Marketing is everything that a business does to attract, convert and retain customers in order to achieve long-term profits. It involves the process of identifying customer needs and transforming these into product, price, place and promotion decisions. Marketing departments are responsible for bringing a new product to market, determining how it should be priced and distributing this product to ensure its profitable sale. It is also the process that a business uses to communicate its value to its customers and build a relationship with them that is mutually beneficial.
Unlike popular perception, marketing does not revolve around the products itself. The products are merely a means to convey the message and attract customers. The true essence of marketing lies in the people who are actually buying the products – the consumers.
This explains why marketers are not usually seen standing behind the cash register or online shopping carts. Instead, they are busy working consistently to nurture potential customers through the buying process by explaining the value of the product and highlighting its benefits compared to competing products.
In order to do this, marketing teams are often tasked with performing research and contemplating the interests of a business’s ideal customers. They then use this information to create messaging that will be attractive to these clients, and subsequently promote it through various channels. This includes social media, email, targeted advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), and a wide range of other channels that enable businesses to reach their target audience with the right message at the right time.
As technology continues to advance, the types of marketing available to businesses have expanded and evolved along with it. For example, email and SMS marketing are now commonplace ways to deliver marketing messages directly to the inbox or mobile device of the prospective client. In addition to these digital channels, traditional marketing tactics such as billboards, magazine advertising and direct mail remain popular with many companies.
As the number of channels that a company can utilize to distribute its message and products expands, so too does the need for effective marketing strategies. As such, it is increasingly important that the marketing department has an understanding of all the tools at its disposal and how to best utilize these to generate the desired results. This requires a strategic approach to marketing that encompasses a clear definition of what marketing is and how it is used to meet business goals and objectives. This includes the development and use of a marketing plan that can be used to guide decision-making for each of the four Ps of Marketing. This is known as the AIDA model of marketing: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. This can help to ensure that marketing activities are consistent with overall business strategy and aligned with the customer journey. It also provides a way to measure the effectiveness of marketing activities and identify gaps that may need to be addressed. This enables the business to effectively manage its resources and allocate them in a way that will maximize profit.