All You Need to Know About ATL, BTL & TTL Marketing

New brands often find themselves in a soup while choosing the right marketing strategy according to their specific requirements. It’s confusing, time-consuming and feels like running aimlessly in the dark if you know very little about it. 

Wherever you go online, you hear people talking about ATL, BTL or TTL Marketing. But what do these terms mean, how are they different from each other and how to decide as to which one will benefit your brand actively? Which method is essential for you and can get you the maximum return on your investment (ROI)? How to go about it? Well, here we shall try to solve it all for you. 

Let’s Get the Facts Right

ATL, BTL & TTL sound a bit weird and without any context, right? Let’s first try to learn how the terms “ATL” & “BTL” came into force? 

Proctor & Gamble, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies sparked this new change when they started paying advertising agencies differently for different marketing approaches. 

Above the Line: ATL Marketing

Above the line marketing is a practice where advertising activities take place with a non-specific target audience to capture a wider reach. ATL marketing is probably the first-phase strategy when the brand wants to build its presence and inform consumers about its product and services. In ATL marketing, conversions are not paid much attention to because the brand usually wants to get the word out. They increase brand awareness and goodwill through this technique.

Above the line marketing is a great example of a mass marketing strategy, just like back in the day. But don’t take this method for granted! It might use primitive methods and not sound as cool as digital marketing. But what it uses is a tried and tested method for maximum reach and guaranteed results. 

The best mediums of ATL marketing are Radio, TV, Newspapers, Magazines, Outdoor hoardings etc. It reinstates the rule of 7 where a potential customer has to see an advertisement 7 times before making the buying decision. Think about a TVC that runs in the break time between the overs in IPL 2022.

Benefits of ATL Marketing

• Wider Reach
• Better Connection with Audience
• Brand Building with Increasing Brand Identity

Below the Line: BTL Marketing

Below the Line marketing is a strategy where it’s very tightly targeted toward a specific audience through direct means. This is the 2nd phase of marketing for a brand where after setting up the initial communication and letting people know about your brand, now it’s time to rake in the conversions. This strategy is often known as direct marketing due to its straightforward approach in reaching out to its target audience. 

Few good Media for BTL Marketing are mail, direct calls, sponsorships, brand activations, in-store marketing etc. This method is very effective in measuring the results as it is targeted toward specific groups in controlled environments. You can get a better return on investment and also customize your strategy till the last thread in BTL marketing.

Benefits of BTL Marketing

• Specifically Targeted for more conversions.
• Better Return on Investment
• Easy Control 
• Highly Customizable.

Through the Line: TTL Marketing

Through the Line marketing is the bridge between ATL & BTL. It is an integrated marketing approach where both ATL & BTL activities come into play to create a 360-degree campaign for your brand, which allows your brand to spread across all advertising channels as well as get great results in return. 

Due to the recent consumer trends and the major role of the internet in our lives, TTL marketing has become very relevant and important in today’s world. Digital marketing is a great example of TTL marketing and lets your brand spread over multiple platforms with activities such as blog posts, social media marketing, online banners, digital ads etc. TTL marketing focuses both on wide reach & better conversions.

Which Marketing is the Better Way?

Choose the best marketing method according to your requirements. But if you don’t have any upcoming events or plans to focus on, you can start with Through-the-Line and start your marketing journey. 

With more than three decades of rich experience in marketing, advertising and branding Sanket Communications offers services in ATL, BTL as well as TTL. Sanket can handle all your marketing needs seamlessly and in the best possible way. Contact us by clicking here or give us a call on 7008165707 and get ready to take your product marketing to the next level! 

About Author

Sandeep Hati is a copywriter at Sanket Communications. He is passionate about advertising trends and stories. He aims to explain the many intricacies that run the advertising and marketing world. When he’s not working, you’ll find him buried in a book or watching period cinema or failing gloriously on the same level of video game infinitely.