Understanding Marketing and Its Business Impact
Marketing is more than just ads and sales. It’s both an art and a science that involves creating, researching, communicating, and delivering valuable offers.
At its core, marketing is about understanding what customers need and want—and meeting those needs in a way that makes a profit. The goal is to build relationships, deliver value, and increase sales.
The Vital Role of Marketing in Business Success
A good marketing strategy connects a product or service to its target audience. A targeted campaign, for instance, understands market trends and customer needs, allowing it to capture a larger share of the market by knowing what people truly want and need.
Moreover, marketing isn’t just about sales. It’s also about building relationships and loyalty to keep customers coming back, especially since repeat customers often bring in more sales than one-time buyers.
A strong brand, built through consistent and effective marketing, holds great value because it earns customer trust and stays strong even in challenging times.
Key Responsibilities of Professional Marketers
Marketers, in general, have an extensive list of tasks on their hands. It’s a given that they must understand the customer and promote products, but they also:
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- Conduct Market Research – Marketers gather and analyse data on market trends, customer demographics, competitors, and industry insights;
- Identify Opportunities and Threats – Using the data, they spot growth opportunities, new market segments, and emerging trends;
- Understand Customer Behaviour – Marketers also study the target audience’s needs, wants, motivations, pain points, buying behaviors, and online habits, allowing them to personalise marketing efforts for optimal results;
- Develop Marketing Strategies – Subsequently, they define and segment the target audience, then plan and launch different campaigns strategically; and
- Create Budgets – Marketers also create and manage budgets, distributing resources across channels to maximise return on investment.
Why Businesses Need Marketing Experts
U-Store-It, a self-storage company in Australia, had steady revenue but struggled to attract new online customers and fill more storage units.
So, they teamed up with marketing experts to build a strong, data-driven digital strategy that boosted lead generation and ROI across multiple locations. As a result, their revenue grew from $3 million to $9 million AUD, and they filled more storage units through better online leads.
Just like U-Store-It, many SMEs start by handling marketing in-house, which is understandable. But as the business grows, it becomes harder to manage every campaign and marketing activity.
So, many business owners hire marketing professionals to manage their social media and digital platforms. This allows them to stay relevant in a competitive and constantly changing market, while still having time to focus on improving their products and services.
Simply put, marketers create detailed marketing plans while business owners focus on core business functions. By hiring marketing experts, your business can grow and stay on top of trends.