What Is Marketing?

What Is Marketing?

If you’ve ever sold anything of value, chances are you used some type of marketing tactic, strategy, or system. To me, marketing is not just about your business taking action to promote its products or services. Marketing is about more than that!

I see marketing as a chance for you to expand your creativity, sharpen your common sense, and learn your numbers. These are the things businesses really need to focus on when they think about marketing.

Marketing Is A Great Way To Expand Your Creativity

Marketing offers you an unlimited ability to be creative. There are infinite ways for you to inform people about your business, products, or services. You can come up with any idea you want and then spread it using technology (TVs, computers, magazines, cell phones, bill boards, etc.). I know what you’re thinking, “Advertising on those things is expensive!” Well, Yellow Pages advertising is not much cheaper.

This is where your creativity comes in! If you can’t afford the traditional advertising routes, it’s up to you to think of creative ways to inform prospects about your products or services. For example, you can film a short video and post it online for free. Just remember that while you may no longer be bound by the monetary component of not being able to share your marketing message, you will need to be very creative in order for your message to spread. A clever video can go viral and get millions of views in as little as two days. However, it’s important to note that a video could also be made by someone who is displeased with your services.

Marketing Helps You Sharpen Your Common Sense

I think most businesses could benefit from improving their common sense. I’ve seen thousands of ads that made no sense to me. Which is quite peculiar considering that I study marketing on a daily basis. Whenever I look at these advertisements, I just shake my head and think to myself, “This company just doesn’t get it!” A person’s attention is hard to grab (and even harder to keep)! So why would these companies waste that precious attention with confusing advertising?

Do they think that a normal person is going to stand around looking at a confusing message trying to decipher it? It’s not going to happen! When marketing, the advertisement needs to be simple, clear, concise, and memorable. But the most important aspect of the ad is its purpose! What’s the point of having a pretty ad if there is no call to action? What’s the point of paying money for an ad if that ad does not lead to increased sales, business, or profit. While some business owners are working on sharpening their common sense, the majority are still putting out ads that are confusing, dull, expensive, and lacking. If this is you, this is your wake up call. You need to start developing your common sense. And if you don’t have any, then hire someone who does.

Marketing Can Help You Learn Your Numbers

Marketing should also allow you to learn your business’s numbers. If you ask most businesses owners how much it costs them to acquire a new customer, the majority of them will give you a perplexed look followed by a bewildered “Huh?” Only a few of them will be able to give you a concrete answer. The reason?

Most business owners have never done the math on how much it costs them to acquire a new customer. Even fewer have done the math on how much the average customer will spend throughout the lifetime of his relationship with the business. These business owners are flying blind, spending money on their marketing efforts without having the faintest idea if their efforts are paying off. In order to maximize your marketing efforts and minimize your marketing costs, you need to find out your numbers. Only then can you formulate a solid marketing strategy.

Although I haven’t gone into specifics in this post, I will delve deeper in future small business marketing articles.