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What Encompasses Marketing and Why is it Important in Business?

What is Marketing?

You might have heard the word marketing many times. In a corporate business, various professionals or affiliates work on behalf of the company to promote its products. Let's find out more about marketing in this article.

Marketing refers to the process of promoting a company's products or services in such a way that it attracts sales. A typical marketing strategy consists of product advertisement, sales, and delivery to the respective buyer or a business.

One major prospect of an effective ecommerce marketing strategy is advertisement or brand promotions. The aim is to attract potential buyers or a critical audience. It may comprise celebrity endorsements, catchy slogans, powerful graphics, media exposure, and attractive packaging.

One essential thing to consider here is that marketing aims to create new clients and maintain a cordial relationship with the existing ones. They should be continuously reminded that they are a part of your brand's chain and add significant value to it. For this, thank you emails, return calls, priority service, or a small get-together over a meal, or a coffee can prove to be very effective.

In 1950, Neil Borden introduced the four P's of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion. This is popularly called the marketing mix and sums up the entire marketing process. Let us understand each one of them in detail.

Product Any item that a company intends to promote and deliver to its audience is called a product. The product usually yields higher sales if any similar product is not available in the market but is in demand.

Before executing any marketing campaign, the advertisers must do a precise evaluation of the product. Are there any substitutes available, how is it better than the one offered by the competitors, and if the product can be coupled with some other product and sold as a combo?

Price It merely refers to the cost at which the product will be sold in the market. The product's final price is usually calculated after evaluating various parameters like- products per unit cost price, distribution costs, and advertising expenses. Make sure the proposed should be competitive enough to attract the consumers.

Place It refers to the channel of sale, i.e., on what platforms will the company sell its products- physical store, online, or both.

Promotion The fourth P of marketing includes advertising, public relations, sponsorship, direct marketing, selling, etc. As consumers, the product's price and quality play a crucial role. This is one of the prime factors that marketers consider while devising an appropriate marketing campaign.

In the year 2017, a total of 62% of sales were recorded as online purchases and are expected to rise as high as $735 by the year 2023 in the United States. A significant figure, isn't it? These statistics are enough to understand the benefits of online ecommerce marketing and how powerful this distribution channel is.

Top Reasons Why Your Business Needs An Effective Marketing Plan Right Away

Six Steps to Start Marketing to Your Audience

It is a step by step process to bring in customers to buy your product/services via buying decision consisting of decisive actions like emails, landing pages, articles, videos, and PDFs that do the selling part.

After you learn what a sales funnel and the bottom of the sales funnel is, check out the content formats that work well through the funnel.

Prominent Way to Engage Customers

This is not just about pushing the offers again and again. To rightfully engage your audience, keep creating fresh content, offer more information about your products and business that the customer doesn't know about. Marketing conveys all these facts in an exciting way necessary to keep the conversation going.

Also, don't forget to explore the potential that social media offers- short videos, giveaways, humor laden tricks can playfully engage the audience and give them a sense of belongingness towards your brand.

Boost Company's Reputation

The right kind of marketing activities directly influences the brand's reputation, which helps determine brand equity and a business's lifespan. If your company's products stand as per the consumers' expectations, they will surely recommend your brand further and be proud of being associated with your venture.

With good communication, PR, CSR strategies, and branding, marketers strive to keep up the company's reputation.

Building a Relationship with the Customers

A business should instill trust and understanding in its clients to further progress and grow. Based on the consumer's behavior, demographics, and psychographics, various marketing segments are created; this helps the business meet the user's expectations better. A satisfied customer turns into a loyal client who will be confident in trying every new service or product that your brand launches.

Communication Channel to Keep the Users Informed

Marketing enables your company to keep your clients posted about new products and services. They get to know about the product's value, usage, and other additional details. This, in turn, creates awareness about your brand in the market.

In such a competitive world, keeping in touch with your users is of utmost importance. Let them know about the discounts you are offering, and don't hesitate to experiment with other tricks to convince them.

Hike in Sales

The primary intent of marketing is to increase sales by promoting your brand's products and services in the best way possible. With the right tactics, customers are tempted to make a purchase. If they end up liking the stuff you're offering, they turn into brand ambassadors. This way, they repurchase and recommend your products further, which leads to higher sales. Don't forget to keep the quality of your products and services intact.

Insights About Your Business

As mentioned above, targeting the right audience to share your content with is one crucial marketing protocol. Over time you get to understand what idea works for your audience and what doesn't. So, insights help your business to avoid any guesswork in the long run.

It must be evident how your competitors are investing so many resources in marketing their products and services because one great way to win this competitive race is- aggressive and strategic marketing.

But don't turn hateful. Analyze the market, the consumers' expectations, and aim towards delivering the best in class products and services.