Marketing is a buzzword being thrown around in business discussions often. But, if in case you’re still lost as to what Marketing really means, keep this simple concept in mind: Marketing is a series of strategies that a business executes to get the word out about their brand and services across many platforms and media. In a lot of cases, companies use this tool and the different facets of it to persuade the target audience to buy in to whatever it is they’re offering.
But of course, for you to understand fully what Marketing is in the context of a business like yours, it’s equally important that we talk about the awful truths about marketing that you don’t hear about often. This way you’ll see the other side of this fantastic business tool and not be surprised or blindsided by these inconvenient truths about it when the time comes.
Here are some unsettling facts about marketing that you have to understand as you decide to take on this important step for your business’ growth.
It’s going to be filled with trials and errors. When you launch your marketing campaigns, it’s best that you feel optimistic but do leave room for some doubts as it’s not always a case of rainbows and butterflies. More often than not, you or your marketing team (if you’ve employed any) will have to launch preliminary test ads to see what message gets the most traction with the audience. It’s a time-consuming process and it will definitely exhaust you as you think about your target audience and the best copywriting to go along with the right content.
When you get it right, you can rejoice, but don’t expect that same methodology or message can attract customers on another demographic or for marketing another product. There’s no cookie-cutter style of marketing that fits every product you have, so during the whole process, you’ll find yourself spending hours upon hours discussing what’s working and what’s not working until you come to that final piece of content that will bring in engagement and, hopefully, sales.
It’s going to cost you. This isn’t only applicable to when you hire a professional team to formulate a strategy with you. Even if you decide to do some marketing for your small brand by yourself, it’s still going to cost you. It will cost you time to figure things out on your own, thereby leaving you with less free time. It’s going to cost you money to run paid ads on social media or your website.
A lot of marketing strategies may involve giveaways or discounts, and these will just add up to the cost of acquisition of customers for you. If you’re on the fence about going through with it because you’re afraid to spend your money on something that may or may not work, do remember that the fate of your business hangs in the balance.
You have to live up to the hype. A lot of new businesses fail to live up to the hype that they’ve successfully created with their marketing and that’s such a shame. No matter how good your ad is, you have to remember that customer interaction doesn’t stop with a share or a like. Don’t forget that you had your marketing strategies in place because you want to attract and persuade people into committing to a personal experience with your brand.
What do you get if you don’t deliver what you’ve been promising over your marketing campaigns? Disappointment. So, keep in mind that when you’re launching an ad with the potential to become successful, you have to prepare your a-game from the product delivery to the customer service during and after sales. Your marketing is just the gateway for people to know you but it’s your job to satisfy their curiosity.
It’s a long-term commitment. You’ve posted one ad, you struck gold on one and you missed by a mile on the others, and you think that’s it. This is where some businesses fall short. Marketing is a continuous process. It’s not something that you just stop doing because you’re succeeding or because it’s not working. The times and the market’s behavior are constantly changing and that demands that you study how to adapt your future marketing messages to the present situation to stay relevant.
Marketing helps people get to know your business and keeps their interest in your brand alive, and if you think of this journey as a long-term commitment rather than just a one time job, then you’re on the right track. Don’t stop even if you’re already experiencing the growth that you hoped you’d have when you launched your strategy. Keep doing it even long after you’ve gone up to the top.
There’s a lot of uncertainties in the world of business, let alone the world of marketing. It will be confusing, time consuming, expensive, and demanding of your efforts, but there’s no other way for your business to be recognized and succeed. It’s not always a beautiful journey along the way but one thing’s for sure, it’s harder to make it out alive in the business world without investing in good marketing.
If the bigger and more successful brands who have long been here before yours are still investing their money in marketing, what excuses you from doing the same?
