Contributed by LetNicBrandIt
Why is marketing important? Uhmmm, why do you need a voice? It certainly helps with getting your message across. Well, think of marketing as the voice of your brand. How do I know about your brand if you don’t tell me about it!
“Marketing – the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising”
Oxford languages
Marketing can take numerous forms, utilize various platforms and is made up of many elements. This is what makes it so effective when done right. Let’s discuss a few of them.
Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing refers to any method of promoting your brand which existed before the evolution of the internet. That being said, information was not as accessible as it is today. Brands therefore had to rely on outbound tactics such as print, radio, television ads, and billboards to promote their products or services. Although marketing methods have evolved over time, traditional marketing still has it place in today’s technological world.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing came about with the evolution of the internet and the ability to leverage it as a vessel of communication. This type of marketing covers marketing efforts that use the internet. Brands leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and other websites to connect with their audience and prospective customers. This type of marketing has allowed businesses to market beyond their brick and mortar locations. Further on, I will explain one or two of these methods.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is creating content to promote your brand and specific products on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and more recently, Tik Tok. This is a form of digital marketing. When using social media marketing we must carefully consider the users of each platform and determine if this is the intended audience for the brand or campaign message. Your content should be valuable, engaging and useful to catch and retain the attention of those using the platform. Most social media users tend to engage with brands that use this platform as a conversational tool.
When using this type of marketing there are many social media tools which exist to make this smoother, Canva is one of them.
Email Marketing
Email marketing involves scheduling content, whether promotional or educational to send off to individuals who have subscribed to receive your emails. The objective of this is to share personalized communication, thereby building a relationship with your database of clients. Email marketing is an effective way of gathering leads which can propel your sales funnel.
With this in mind, you will need to come up with a strategy to build your email list. How will you get individuals to sign up for your emails? This is called lead capture and is most times implemented via your website. Will you ask them to sign up for your newsletter which will be filled with informative and valuable content or will you get them to opt-in via requesting some form of information e.g., a quote.
Whatever your choice of lead capture, remember that the next important step will be to utilize one of the email marketing platforms available e.g. Mailchimp. Mailchimp’s platform will allow you to manage your audiences and track the performance of your campaigns. I must advise that in using this form of marketing, you must ensure that your customers have given permission to send them marketing communications, as locations such as the EU have recently enforced their GDPR regulations to protect the privacy of internet users.
Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing can be impromptu, it is usually irregular and anything but normal. It involves out of the box and bold ideas to catch the attention of audiences in high traffic areas. Guerrilla marketing is a good way to execute brand awareness and depending on your appetite can turn out to be quite cost effective. This method quite often gets people talking, which is the objective.
One of the best guerrilla marketing campaigns to date was seen back in 2005 where the manufacturing company, 3M set up a promotional stunt to push 3M’s security glass at a bus stop in Vancouver. They put 3 million dollars inside because they were so confident about the strength of this bullet proof glass. Guess what, numerous passersby engaged and tried to break it without success. This campaign went viral and really communicated the intended message. The strength of the product!
Influencer Marketing
Influencer – a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media. “influencers can add serious credibility to your brand”
Oxford Languages
Influencer marketing has long been successful. As humans we identify with those who we can relate to, we idealize those we want to be like. This results in certain personalities or celebrities having an influence over our decisions and more specifically, our purchasing decisions. For example, we may be more likely to purchase a product if it is endorsed by Rihanna or maybe even Meghan Markle.
As a brand the psychology behind influencer marketing can arm you with the tools of success. When including influencer marketing in your strategy it is imperative that you choose the right fit for your brand and audience. The wrong choice here can result in a low return on investment. Is your goal to achieve brand awareness? Then go with an influencer with a large following, these are macro influencers. If you are targeting a niche group you can choose a micro influencer who has a small, niche target audience. Read a bit more about influencers and viral marketing.
“It’s important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away.”
Douglas Warner III, Former CEO, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co
Benefits of marketing
Now I could go on and on about the types of marketing but that would take forever. I will just reinforce the importance of marketing and how it creates many vessels for us to set the narrative of our business or brand. Marketing is important because this is how we communicate with our audience and connect with our customers . It results in brand awareness and aids in increasing sales. It helps us to retain customers while creating brand loyalty. It tells our customers how we can improve their daily lives, how we can offer solutions to their problems. It brings your brand to life and sparks the interest of potential customers!
Simply put, Marketing makes you money!
Let Nic Brand It
