Marketing is a m M
arketing is by and large a misunderstood industry, made worse by the fragmentation of specialism’s such as email marketing, social media marketing and direct marketing within it. Ultimately this
leads to confusion and often disappointing results for those businesses trying to use marketing to grow their business.
By developing a marketing mindset, and developing a savvy understanding of how the creative side of the industry works, these exasperating experiences can be put to an end, making ineffective or sometimes even damaging marketing results a thing of the past.
Think of marketing as everything that touches your consumer
The most successful marketing–centric businesses broaden this principle out even further. They look at every part of the business that comes into contact with their consumer (or customer if you would prefer). Strategically, they include the sales team that are often the first human contact with the brand, and the customer service team who are in contact with consumers every day.
By thinking of these areas as also being under the same marketing umbrella it is easy to define what should be done and said to consumers at every touch point - reinforcing a positive impression of the brand at every stage. Think Virgin Atlantic, think Zappos, think Dell – they work to make every contact with the consumer a good one.
Make every business decision with your consumer in mind
One of the biggest challenges facing a start-up, or one wanting to use marketing to grow their business, is the fragmentation within the industry. Whether it is a lack of knowledge or limited budgets this usually ends up in pockets of activities happening that are not joined up.
Instead, the founder, business owner or appointed marketing person needs to become the linchpin that holds it all together. PR, branding, advertising, social media and content marketing are all just some in a long list of potential marketing activities that can be implemented. But it is vital to think of them as being under one umbrella of ‘marketing’ so that everything talks to your consumer in the same way. you don’t the messages gets confused and diluted.
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Ultimately a successful business is a fusion of a great idea that solves a ‘consumer pain’, that is brought to life in a way that the consumer understands, by a motivated and hard working team who have a good grasp of the financials. But all of the hard work, financial savviness and technical skill will go to waste very quickly if we lose sight of that consumer – and that is easy to do when heads are down running the business day to day.
To have a truly consumer-centric business mindset there first needs to be a very clear picture of exactly who you are talking to. So the first step is to profile them: where do they
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