Not 100% sure what marketing is, or how to do it?

[ISL Recruitment]

Marketing is all about being a passionate evangelist for your company - There's barely a moment you're not thinking about ways to bring in new clients.
For many business owners it's a natural extension of what they do. If you don't have the passion to do thatI'd suggest finding a reliable new team member and making it their main role.

 

[Anon26357]

Great post, I would also recommend Kotler explanation "Marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit".

 

[ISL Recruitment]

Exactly.
I'd also add being prepared to fail often (and fail small).

 

[Valyriajewelry]

Good post, Marketing is really complex process need lots of involvement.

 

[Paul @ Ascent]

“If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying ‘Circus coming to the Fairground Saturday’, that’s advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed, that’s publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations - If you did all of this on purpose, that’s marketing. If the towns citizens go to the circus, you show them the entertainment booths, explain how much fun they’ll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales.

 

[Aron11]

How is the marketing expert, so clever in all things that they can teach all other staff how to do their jobs better, and has anyone ever seen any marketing people in there office advising them or are they normally stuck in their own office with the door shut.

 

[AllUpHere]

How is the marketing expert, so clever in all things that they can teach all other staff how to do their jobs better, and has anyone ever seen any marketing people in there office advising them or are they normally stuck in their own office with the door shut.

If people you work with stay in their offices with the door shut, maybe take the hint.

 

[Chris Needham]

I think the best thing you can do at this stage is to keep seeking advice. Try and follow on Twitter leading digital marketing experts like Neil Patel, or read well-known marketing online magazines, I'm sure you get the hang of it in no time.

 

[Boxchilli John]

This questions has lots and lots of good advice and definitions. I'd be interested in hearing if the author has received an adequate answer that they are happy with. Good advice all around!

 

[ruletheworld]

A good marketing strategy should be drawn from market research and focus on the product mix in order to achieve the maximum profit and sustain the business. The marketing strategy is the foundation of a marketing plan.

 

[Adam-Smith]

In my opinion, marketing is a way to create a need for those products and service which customer don't know that these are useful for them. when a marketer promotes this product to the customer it will urge the customer to try it and that particular try will become the profit of the company.

 

[Tom Shaw]

Interesting thread. I've actually just set up a marketing company for small businesses to give them the advice and guidance they need to do their own marketing. This is the same advice you would get for the hundreds you'd pay a consultant but this service is a DIY service both saving you lots of money and also improving your knowledge. Check it out at thebritishmarketingclub .co.uk

 

[AllUpHere]

Interesting thread. I've actually just set up a marketing company for small businesses to give them the advice and guidance they need to do their own marketing. This is the same advice you would get for the hundreds you'd pay a consultant but this service is a DIY service both saving you lots of money and also improving your knowledge. Check it out at thebritishmarketingclub .co.uk

Does your advice to small businesses include spamming forums in a desperate attempt to drop a link to your site? I'll give it a miss, thanks.

 

[zigojacko]

Does your advice to small businesses include spamming forums in a desperate attempt to drop a link to your site? I'll give it a miss, thanks.

Well that escalated quickly, the domain they posted is expired already, just 33 minutes after they posted it, haha.

 

[Amber2017]

There is a great definition on the Chartered Institute of Marketing website which explains what is marketing:

Identifying something that people or businesses want and are prepared to pay for, or a problem that they would like solved (it could be an easy way to make a cup of tea, it could be getting the latest music).

Developing a product or service (anything from teabags to iTunes) that meets that need and then promoting it so that the audience is aware of its existence.

Working out the details and making sure you’re charging the right price for the product or service. If the price is too low, you won’t make any money, if it’s too high, people won’t buy it.

It is about people, being creative, and most importantly its communication. It is deciding what you want to sell and how you sell it to attract the right audience.

 

[Amber2017]

It is a complex process and there are many different types of marketing through selling verbally or being creative in the design.

 

[extulsftjz]

Gradually learning over time. Pick a little something up each day.Places like this are great.

The more you know, the more discerning you become too. You grow the ability to weed out the bad advice and see the good.

 

[Adam-Smith]

Marketing is not just working along with target audience. It also gets together more and more audience and keeps growing business day by day. It may be possible that your strategy is not working in your favor and your business may be going down. Then your need to take care of each and everything what you doing and what you want to do.

 

[timmyleandro]

That's a good example of a business which need not do any advertising but could certainly gain from think of many of the things it does from a marketing perspective

 

[Max Cholmeley]

Interesting read. It's threads like this that make a big difference to how people can go about things!

 

[HelenCope]

I have been working as a marketing consultant for the past 15 years and the top tip I would give to you is don't try and do everything your self adopt one social channel and really own it. Dominate your market by creating engaging content and ensure you talk to your customers. If you have a website make sure it is reaching your audience with a SEO campaign and most importantly make sure it is optimised for mobile. Good luck in your marketing journey

 

[Markus Brundisteg]

Hello, there are plenty of marketing tutorials in Udemy. I highly recommend to watch over it. I think there are many marketing, digital marketing and plenty of other tutorials.

 

[Andreas75]

I have been working as a marketing consultant for the past 15 years and the top tip I would give to you is don't try and do everything your self adopt one social channel and really own it. Dominate your market by creating engaging content and ensure you talk to your customers. If you have a website make sure it is reaching your audience with a SEO campaign and most importantly make sure it is optimised for mobile. Good luck in your marketing journey

This is the way to approach, all about reaching the clients/customers they are not aware of your services. Content does this job well if supported with social media.

 

[Articulate Appointments]

Hi .. great thread!

Over the years I have found that companies are moving towards more digital marketing- and not enough ‘human’ marketing.

I provide lead generation/appointment setting services - following up all the efforts made after emails etc.

I truly believe ‘the best way to introduce your proposition is through conversation’

 

[kaiba134]

As some of you will know, I'm a marketing and business development consultant who specialises in speaking to business owners just before they embark on any kind of marketing activity, to make sure they base all of their decisions and activities on a sound strategy. As such, I speak to many hundreds of small business owners every year. If I could pinpoint one topic of conversation that gets clients thinking about marketing in the right way, more than any other topic, it's this.

Marketing is everything you do. There isn't a single thing you do in your business that shouldn't be thought of as marketing (or shouldn't at least be considered from a marketing perspective).

If you are struggling to understand exactly what marketing is or how it should be used, try thinking of it like this. It shouldn't take you long at all to have a much better understanding of what marketing is, and how you should be incorporating in into absolutely everything you do.

Marketing isn't another name for advertising, or a way in which you find clients (although obviously, if done well marketing will provide you with as many clients as you could ever need). Marketing is a process you use to tailor every part of your business to both meet the needs of your target market, and also to maximise your profits. Whilst I'm on the subject, it's also the way in which you choose who your target markets are in the first place, and also how you find out what their needs are.

I hope some of you find the above thought provoking.

nice post, i think the marketing is the activity every company must do if they want to survive

 

[TomJ83]

Marketing are activities of a company associated with buying and selling a product or service. It includes advertising, selling and delivering products to people.

That's a nice definition. How to do it then?

 

[Tradejinni]

Marketing is the main pillar by which any company sell their product or any services they offered. Marketing are of two types one is traditional marketing or all of us know by the name of outdoor marketing in which marketer proclaim the name of product or services which they offered by going shop to shop or we can say that its purely B2C which means business to customers.
And another type of marketing that is Digital marketing in which we can sell company's product or service to a large number and we can also target specific people who actually searching that service or product which exacly same of our product.

 

[Jepherson]

Marketing can be really exhausting when you are trying to explore all areas and aspects of marketing. One of the reason why people are going into digital marketing is the ease that comes with it. Just put the stuff out there are wait for response. It is easy to get across to an audience online these days.

 

[maxbrainer]

I agree completely that marketing is everything in an on-line business. I also like the separation between marketing and advertising. Most folks would say they (marketing and advertising) go hand in hand but there is a discernible difference. Ultimately,in my opinion, bad marketing ideas or decisions for practice of business will lead to bad business or no business at all to put it bluntly.

 

[titanlist]

Have you considered social media marketing? In consequence of being in touch with every alive man, only social media integration can save the world, because of its compatibility with all of the fields in business and life. Try to read more about it if you want.

 

[vilasmrf]

Marketing is everything you do. There isn't a single thing you do in your business that shouldn't be thought of as marketing (or shouldn't at least be considered from a marketing perspective).

Hi, This is a nice post for marketers. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about Marketing.

 

[dan_12106]

Great post

 

[KindaichiShota]

The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P's of marketing:
1. identification, selection and development of a product,
2. determination of its price,
3. selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place, and
4. development and implementation of a promotional strategy.

For example, new Apple products are developed to include improved applications and systems, are set at different prices depending on how much capability the customer desires, and are sold in places where other Apple products are sold.

In order to promote the device, the company featured its debut at tech events and is highly advertised on the web and on television.
Marketing is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction. Marketing differs from selling because (in the words of Harvard Business School's retired professor of marketing Theodore C. Levitt) "Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariable does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse and satisfy customer needs." In other words, marketing has less to do with getting customers to pay for your product as it does developing a demand for that product and fulfilling the customer's needs.

 

[KindaichiShota]

 

[ukbf0001]

Are we over egging the custard a little bit ?, you can spend hundreds of hours doing it yourself (time you dont have), you can spend thousands on Google / FaceBook adverts (money you dont have). Make sure your website is attractive / relevant . engaging with some great videos etc.

Then use software to find out where your customers are, what they are talking about and engage with them - I posted yesterday - I use buzzbundle - you config it and then let it go - it will dig out any mention of your 'brand', 'niche', 'keywords' etc - let it run over night while you sleep.

By the following morning I have a report waiting for me - of who said what where, problems, questions, reviews etc - I then spend a few hours going through them - and where relevant I respond with help, advice, tips etc - these are my potential customers I am helping, or ex customers I want back - that customer advice is there for everyone else to see to - free PR.

The beauty of the software is that I can have multiple profiles so can respond as me - a techy, John in Sales, Margaret in finance, or Joe Bloggs member of the public if you get what I mean.

I also used to used hootsuite and tweetdeck but they didnt have the same functionality, you can also schedule posts / tweets. If you want to tweet or post on a certain day / time - you can it does it for you - I wont bang on about it any more as it will send you to sleep, i posted yesterday - they emailed me to say they have a discount till the 31st Jan - 60% off, usually about £160 but they are offering it at around 60quid - that will save you a small fortune - I paid the full price, it;s got me more than 100 times that back in sales.
That's me done - wittered on for too long - back to work now

 

[guitarizma]

Absoultely agree. I guess one of the biggest problems though is people think "marketing" after product developemnt, whereas it should be all figured out right in the begining before anything else.

 

[AllUpHere]

Very good post!
I have found many answers to the questions I had in my mind.

I'm glad it was useful. What kind of business do you run?

 

[AllUpHere]

We have an online email validation system that helps our customers to clean and verify their emails database. We will remove all the invalid emails, like bounces, spamtraps, abuse. Also, we can find information about email IDS like First Name, Last Name, Gender.

Sounds like you are just about to hit the marketing jackpot with new legislation looming. I hope you are set up to take advantage of the sales bonanza that's about to happen to your industry.

 

[fisicx]

That's a very broad question. I would break marketing down into - activities which reach people who are in market to buy your product and activities which prompt attention to your brand or product. If you're a small business or a start up and budget is limited - allocate a portion of your budget to an always on SEO campaign then another portion of your budget to activities which target an "in-market" audience such as paid search or affiliate marketing.

Have you read the whole thread? In any case, your advice is wrong. For example, may small business don't need to spend any money on SEO.

 

[mrbear]

As some of you will know, I'm a marketing and business development consultant who specialises in speaking to business owners just before they embark on any kind of marketing activity, to make sure they base all of their decisions and activities on a sound strategy. As such, I speak to many hundreds of small business owners every year. If I could pinpoint one topic of conversation that gets clients thinking about marketing in the right way, more than any other topic, it's this.

Marketing is everything you do. There isn't a single thing you do in your business that shouldn't be thought of as marketing (or shouldn't at least be considered from a marketing perspective).

If you are struggling to understand exactly what marketing is or how it should be used, try thinking of it like this. It shouldn't take you long at all to have a much better understanding of what marketing is, and how you should be incorporating in into absolutely everything you do.

Marketing isn't another name for advertising, or a way in which you find clients (although obviously, if done well marketing will provide you with as many clients as you could ever need). Marketing is a process you use to tailor every part of your business to both meet the needs of your target market, and also to maximise your profits. Whilst I'm on the subject, it's also the way in which you choose who your target markets are in the first place, and also how you find out what their needs are.

I hope some of you find the above thought provoking.

Wow this thread has blown me away..I need to find out what my target audience wants and tailer my travel products around them..hmm how to find out what they want is the question I guess! Thank you