5 things I learnt about marketing that every business owner needs to know.

5 things I learnt about marketing that every business owner needs to know.

Every business needs to understand the 5 main areas of marketing to truly become successful.

Marketing can be a daunting subject for anyone to understand, let alone a new business owner. With so many areas to cover and an ever-changing environment, it can be tough to know where to begin. To help new, and existing, business owners understand the main themes that they need to know to use marketing successfully I have compiled a simple blog explaining the “5 things I learnt about marketing that every business owner needs to know.” Many of these areas were learnt at business school and with the help of amazing online resources each of these 5 things are explained, simply, below for ease of developing an understanding of marketing, to aid your business’s success.

1. Understand the 6 main types of business marketing

• • Direct Response Marketing

Direct response marketing is described by Smarty Ads as a sales technique designed to evoke an on-the-spot response and encourage a prospective customer to take action by opting into the advertiser’s offer. Unlike other marketing types, the direct response method requires very minimal waiting time to see measurable results. Marketers are able to view performance from the moment the campaign is launched. 

• • Inbound Marketing 

Marketo describes Inbound marketing is a strategy that utilizes many forms of pull marketing such as content marketing, blogs, events, SEO, social media and more. This is to create brand awareness and help to attract new consumers. This is in contrast to outbound marketing, where marketers attempt to find customers, inbound marketing gains the attention of consumers and makes the business easy to be located.

• • Outbound Marketing 

As described by Wordstream, outbound marketing refers to any kind of marketing where a business initiates the conversation and sends its message out to consumers. Examples of this include more traditional forms of marketing and advertising such as TV commercials, radio ads, print advertisements, outbound sales calls (AKA “cold calls”), and email spam.

• • Content Marketing

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on developing and providing useful, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clear segment of consumers and, ultimately, to drive profitable consumer actions. 

• • Pay-Per-Click Marketing

As explained by Search Engine Journal, pay-per-click marketing (PPC) is an advertising technique that lets marketers place ads on an ad platform and pay the host of that platform every time their ad is clicked. The goal of a PPC ad is to lead the person viewing it to click through to the advertiser’s website or app, where that visitor can complete an action, such as purchasing a product. 

• • Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is simply described by Neil Patel as the process of creating content that you have tailored to the context of each individual social media platform in order to drive user engagement and sharing. 

 

2. Understand Target Markets and Buyer Personas

• • Target market

A target market is a group of consumers or organizations most inclined to purchase a business’s products or services. As those consumers are likely to want or need a company’s offerings, it makes the most sense for the business to focus its marketing efforts on reaching them. Marketing to these buyers is the most effective and efficient approach.

• • Buyer persona

A buyer persona is, according to HubSpot, a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. It’s based on market research, actual data about your existing customers, and a few educated assumptions. It helps you to understand and relate to an audience that you want to market your products and services to. Buyer personas are situated at the heart of any marketing strategy, and throughout every part of the Inbound process. 

Hit your target market!

3. Develop Marketing Budgets

Allocating funds for a marketing plan is daunting, but it’s essential for a business’s success. Below are the 6 steps, as devised by OutBound Engine, that you need to understand in order to create a successful marketing budget for your business. 

• Step 1: Look at the Big Picture
• Step 2: Outline Your Sales Funnel
• Step 3: List Your Operational Costs
• Step 4: Set Goals
• Step 5: Scope Out the Competition

Sales Funnel

4. Utilise Visuals and Branding

Visual marketing is the technique of using photos, graphics, videos, and other visual content to market a product or service. Businesses in every industry can benefit from using visual content in their marketing. Using visual branding, such as images, graphics, videos, across your marketing helps consumers remember information about your brand. Below are some statistics from Tinuiti that show just how powerful visual marketing can be:

1. When consumers process information paired with relevant images, they retain 65% of that information three days later.
2. 93% of human communication is visual. 
3. People are 80% more likely to read content if it’s paired with colourful visuals.
4. Visual content is 40x more likely to be shared across social media.
5. Presentations with visual aides are 43% more persuasive.

 

Utilize your branding!

5. Retention Matters

The customer retention definition in marketing is “the process of engaging existing customers to continue buying products or services from your business.” as defined by CrazyEgg. The best customer retention techniques allow you to build long relationships with consumers who will essentially become loyal to your brand. This could lead to them spreading the word of your brand to their peers, which can turn them into brand ambassadors. It is easier and less expensive to retain customers than to acquire them, making this an important marketing tool. The most recent statistics indicate that you’ll spend five times less money on customer retention than you will on acquiring new consumers. 

If you understand and use these 5 marketing areas it is likely to aid the success of your business. Check out our other blog posts for more ideas and information on how to help your brand!
And as always, if you have any questions, pop them in the comments below for the team to answer!