Why is Marketing so Important?
- It informs the customer. A customer will only buy a product if they understand what it is, what it does, and how it works. By marketing, you can present your product in a fun, exciting and educational way.
- It levels the playing field. While, in some cases, companies need to consider getting a business loan, modern marketing is not as expensive as it used to be, thanks to social media platforms and email campaigns. Therefore, even a small business can end up on a level playing field to a much bigger, well-known business. Smaller businesses are thought to have more of a benefit in this case, as they are smaller, so they have much more time to acknowledge and pay attention to individual clients. Modern consumers prefer to experience overpricing, so this increased attention could tempt them.
- It sustains a company’s presence. Marketing is something businesses need to manage each day to maintain a good relationship with their customers. Therefore, it is not a one-time fix but an ongoing strategy designed to help businesses succeed.
- It engages the customer. This should be at the core of every business. Marketing enables you to keep the consumer interested after they have walked out the door. Face-to-face interaction is no longer enough; consumers need to be engaged once they leave your store. Marketing allows you to send consumers content to keep them interested even beyond your shop’s opening hours.
- It sells your products or services. Marketing is compulsory for you to get the sales you’re after. How can people buy your product if they don’t know about it? This is why marketing is vital, to inform the customer. Marketing improves sales. Sales improve your business.
- It helps the growth of your business. Marketing can help you to expand your customer base by reaching out to potential new customers. While existing customers are invaluable, marketing can assist you in increasing your consumer interest and growing your business.
Marketing is important because it assists you with selling your business’s products or services. The main goal of any business venture is to make money and marketing is a crucial channel to reach that goal. Without marketing, many businesses wouldn’t even exist because marketing is essentially what drives sales. In this article, we give you some top tips on various ways you can market your business, helping you attain the sales that you seek.
Best Ways To Market Your Business
Media Relations
This is otherwise known as PR (public relations). Media relations is getting articles about your business (and yourself) published in the press and online websites. It is essential you appear in the right places, so your target market sees you. For example, if you run a cafe, a local newspaper is the place to be. This kind of media coverage is valuable because it raises your profile and gives you a platform to convey messages about your business while promoting its values and culture. Using a specialist PR agency is a sensible way to go as they can offer advice and deal with journalists on your behalf. Furthermore, getting a piece published is not always easy, so an agency is a good option as they understand what is more likely to work.
Social Media
Social media can play a vital role in marketing if used effectively. There are over 53 million social media users in the UK alone, proving just how big an audience is out there for the taking. It is a great platform to connect with existing customers and introduce your business to new people. Many consumers visit a company’s social media before exploring their website, showing just how vital a well-marketed social media page can be. When you consider a social media campaign, be aware of what you want, whether it’s a broader audience, more people visiting your website or an increase in sales. Also, make sure you understand your target market, such as what social media platforms they are most likely to frequent and what sort of content they would enjoy the most. Videos, in particular, are powerful tools. Ensure that you check your platforms regularly and utilise their basic analytics to see how well your marketing is going and what can be tweaked to improve it.
Digital Advertising
There are three main digital advertising channels: PPC (Pay-Per-Click), display, and paid social. All of these run across desktop and mobile devices. Digital marketing is transparent and accountable, so you can see where your budget has gone and which campaign aspects were most effective. You can again hire an agency to help.
Pay-Per-Click: This helps you advertise to your target market whilst optimising any ad spend to give the best return on investment. One pro is that PPC campaigns can be tailored, so your ads are only shown to people who have searched relevant to your business.
Display Advertising: This is a good option if you care more about brand awareness and not leads. This is graphic advertising online through banners or other formats to deliver advertisements and brand messages to site visitors.
Paid Social Advertising: This involves assigning a set budget to a post which boosts its reach. You can even target users of specific ages, genders, locations and more.
Press Advertising
For this option, your advert must be big and bold to stand out. Ensure you focus on the benefits of your product as opposed to its features to grab interest. It can be challenging to think like this, so that a creative agency may be a good option. Plus, any ideas they might suggest can be adapted into other marketing materials such as posters.
Direct Mail
This option can be very effective as long as you follow three critical rules. Firstly, make sure you use good-quality data. Secondly, ensure you only sell content that is relevant to the recipient. Thirdly, make sure your mail draws interest by both standing out and featuring interesting messages. Direct mail is, of course, more expensive than email, but this option is more difficult to ignore as it is a physical piece of advertising.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Users want to read about your product/service, so it is important that you use high-quality and engaging content optimised for Google to rank it. When you write online content, write for the user, not the search engine, and pay attention to optimising headings and titles with your copy and HTML code. You then need a ‘vote of confidence’ from external but relevant sites. For example, if you have a beauty business, getting validation from a cosmetics manufacturer or another business will help expand your reach and interest.
Email Marketing
This is an excellent option for short-term urgencies, such as driving a limited offer. This option is cost-effective, immediate, efficient, scalable and measurable. It’s a good option as recipients can share emails with their friends and family. Furthermore, you can track the number of people who have opened the email, clicked on the links within it and more. Email marketing is referred to as one of the best return on investment options available.
Final Thoughts
Marketing is crucial to the success of a business. There are many ways to choose to market your business, whether it’s through social media, physical mail or email marketing. There are benefits to each, and you can utilise more than one to optimise your sales and ensure your business’s success.