In business, many of us have the habit of making things more complicated that they have to be. I find that this is exceptionally true when it comes to marketing. So, this week, we’re getting back to basics with Marketing 101.
Sales and marketing are often used in combination in one another, as if they are part of the same function. And while they are cetainly related to one another, the truth is, marketing and sales are two distinctly different functions, and to be consistently successful in business, you need to be strong in both areas. And the following information provides the blueprint to ensure that your marketing and sales efforts are successful:
The American Marketing Association (AMA) states, “Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives”.
Marketing is more than sales. Marketing is the set of activities used to:
1.) Get your potential customer’s attention
2.) Motivate them to buy
3.) Get them to actually buy
4.) Get them to buy again (and again…)
Marketing is how you define your product, promote your product, distribute your product, and to maintain a relationship with your customers.
1.) Marketing is not a department.
Marketing is a combination of elements that creates the environment in which it is possible to meet a customer need (starting right back at product development). Promotion and sales are just sub-sets of marketing
2.) Marketing is a conversation
Successful technology marketing must translate the creations of the uncommunicative into the needs of the untechnical. Spin is not good marketing. Lucid two-way communication is.
3) You’re not marketing to people who hate marketing.
Don’t allow your misguided prejudices about advertising and snake-oil to infect your approach and damage sales. People hate hype, spin and unfulfilled expectations. They do not hate having their needs met.
Tips to help you consistently create marketing campaigns
that produce real, tangible results for your business.
According to SIVA, there are four elements to creating a successful marketing campaign, which are:
– Solution: How appropriate is the solution to the customers problem/need
– Information: Does the customer know about the solution, and if so how, who from, do they know enough to let them make a buying decision
– Value: Does the customer know the value of the transaction, what it will cost, what are the benefits, what might they have to sacrifice, what will be their reward?
– Access: Where can the customer find the solution. How easily/locally/remotely can they buy it and take delivery.
This model was proposed by Chekitan Dev and Don Schultz in the Marketing Management Journal of the American Marketing Association, and presented by them in Market Leader – the journal of the Marketing Society in the UK.