It’s been said that marketing is more like food than medicine – a sustaining force more than a cure for whatever might ail a business. It’s an instructional metaphor to keep in mind for those times when money is tight and you’re tempted to scale back your marketing or to enter into a “marketing-free” zone, whether you’re starting your business or going through a transition period. A one-time small-business owner embraced a full-on marketing strategy even as he wondered how consumers would respond to his newest invention, the Model T: “A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.” As the words of Henry Ford sink in, consider the primary benefits of marketing. And then, if you’re still having difficulty reconciling the issue of financing it, consider the benefits of content marketing, which offers an affordable and rewarding solution.
Consider the Many Benefits of Marketing to a Company
Businessmen, like Henry Ford, but marketing on the map, inspiring the American Marketing Association to define it in 1937 as “business activities involved in the flow of goods and services from production to consumption.”So much has changed since Ford’s heyday, and the AMA’s definition of marketing has become “an organizational function and set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.”Even when marketing is not firing on as many cylinders as a Ford vehicle, it still holds the promise of:
- Differentiating you from the competition, an exercise you should have finessed when you defined your “unique selling proposition” in your marketing plan. Informing your customers, which comes before selling. Customers must know what you sell, why what you’re selling is a superior choice and how it will improve their lives. It’s called your value proposition, and it requires repetition. Selling, an activity that marketing supports – not the other way around. Your sales goals should be established first; your marketing strategy should be structured to achieve these goals.* Engaging with customers, who repeatedly say they want to do business with people they know, like, trust and identify with. Engagement is one of the fundamental payoffs of content marketing.
- Entrenching your brand in the marketplace. Your brand is your identity – “your business’s style, reputation and culture all rolled into one,” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has said. Without marketing, though, few people will know or even recognize your brand. Sustaining a business and keeping your name “out there,” especially during lean periods. Like food, the value of sustenance is best viewed over the long term. And like food, disciplined marketing choices should deliver the best results. Equalizing, a task made infinitely easier thanks mostly to the internet but also delivery services. Some consumers may care about “shopping local,” but a professional, dynamic and helpful website levels the playing field.
Consider the Many Benefits of Content Marketing
As you weigh the advantages of marketing management in terms of tactics, content marketing should top your list. It’s the cornerstone of an inbound marketing strategy, which basically draws customers into your business_,_ through compelling content, rather than relying on outbound tactics, including brochures, postcards, and other marketing pieces. The content can take the form of case studies, ebooks, infographics, podcasts, videos, and white papers. Together, the effort should represent:
- A “strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action,” the Content Marketing Institute says.
The results reported by business owners are practically dizzying, in a positive way. For example, Hubspot reports that companies that publish 16 or more blogs per month draw nearly 3.5 times the traffic to their website than companies that publish zero to four posts. Also, companies report seeing a return on their investment that is four times higher with inbound rather than outbound marketing. This may be all you need to hear, but there are more benefits of content marketing to consider, including that it:
- Provides value – in the form of free content – that ingratiates potential customers. Turns internet browsers – the human kind – into customers more quickly, especially if they are directed to website landing pages. Bolsters a company’s visibility, image and brand. Positions the owner as an expert, especially if he plays a central role in a content marketing effort. Encourages people to share content with others, creating a domino effect through word-of-mouth.* Opens a valuable channel of communication with customers.
Probably, this last point would have appealed mightily to Henry Ford, who knew that customers demonstrate their happiness with a product by remaining loyal to it – no matter what the competitor next door might be building in his garage.
The MONSTERHOUSE Marketing Advantage
The best results come from a strong collaboration. We understand how busy life gets while running a business. Our goal as your marketing team is to allow you to focus on your business while we take the wheel with your marketing efforts. We connect our clients to their clients and prospects through well-thought-out design and strategic engineering. Interested in moving your marketing? Give us a call today!
-M.T. Wroblewski (11/2018) https://smallbusiness.chron.com/benefits-marketing-companies-61300.html