Creating Demand Through Effective Marketing

How do you know what your customers want?  Many times, a business owner and executive team make the mistake of thinking what THEY want is what the consumers want.  But, we’ve all heard the phrase, “consumers drive market”.  So, why do so many ignore that?

Before investing any money in marketing, ask yourself: Do you know what your customers want? Do you think your customers trust your products? Do you have reviews confirming what they think?

The answers are directly related to marketing.  

How you market your business determines if the enterprise will be successful or not. In turn, what people truly think of your product or service determines how you should market. Marketing is a tool used to create and maintain demand, relevance, reputation, competition and more.

1. Marketing Is an Effective Way (if done correctly) of Engaging Customers

It’s important for your business to engage its customers. The right marketing helps to keep the conversation going.

Engaging customers is different from pushing your offers. Engaging involves furnishing your customers with relevant information about your products and your business as well. Tell your customers what they don’t know. Let it be interesting and worth their time.

Social media is one of the best platforms where you can engage your customers. Some organizations use short videos and other humor-laden tricks to engage their customer base. Do NOT use social media to just announce deals, events, new products, etc.  Use it to engage and get a feel for what the audience wants.

Marketing gives your customers a sense of belonging when you engage them.

2. Marketing Helps to Build and Maintain your Company’s Reputation

The growth and life span of your business is positively correlated to your business’s reputation. Your reputation determines your brand equity.

A majority of marketing activities should be geared towards building your brand equity.

A business’ positive reputation is gained when it effectively meets the expectations of its customers. The customers become proud to be associated with your products.  And expert marketers use effective communication, branding, PR and CSR strategies to ensure that a business’s reputation is maintained.

3. Marketing Helps to Build Relationships

Businesses need to build a relationship of trust and understanding with their customers. Marketing research segments should be based on demographics and consumer behavior.

Segmentation helps the business meet or exceed the needs of its customers. This makes the customers brand loyal. Loyal customers will have the confidence to purchase more products and services from you.

4. Marketing Is a Communication Channel Used to Inform Customers

Marketing informs your customers about the products or services you’re offering them. Through marketing, the customers get to know about the value of the products as it pertains to them. It helps create brand awareness and makes the business stand out.

There’s stiff competition in any industry and you need to be a constant voice to convince the customers that you are the one to choose. Through communication, marketing helps your business become a market leader.

5. Marketing Helps to Boosts Sales

Marketing utilizes different ways to promote your products or services and arms the sales team with a consistent, cohesive message and collateral material.

Customer are more apt to become brand ambassadors when they are happy with your sales agents, products and services. They will spread the word and your sales will increase.

Ensure you offer high-quality products and services and a great customer experience to complement your marketing efforts.

6. Marketing Helps Your Business to Maintain Relevance

Every marketer understands the need for disrupting a potential consumer’s opinion about other products. Most businesses assume that they will always remain the client’s favorite brand because they’ve never expressed a complaint. Wrong. You need to find ways to remain at the top of the client’s mind.

Every relationship needs to be maintained. Marketing helps your business to maintain a good relationship with customers by helping you remain relevant.

It’s a lot harder to gain new customers than keeping current ones.  Shift the focus to making current customers happy and they can become your brand ambassadors.

7. Marketing Creates Revenue Options

During the startup phase, your options are sparse since you’re mostly cash-strapped. This means marketers need to be creative and frugal in getting you and keeping you in the forefront of customers’ minds.

As your marketing strategies generate more customers and revenue opportunities, you’ll begin having options.  New options will lead to the ability to penetrate new markets.  What’s more?  You can start weeding out the clients who are too demanding or just ‘don’t get it’.

8. Marketing Helps Management Make Informed Decisions

Every business is confronted with problems such as to what, when, for whom and how much to produce. Businesses should rely on marketing mechanisms to make these decisions.

Why? Because they serve as a reliable link between your business and society. They cultivate people’s mind, educate the public and convince them to buy.

Marketing Can Give You Competitive Advantage

Your competitor is actively marketing their product. So should you. The only way to gain a competitive advantage over your competition is aggressive and strategic marketing.

Don’t be sleazy or negative against your competitor. Simply conduct research on what your target market is expecting, and then find ways to deliver better products, services and customer experience.