Marketing Basics: Is Marketing Important in Business
One of the marketing basics questions is if marketing is important in business.
If you don’t market your business you are the best keep secret. A secret business is not always a thriving business. Yes, can a business thrive on cold-calling, door-to-door sales and word of mouth?
The marketing basics are solving the problems of your target audience.
People have choices in the market and the pandemic changed behaviours. More people search for information on Google social media to find deals and information before they splash the cash. The power has definitely shifted in favour of the buyer.
Marketing is important. Marketing is not easy and actually, marketing is very difficult. Here is why…
Business has only two basic function: Marketing and Innovation”
Peter Druker
The Marketing Basics: Is Marketing Important?
If marketing is important what then is marketing?
The AMA definition of Marketing is the activity, institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging (products and services) that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
So exchanging offering that has value for customers.
Breaking this down:
The 4Ps of the marketing mix come to mind. Product, price, place, and promotion
- Communicating – This is how people become aware of your business. Word of mouth is necessary but not sufficient steps in communicating to people you are “open for business“. Social Media marketing, pay-per-click advertising, SEO, direct marketing, and business-to-business are a few methods to communicate.
- Delivery is the place – where is the product or service available for purchase? Online, in stores?
Marketing is all this and more.
Marketing Is Important and It’s Not Easy
Marketing is not easy. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. #EasytoSayToughtoDo
One central aspect is solving one problem for one group of people and doing that really well. This is called niching down.
Many startups and businesses try to be the one-stop shop for everyone… which is a product for everyone is a product for no one situation.
Find one problem one target audience has, and solve that problem.
Why is Marketing Important – Market Today- Sell Tomorrow
Consider that the sale you got today is the fruit of past efforts.
Knowing which of those earlier efforts contributed to the sale is critical to the effectiveness of your marketing spend.
Yet, is marketing important in business to achieve success?
- View marketing as planting and sales as harvesting.
- Marketing is bringing customers to the shop and sales convincing them to buy.
- Marketing builds the brand and sales cash in on that image.
- Today’s marketing efforts develop tomorrow’s customers.
So where should I begin?
Business and marketing have changed. Consumer behaviour and the internet have shifted the power to the buyer. This makes it more difficult to get noticed and become “top of mind” when the decision to buy arrives.
So Where Should you Begin?
Does the question still stand is marketing important in business? Here are three tools that used together, over the long haul will give results. These tools are ubiquitous across markets, industries and countries
- Website – This is the centre of all your marketing efforts. Think of your website as the hub and all efforts as the spokes.
- Email – It is not flash, maybe old school, but still very, very effective.
- Blog – because it helps all of your marketing efforts. See the Importance of blogging posts
No person or agency can give you a marketing receipt and say here this will work. I am sorry about that. No shortcuts, no magic marketing bullets. Only a sound strategy, patience and hard work.
What we do know is that traditional interrupting-based advertisement is no longer effective. People are smarter and technology is helping to block advertisements. People don’t want to be sold to. People want to be helped. So where should I begin?
Marketing Takeaway
- Marketing is sowing seeds for tomorrow’s harvest
- There is no magic marketing bullet
- It is all hard work and it needs strategic thought.
- Narrow your target market to an Idea Client (marketing persona) and do stuff for them.
- Focus on helping people solve their problems
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