsets of consumers. 

BTL marketing researches the customer’s exact requirements and based on their needs and their preferences, tailored the marketing campaigns for them. This marketing approach focuses on creating conversations with the customers instead of distributing brand awareness. 

There are a lot of businesses that chart out a BTL marketing campaign as they already built their brands without knowing the awareness of their existence with their audience. This strategy helps the business to revolve around persuading the audience to encourage them to purchase and driving revenue home. We can say that BTL marketing is the best option for a sales-oriented approach.

How to Implementing BTL activities:

• BTL marketing is Outdoor advertisements such as Billboards, fliers, banners, sandwich boards, etc.
• It can be Direct marketing methods including SMS, emails, social media posts, and pamphlets.
• BTL marketing also helps marketers to promote via Sponsorship: Events, competitions
• Press conferences and viral marketing come under public relations.
• You can do BTL marketing through In-store promotions such as Visual merchandising, retailer pop-ups, sampling, and sales promotions.

Examples Of BTL Marketing (Below The Line) Advertising

• Direct Marketing

  This direct marketing is another approach of BTL marketing or Below The Line Marketing where the marketers directly start to engage with the customers or prospects. In Direct marketing, the sales representatives physically visit their potential customers to promote their brands and offer the benefits of their products to them.

  

  With time direct marketing moved on to digital platforms to make the marketing process easier and more effective. 

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  Whenever any customers make a purchase or buy something from the seller’s portals, their respective details are recorded on the database of the marketer CRM panel. These customers' details are used later by marketers to approach the customers across various platforms. The purpose of doing this is to ask them to make another purchase with the same offerings.

  If we talk about this marketing strategy with the help of an example, the most effective example is Amazon. This service recommends the product list based on their previous purchases to users. To make the customers feel special BTL marketing techniques personalize the services offered by brands.

• Email Marketing

  Email marketing is another type of approach of BTL marketing where the business creates promotional and creative email campaigns to promote their brand to customers for making purchases. To give exclusive offers to customers asking them to opt-in for your services and online newsletters. 

  The best part of Email marketing allows businesses to reach and target their customers based on their previous needs, purchase, and preferences.

  However, in email marketing, it is advisable to send any promotional messages to customers without their consent until they do not opt-in to your services. If the customers have permitted you to send them promotional content, you need to be sure they would have the opt-out option at their convenience.

• Sponsorship

  To reach a large audience at one time so that you can easily target them and spread brand awareness. Brands can sponsor specific events to reach their audience. In the sponsorship advertisements, the businesses include their names with the events they promote and are talked about by the organizers. 

  If your target audience attends the event you are promoting, you can ask them to check the offerings through the concerned event. This BTL marketing is based on the event credibility which gives you the traction you are looking for.

  Sponsorship advertisement we can say is a partnership with other brands or events to get more impressions. This sponsorship is usually considered a part of brand-building strategies at a BTL level.

  This ensures that the ads or campaigns organized by the business are seen by the target customers. Sponsorship advertising also helps brands to reach new customers, it also improves their publicity, and creates their reputation. 

• Brand Activation

  A series of actions known as brand activation give your target audiences a chance to engage with and utilize your products. New and expanding firms typically use this BTL marketing example. Here, you can use your creativity to the fullest to attract customers in the way you want.

  You may utilize brand activation in a variety of ways to boost your ROI and generate more income. You can set up a real storefront where buyers can test out your products before they decide to buy them. You may utilize augmented reality (AR) to give your prospects and consumers an immersive experience that will increase their awareness of your business and its services if you're willing to take full use of contemporary technology.

  In other words, we can say that businesses can bring customers through brand interaction and experiences through the art of brand activation. The main factor of brand activation campaigns is to experience and form long-term emotional connections for the consumers to act and bring brands to life.

• In-Store Marketing

  Businesses can also market and promote the brands in-store like within the retail store are called In-store marketing activities. To get the most return out of the investments we can do that with below-the-line activities and make use of various points of sales.

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  The BTL marketing method is In-store marketing commonly can be used in retail stores. For example, we can consider in-store marketing ways such as visual merchandising, point-of-sale (POS) displays, retailing pop-up stores, sales promotions, and sampling, which are all effective ways to spread brand awareness to customers to buy your products and increase your ROIs.

• WhatsApp Marketing

  We can say, WhatsApp marketing is the other form of BTL marketing where everyone knows that this is the best platform to promote their services. Nowadays each and everyone is addicted to this platform. Compared to other traditional marketing methods WhatsApp marketing service has a very high open & response rate.

  Therefore giving promotional and marketing messages to customers with appropriate content can help you to gain the customer’s interest.WhatsApp marketing avoids the chance of losing the customer's interaction by looking for the same service and product as the competitor. 

Advantages Of BTL (Below The Line) Marketing

1) Uber Specificity

Conversion rates are higher when marketing communications are tailored to the needs of the target audience. BTL ad campaigns are more effective in terms of conversions because they are highly targeted.

2) Better Return on Investments

Because BTL advertising tactics are tailored for and targeted at highly particular target audiences, they have a greater audience reach and are simpler to implement, track, and manage.

What Does Mean By TTL Marketing: Through The Line,

The last marketing approach is TTL marketing (Through the line) which combines both marketing methods ATL and BTL marketing strategies. The purpose of TTL marketing is to get a holistic view of the market and try to communicate with the customers in every possible way. To promote the products and brand both strategies ATL & BTL advertisements are used here. 

TTL marketing strategy helps marketers lead to better brand visibility and recall their brands. But the fact is, there are some challenges with TTL marketing. It costs too much to involve multiple promotional activities.

To implement TTL activities successfully, it is usually only established or financially secure companies. Through the Line, or TTL is an abbreviation. ATL and BTL marketing tactics are combined in this marketing plan. TTL marketing is a more thorough approach to engaging with your audience and persuading them to purchase your goods.

The finest of both worlds is offered by this strategy for marketers. While it enables brands to connect with a variety of consumers, it does not lose sight of the importance of generating conversions. In the digital age, TTL marketing, a relatively new tactic, is thriving. It encourages mass participation by broadcasting promotional materials extensively and promoting participation on a personal level.

Brands frequently employ traditional media outlets like TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, etc. to perform a comprehensive TTL marketing strategy for reaching a large audience and making them aware of your business.

Once they are successful in raising brand awareness, they use tailored marketing to connect with prospects and customers on a personal level (especially on digital platforms).

Brands can use this combination of ATL and BTL marketing to take no shortcuts in establishing their presence in a cutthroat market and achieving the desired ROI.

How to Implementing TTL activities:

• 360-degree marketing: under TTL marketing it combines both marketing approaches ATL and BTL activities – for example, pamphlets of the product attached to newspapers with television advertisements supplemented.
• Digital marketing: can be done via online banners and buttons, blog articles & social media posts.

Examples Of TTL (Through The Line) Marketing

• 360° Marketing

  Using both integrated approaches ATL and BTL marketing, the marketing strategies can be planned and carried out to get the maximum benefits of customer interaction. Most of the campaigns used by marketers to promote their products are TTL campaigns.

  360 marketing campaigns are considered to be creative & effective campaigns that enable marketers to use the ATL & BTL strategy. Using the TTL marketing approach helps in improving the user experience due to brand activeness across various channels such as TV, radio, social media, email marketing, SMS Marketing Service, magazines & PPC.

  Especially when we talk about promoting big brands through multiple channels & platforms. For example, when you see Flipkart & amazon ads on Tv, you also get email messages and SMS from the business. Through this, you can have complete control over those platforms you want to use and how you try to approach the audience.

• Digital Marketing

  Digital marketing is the other method of TTL marketing that helps to engage the customer over a digital electronic device on the internet. These TTL digital channels include social media, search engine marketing, affiliate marketing, and email accounts.

  

  Given that it combines the best elements of ATL and BTL strategies, digital marketing is a prime illustration of a TTL marketing strategy. While a Google banner ad can reach millions of potential customers, email marketing with a clever call-to-action enables you to customize your marketing strategies.

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  Every digital marketing instrument, from SEO and SMO to content marketing and PPC advertising, may be seen as a really good illustration of TTL marketing. It is safe to state that TTL marketing through digital platforms is here to stay as the necessity for digitization is growing continuously. More and more brands are going to switch to digital marketing in the coming days since it provides them with the advantages of ATL (broad reach, recall value & brand awareness, etc.) and BTL marketing as well (cost-effective, personalization, and customer review).

Conclusion

What distinguishes ATL, BTL, and TTL, then? Advertising campaigns known as "above-the-line marketing" are mostly non-targeted and aimed at a broad audience to raise brand awareness and image while making it more challenging to measure ROI. 

Below the Line Marketing is more targeted at potential customers, speaking to them with content, and making its results far more apparent. The marketing strategy Through The Line Marketing combines both strategies to target certain people and have a larger, more widespread impact while providing quantifiable data on its impact. However, it is expensive and is typically only utilized by financially sound businesses.

You should think about how much money you want to spend, who your target market is, and what your competitors are doing before deciding between ATL, BTL, or TTL. By using TV commercials or other ATL strategies, you should concentrate on developing a solid customer base if you want to create a long-lasting business.

If you require further guidance with these types of marketing strategies, you can contact GetItSMS. The team of GetITSMS will help you with the promotion of your brands through various methods. We are happy to help you with guidance on which marketing is right for you to grow your business.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What does ATL mean in marketing?

A. ATL is short for Above the line. ATL marketing refers to a marketing strategy that does not focus on particular clients or clientele. Here, advertisers reach a wide audience without taking into account the wants and preferences of a small group.

ATL marketing is frequently carried out on a massive scale without the marketers being close to their prospects or clients. If you want to expand the reach of your business, raise brand awareness, and appeal to a larger audience, you can use this marketing strategy.

Q. What does BTL mean in marketing?

A. BTL marketing can be described as (Below the line) marketing. Unlike ATL marketing, this marketing strategy focuses on individuals and groups of customers as well to promote the business products/services. Because BTL marketing is all about engaging the customers in one personalized and centralized manner. 

Q. What does TTL mean in marketing?

A. The last marketing approach is TTL marketing (Through the line) which combines both marketing methods ATL and BTL marketing strategies. The purpose of TTL marketing is to get a holistic view of the market and try to communicate with the customers in every possible way. To promote the products and brand both strategies ATL & BTL advertisements are used here. 

TTL marketing strategy helps marketers lead to better brand visibility and recall their brands. 

Q. What are the examples of ATL marketing?

A. The examples of ATL marketing are described below:

Television: can directly advertise or promote the products at the regional or national level.

Radio: radio broadcasts the marketing messages at PAN India or PAN-city.

Print Media: through online or offline marketing methods in newspapers, online articles, and advertisements. 

Q. How can we implement BTL marketing?

A. Implement the BTL marketing strategy, there are the ways we can use to implement it:

• BTL marketing is Outdoor advertisements such as Billboards, fliers, banners, sandwich boards, etc.
• It can be Direct marketing methods including SMS, emails, social media posts, and pamphlets.
• BTL marketing also helps marketers to promote via Sponsorship: Events, competitions
• Press conferences and viral marketing come under public relations.
• You can do BTL marketing through In-store promotions such as Visual merchandising, retailer pop-ups, sampling, and sales promotions.

Q. What are the examples of TTL marketing?

A. Examples of TTL marketing can be explained in this way as 360-degree marketing (under TTL marketing it combines both marketings approaches ATL and BTL activities – for example, pamphlets of the product attached to newspapers with television advertisements supplemented), Digital Marketing (can be done via online banners and buttons, blog articles & social media posts).

Q. What will be the quick definition for ATL, BTL & TTL marketing?

A. The quick definition of ATL, BTL & TTL marketing can be as:

“Atl Marketing Definition: Above The Line - get the Wide Audience Without Taking Into Account

Btl Marketing Definition: Below The Line - Focuses On Individual And Groups Of Customers

Ttl Marketing Definition: Through The Line - Combines Both Marketing Methods Atl And Btl Marketing Strategies”