Why Marketing Remains One of the Most Important Parts of Business

Take a moment to consider the phrase “business.”  When I say it to you, what images come to mind?  Do you think perhaps of the famous CEOs that are always in the news, or of large factories?  Maybe you are picturing a large department store or a specific brand.

Now that you have done that, think critically about the imagery that the word evoked for you.  By any chance, was it related to a very specific company or organization?  Did logos flash through your head?

If that was the case, the marketing team of that company did their jobs right.  Creating memorable and recognizable brand identities is one of their biggest responsibilities, though it can be easily overlooked amongst those who do not know what to watch for.  For those that have resonated with my message so far, make sure to stick around!  

The Basics: What is Marketing, anyway?

It would hardly be practical to discuss why it matters so much without first explaining what it is and how it works.  After all, not everyone starts out with the same baseline knowledge, so allow me to even the playing field a bit first.  How can we define it?

To put it in simple terms, it is the act of attracting an audience to take notice of and potentially support your business through a variety of means.  Of note is the fact that it can take a few different forms: for example, it might involve looking at analytics and performing market research as well as advertising the product and/or service that you are offering.

One of the important things to keep in mind here is that while it is separate from sales, that does not mean that they are not linked.  In fact, they are heavily related, despite their end goals being slightly different.  Typically, a marketing and a sales team will end up working together to develop plans for approaching the current market. 

What are the Goals of Marketing, then?

Obviously, there is no one single “finish line” that we aim for if we work in this field.  Rather, there are several different goals that we can target all at once.  What might that look like in practice, though?  

Building perceived value is a vital part of this.  We want our audiences to consider our products and services valuable – otherwise, they will not be interested in even learning more about it, let alone purchasing it.  To do this, though, we need to generate what many call “high-value messaging”.  It can be difficult, but if you look here at some examples, they might be helpful.

Some key themes to home in on when discussing this in terms of value are also how we can improve and strengthen the loyalty that customers have for our brand, as well as the ultimate end purpose of creating more sales.  There are, of course, a few ways in which we can approach this.  That is up to you and your team to some extent.

At the end of the day, the purpose of a marketing team is to get the word out about your company and the products that you have for sale.  This should permeate through pretty much every aspect of how the business operates.  That includes (but is certainly not limited to) any advertising, development of products, sales pitches, and methods for distribution.

The Different Types

The world is changing, that much is true.  Of course, that means that many organizations are racing to keep up with the rapidly shifting times all around us.  Marketing is hardly excluded from this race.

Thus, a few new types have been created.  I will go through a few of them though, both the traditional ones and the newer ones that have since been created.  It will be for you to sort through and determine which are most applicable and appropriate for your use, though.

Print Marketing

We begin with a much more traditional type.  This has been around for decades, and arguably centuries when we consider when the first printing press was invented!  If you want to find out more about how it works, you can check out this link: https://newspapers.org/marketing-trusted-source/.  However, there is not really much to know outside of the fact that it involves advertisements that show up in printed sources like newspapers or magazines.

Social Media 

Obviously, this is definitely a more modern spin on marketing.  It is absolutely one that we should all be paying attention to, though.  While it might be newer on the scene, there is no denying the power that social media presence can have for a brand and the image that they want to cultivate.

If you do not have a social media specialist right now, that might be something that you want to change.  At least consider it.  Looking at any of the big platforms right now, you will find a ton of different organizations utilizing their pages to grow a following.  Really, it is free advertisement space (though there are paid opportunities to boost your messaging as well).  

Video

Perhaps what most of us think of for this category are commercials.  Certainly, they still make up the bulk of this space.  While cable viewers have depleted in the past few years, that does not mean that no one is watching television anymore.  In addition to that, most video streaming platforms have commercials of some sort on at least one tier of their plans.

Blogs

While this might come as a surprise, a lot of blog writers are lending their services to businesses and companies to give them marketing space.  Usually this comes in the form of sponsored posts, but not always.

As you can see, with the amount of variety that there is in this space, you have a lot of options in regard to the direction that you eventually want to take.  I did not even cover all of them, so there could very well be an option that suits you even if it was not listed here!