As a business owner, do you consider Marketing to be a strategic asset within your company or a necessary expense?
If you answered the latter, I think it’s time to take a good look at your marketing because it’s clearly not working for you!
Marketing is important for your business as it is as essential to your business as Sales, Finance, and Customer Care.
If buyers don’t know and trust you – they won’t buy from you. So there goes your Sales team.
If you don’t build a solid, lasting relationship with your customers, they’re less likely to re-purchase from you. That’s your Customer Care team gone.
And if no revenue is coming in, you won’t need a Finance team to manage your coffers!
“Doing business without marketing is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does”, Steuart Henderson Britt.
Think of marketing as the golden thread that weaves its way throughout your business and helps to tie everything together!
Later in this blog, I will take a more detailed look at how marketing impacts the areas I’ve already mentioned – Sales, Finance and Customer Care – but first, let’s peel it back to the basics and look at how marketing helps establish your company’s brand, identify and then attract your target buyers, and engage with them in just the right way to prompt them to purchase from you.
To some, marketing needs to be more understood
But the reality is that marketing is so much more.
I’ve also heard some silly rumours recently that the role of marketing will soon die out and be replaced by AI to more accurately predict who wants your products and how to reach them.
I am here to tell you we are still far from that point!
Yes, there have been massive improvements in AI and its uses, especially over the past few years. And yes, automation can help with certain aspects of customer interaction and business, for example, through chatbots.
But overall, your marketing team still has a vital role within your business. Therefore, it’s more important than ever that you, as the business owner, understand the impact marketing can have so that you achieve its full potential.
How does marketing build your brand and reputation?
Once you are clear on your brand and brand values, marketing helps relay these values to your potential customers.
Businesses that can fulfil brand promises when delivering products/services to their customers will foster loyalty, trust and advocacy within their customer base.
How does marketing attract customers to your business?
Understanding the wants and needs of your target buyers is more important than highlighting the features of your product or service. Understanding the challenges your buyers face and providing them with a solution, makes for very impactful messaging. Messaging that will resonate with your target buyers and help you stand out from “all the rest”.
How does marketing help your customers engage with your business?
Through your marketing and content channels, customers not only learn more about you and your business, but it also gives them a platform to interact with your business in a less formal setting.
These interactions foster trust, with customers becoming more comfortable with your brand. If they are satisfied with their experience with you, they might even become advocates for your business.
As buyers, we all like to read reviews and comments from previous customers to inform our buying options. Therefore, encouraging these customer interactions is vital to a successful marketing strategy.
Now that you understand the fundamental role marketing plays, let’s look more closely at how it supports your Sales, Finance and Customer Care teams.
Marketing and Sales
Marketing is critical to promoting your goods and services to the right buyer audience so that they see the benefit of engaging with you and, ultimately, purchasing from you.
When starting in business or launching a new product, it can be challenging to get the word out, but marketing can help. Crafting tailored messaging that focuses on the benefits of your product or service, not just its features, will grab potential buyers’ attention. Clarifying the benefits will ultimately increase your chances of making more sales.
Marketing and Customer Care
It is easy to assume that once a sale is made, you become your customers’ new favourite. But you would be amiss to think that this new relationship will continue without some nurturing on your part.
What experience is your customer having with your business? Did they find it easy to make contact with you? Were their queries answered? Did your product or service meet their expectations? Were they satisfied with their after-sales experience, and could they contact you if they needed help after purchase?
This is where marketing can support your Customer Care team through post-sale follow-up emails, feedback requests and loyalty programmes. The goal being to turn every customer into a repeat customer and a brand ambassador.
Marketing and Finance
When I worked with high-growth start-ups, marketing played a vital role in the growth of the business. As with other areas of the business, targets were set, and KPIs were identified.
However, my experience in the corporate world differed somewhat. Here, I always felt like marketing was the department they “had” to have and was always the department to have budgets cut at the first sign of trouble!
But here’s the thing…. If marketing increases new and repeats sales, the most obvious conclusion is that it is one area of your business that needs constant attention to ensure you finish each year in a favourable financial position.
Simply put, “there could be no growth without marketing actions”
By not continually developing and adapting your marketing plan and activities, sales will most likely stagnate. As a result, you might not be able to expand your services, meaning you will be left in the same position year after year while your competitors grow more robust and win more market-share.
Yes, there are expenses associated with your marketing activities. However, they are a worthwhile investment in the long run when you see the returns come in.
In short, Marketing is an essential part of any business, and as a business owner, you should consider its importance to your bottom line.
Conclusion
I hope this article has helped clarify any misconceptions you may have about the role marketing plays and why marketing is so crucial to your business.
If you’d like to talk more about reviewing your marketing strategy, or indeed if you are looking for outsourced support in that area, please do get in touch. I’d love to chat with you!
You can drop me an email at Lissa@dynamicmarketing.ie
And be sure to check out my website for more insights into the ever-evolving world of B2B marketing!