Marketing is not an option; it’s a necessity. And not just for the giants like Coca Cola and Nike. Whether you’re a Fortune 500 or a company of one, you need to invest in marketing in order to be successful.
What does marketing do?
One of my favourite explanations of what marketing does comes from the often quoted Peter Drucker. “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself”. Mr. Drucker is right. You can have the best product and/or service in the world but without marketing, it’ll be the world’s best kept secret.
Marketing isn’t just one thing. There are many components to marketing – advertising, promotions, websites, social media, content strategy, SEO, SEM, public relations… – all of which are designed to introduce and promote your products/services to potential customers and as a result, generate sales. Marketing:
- Builds your brand
- Reinforces your brand
- Introduces your products/services
- Promotes your products/services
What questions should you ask yourself before investing in marketing?
Before you invest in marketing you need know everything about your product/service. I suggest that you ask yourself these seven questions:
- What is my product/service?
- Is my product/service well priced?
- What is my value proposition?
- Who are my potential customers?
- Who is my competition?
- How am I different from my competition?
- What are my objectives?
How much should my marketing budget be?
I understand that you may be trying to save money, but marketing is not a DIY project and it’s definitely not one-size-fits-all. I’ve seen all sorts of numbers tossed around, but the truth is that there is no hard and fast rule about how much your marketing budget should be.
Every company has different goals, needs, and objectives and these have to be addressed individually. A good marketing consultant/agency will be able to work with you and help you establish what your budget should be in order to realize your objectives. Here’s a great download to help you in your search.
CreativeWorks Marketing 