Marketing is the business process of creating relationships with and satisfying customers. The purpose of advertising and / or marketing is to actively promote a product or service. This is different from brand awareness, which seeks to express the value of an organization, product or service. Marketing finds and activates buyers.
Well-executed marketing is an investment that pays for itself in sales and brand reinforcement.
Advertising is the more direct, paid strategic effort to spread awareness of a product or service, to convince customers that your company’s product or service is right for their needs, and to create desire for these products or services. It reinforces the messages of your sales people. Advertising can make people take the next step such as requesting more information, seeing a demonstration, or placing an order.
In all cases it is critical to choose the most effective message and visuals for your campaign, as well as where it will be delivered. This depends on clearly defined goals and target market information.
Good reasons to Market your business
- Sales – When people know your business exists, they’re much more likely to become your customers. If your campaigns are doing their job you’ll start to see an increase in sales soon after getting started. By marketing your business online, you can easily track which campaigns are generating sales and which aren’t.
- Increase Awareness – Raising awareness of your brand, product, and benefits keeps you top-of-mind with your target audience. With consistent marketing you’ll build a huge audience of potential customers who know who you are, what you offer, and where to find you. Sometimes people might need to see your ads many times before purchasing, but will remember your brand when they are ready.
- Trust – Establishing trust takes time. Your brand awareness strategy combined with your marketing and advertising goals, all help to build trust. You become known in the marketplace. The key is to be authentic and create a customer experience in line with your messaging.
- Learning about your clients – the whole goal of data collected from campaigns is to find out more about your clients, what they like, where they are, and how they prefer to receive information and a million other metrics. All of this information helps you serve your ideal clients even better. It might even help you come up with new added-value services or products to bring in more great clients.
- The List – Having a list of potential customers who are engaged with your business is the best asset! Asking people to opt in to an email list or a facebook page gives your audience a chance to connect. This is another avenue for building trust. People are trusting you to be responsible in your use of their contact information. Sending out content that is relevant and timely will build trust and reinforce awareness of your brand.
- Understanding How and Why – You’ll gain a better understanding of how and why people use technology. This will help you in your efforts to reach them where they are. You’ll be able to define your audience and their environment more clearly. Learn why customers are choosing you over others. So many opportunities are out there waiting for you to make the connections!
- Discovery – In the process of marketing your business you will learn what works and what doesn’t. You can’t win unless you play, as the saying goes. And it is certainly true, you need to get in the game and make the experience as true and authentic and great as possible for your clients. People are best swayed by a message that aligns with their personal goals, desires, and needs. Learning the best way to reach the people whose values align with your brand is a win, win.
- Test and Optimize – Testing different messages and visuals, different channels, gives you so much information about how best to reach your ideal audience. Check your data to see results and make decisions about future campaigns.
- Finding your ideal clients – The goal is finding the people out there who are most likely to buy your product or service. Once you have a good picture of who they are, what they do, where they live, how they interact with media, etc.. you can find better ways to reach out to them. They will undoubtedly be your best customers. Their values are aligned with those of your business and they are predisposed to want to do business with you.
- Brand – A powerful brand is one that is visible and trusted in the marketplace and has differentiated itself from the competition in a meaningful way. Smart marketers will develop a solid brand while also working on sales, customer service, and PR.
