It is a common fact that some businesses have a higher success rate than others. For some establishments, the sky is the limit for success, while other business owners have to apply for loans for unemployed because they have gone out of business. There has to be a justified reason for it.
Let us try figuring it out;
- Can it be that the products and services were sub-standard?
- Or the business did not have enough capital?
- Or maybe the business plan was too optimistic rather than being practical?
- What if the business was solid on all these ground, but could not attract a healthy client base?
More times than not, businesses, especially the small scale ones, have to wind up their operations because they do not have the audience to sell their way above average products and services.
Making customers attracted to your products should be given more priority than anything else. Because the business owners do not do so, they end up in losses. A separate division for “MARKETING” can help a company shoot up from the ground and fly amongst the big names.
THE CONCEPT OF MARKETING
Marketing is often associated with sales, and it is considered to be another term of advertising. Both of these are only somewhat true.
Marketing is a continuous process that helps an organisation or a single seller to draw a potential buyer towards him, make him so interested in the product that he ends up buying it. The process does not end here. After the first purchase, marketing takes on the task of retaining that customer to make him come back for more.
Selling is only one aspect of the broader concept of marketing, and so is advertising, which acts as bait to lure the in the buyer in. It is done through various offers and strategies;
- Offering discounts; the buy one gets one free has been the best so far.
- Constantly bombarding the customer’s email account and phone with offers and deals that he loses the battle and clicks on the BUY tab.
- Putting banners and billboards of the products everywhere the customer can see.
- Offering after-sale services for gadgets and assembly services for furniture to make the purchase even more convenient for the customer.
- Always listening to customer grievances and working on them to improve your services and ensuring the customers that you are listening.
Every successful marketing team can quickly implement all of these to entice the buyer so fervidly that even if he has to get loans for bad credit no guarantor direct lender to buy the product, he would happily do so.
HOW MARKETING BRINGS ALONG SUCCESS?
The purpose of every business is to earn profits. It does so through selling its products and services to the customers. Marketing is that tool which not only persuades the buyer to buy the products once but also to keep doing it again and again. It is quite similar to Amazon’s save and subscribes option.
Here are three of the most important ways through which marketing achieves this feat.
- BROADENS THE PRESENCE
Earlier, most businesses used to work on word of mouth. A customer buys your product, he likes it and raves about it to his friend, consequently spreading the word and widening the customer base. Today, this strategy won’t work.
To broaden the business’ presence, a marketing plan is paramount. It does this by making the target audience aware of the product. Have you seen any cereal commercial on TV that you liked so much you bought it? That is the perfect example of getting more extensive consumer base.
- CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Next is customer satisfaction. It starts from the moment the target audience is identified. And it entails four aspects that will satiate all the customer demands;
- Producing products and services that will fulfil their needs.
- Focusing on quality over quantity.
- Getting the price just right, to do both, entice the buyers and earn a profit.
- And finally listening to them even after the product is sold, so that you make them loyal to the brand.
- COMPETITIVE EDGE
Marketing also gives the business a competitive edge over all the other brands and companies. You have already accomplished some of it through advertising the products and customer satisfaction.
For the rest of it, you need to do some homework. Research and market analysis play a crucial role in giving you an advantage. When you can do this properly, you would find the blind spots in the industry you are in. Explore those, and you would have a need that will be fulfilled by your product and not the competitors.
WINDING UP
Marketing indeed helps the business owner to stay two steps ahead of everyone else. The best part about this concept is that it is not an expensive one. You can make social media your best friend when deciding to make use of this tool.
If you want to achieve the success that every big name in the business world has been able to achieve, you have to understand this concept and turn it to your advantage.
