Marketing is a word that has seen exponential growth in terms of importance and application.
As more people opt for this vast field, many are very intrigued by its definition and implications.
So if you're here to understand what marketing is, let me take you down the path of marketing, its types, principles, and some successful marketing examples.
Now, let's get down to the basics of marketing before tackling the complicated jargon.
Marketing, defined by google, is 'the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.'
Every company now has a marketing department that employs various marketing techniques to drive more sales.
The general consensus is to put marketing, advertising, and sales under the same umbrella.
Many individuals define marketing as selling which is not wrong but is not the greatest way to describe the term.
Marketing is not the only part where you sell the product and make sales but includes product distribution, promotion, content, research, and much more.
There are many branches of marketing, each having its own sub-branches, and the list goes on.
Marketing can be best understood as a broader term that includes all the activities that help an organization achieve its objectives.
It reiterates that marketing is an essential tool, and should be a part of every core strategy.
As Adam Erhart puts it, Marketing is the single most important element to business success.
How does Marketing work for your business?
You are aware that marketing involves many tasks and procedures that help a business achieve its objectives.
If you're looking to sell more products, generate more leads, provide services, or make sales & revenue, marketing is the way to go for it.
But how does marketing work?
Let's take a brief look into it!
Marketing is communicating the best aspects of your business/brand to the world while maintaining a positive light.
Every email, newsletter, social media post, advertisement, and blog - every communication leads to an impression among your customers or prospects.
If you believe sales and advertising are marketing, you're missing a huge point.
That's like saying taxing is the entire accounting. There's an overlap in sales and advertisement, but marketing is a much broader term.
Marketing is communicating your value to the ideal target market, putting on the best show, and revealing how a consumer can benefit from them.
In communicating all of this, you can show a customer how your business helps them achieve their goals or needs.
Marketing works to understand the buyer; it's all about the other person.
You have to make an effort and research about the person.
Understand where they are coming from, what they're going through, and how your business can solve their issue.
The better you understand your customer, the better you'll be able to communicate your value.
So, customer-centric marketing is what can work wonders for your business - bring in more sales and make you more valued in the market.
That's what marketing does; It helps create an image that ultimately helps to get more customers and bring more revenue.
We have already learned that marketing is several things - but what we don't realize is that it also involves science.
There is psychology, economics, buyer behavior, design, and maybe even history and art. It's an amalgamation of many things, but when you break it down, it comes down to people.
And people are complicated, and you cannot understand each of them.
So how do you make marketing work?
You understand your specific market, your business, and your customers that are unique to your selling points.
Marketing involves taking a chance and being courageous. At the end of the day, you are communicating, which opens a lot of ground for criticism.
While some feedback can work to better the business, a lot of it is just noise that can make it even harder to make a marketing strategy.
I believe marketing makes you better and stronger because at the core of communication lies the possibility of being unaccepted.
That shouldn't deter you from reaching out. That's why marketing is important and how you can beat the competition.
True and honest communication, guys.
It goes a long way!
The Different Types of Marketing
We have expressed and focused on communicating that marketing involves a number of things.
The varied exposure has led to the emergence of many different types of marketing, some new, some traditional, and some extremely popular.
There may be more than 50 types of marketing, which can honestly be very tiring to keep a track of, especially if you are beginning to grasp the vastness of it.
To make matters simple, I am just outlining the most important types of marketing.
1. Traditional Marketing
Do you remember billboards, flyers, and those radio jingles that are still hard to shake from memory?
That's what marketing was all about for several reasons.
Offline channels were the main deal, and everyone wanted the busiest roads, the print was very common and even television ads held a considerable percentage of importance.
It was before technology and the internet made a breakthrough and changed the game altogether.
2. Inbound & Outbound Marketing
It is a very common terminology thrown around in the marketing spectrum. Let's see what it is all about.
Inbound marketing is focused on attracting customers in such a way that you do not interrupt them.
They don't have to watch the ad before the YouTube Music but can come across a blog about the various benefits of your products while researching.
The main idea is to create engaging and attractive content that provides value, and if possible, a solution.
The next step; the customers are delighted to find out you provide what they are looking for!
On the other hand, Outbound Marketing is the complete opposite. In fact, it is also known as interruptive marketing.
It initiates conversation with the customer in ways of intrusive promotion. Examples include cold calls, email, advertisements anywhere.
It is also considered to be the annoying version of traditional marketing.
That being said, it is not 100% ineffective.
But that's a topic for another day!
3. Digital Marketing
Digital is a really broad term that is used to describe any kind of marketing that uses an electronic device.
Digital Marketing is everything that appears on your devices, from the Facebook Ad to the pop-ups you experience while playing games.
The many forms of digital marketing include social media, paid ads, search engine marketing, display ads, email marketing, content marketing, and every other online campaign.
It is different from traditional marketing, which includes billboards and flyers. Television is a gray area and combines both - the traditional and digital forms of marketing.
4. Content Marketing
Content Marketing is a part of digital marketing as well as inbound marketing.
It involves everything that you can think about content anywhere.
It involves creating, publishing, and distributing content to lure your audience through different channels.
These channels include platforms, blogs, videos, webinars, podcasts, and more!
There are also Content Management Systems (CMS) that assist with the vast world of content and its implementation.
5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is essentially a marketing arrangement in which they pay commission to an external website when sales or traffic is generated.
It's a popular way among influencers to earn money, as they leverage their own followers to promote a brand and drive traffic to the website or bring sales to the business.
Affiliate Marketing is useful for marketing assets that are performing well so that they can be leveraged to further the sales.
It's a cost-effective way of spreading brand awareness, and you can earn a good number of loyal customers!
6. Video Marketing
The average attention span of a person is 12 seconds - and that's how much time you have to engage the user. Moreover, video content has proven to get a positive ROI.
Video is a great way to increase brand awareness, YouTube channel following, social media, generate leads and sales.
7. Voice Marketing
'Alexa, turn off the light'; Remember that?
And your Google Home assistance, and the Uber Alexa that allows you to request a ride with a simple voice request.
Voice Marketing can do wonders to reach the target audiences by incorporating the right keywords, strategies, and tactics.
The idea is to make use of voice-controlled devices to meet the needs and expectations of the customers by adjusting marketing content and messaging.
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Here's a blog on "what is marketing and its purpose?" from a company with one of the most successful marketing in the world - Hubspot
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