What is marketing?
Marketing encompasses the strategies and tactics brands use to promote their products and services to consumers. Everything from market research to writing ad copy falls within the realm of marketing. At first glance, marketing even a single product or service can seem like an enormous challenge. You understand the value of your offering – but how do you show it to consumers? And how can you ensure they actually pay attention to your message? Let’s start with some basic marketing principles. The four Ps of marketingIn the late 20th century, marketing thought leaders developed the concept of the “Marketing Mix,” a set of concepts and tools that help companies achieve their objectives within a market. At the core of this model are the four Ps:
Reaching your target audience
You probably have some idea about who your target consumers are and why they might be interested in your product. If you’re selling a piece of accounting software, you know that your target buyer doesn’t want to spend hours every week making calculations by hand. But you can only trust your gut so far: 45% of businesses don’t have a formal digital marketing strategy. These organizations toss digital content into the abyss of the internet without ever measuring their results or thinking about how to do better. In other words, to be better than 45% of your competition, you need to conduct market research (read industry reports, monitor trends, engage your buyers in conversation) and then build a marketing plan based on the insights you reveal. By doing so, you can determine which channels are best for marketing your offerings. Eventually, website analytics can show help you tweak your strategy until it’s perfect. |
Staying up-to-date with the latest marketing trends
A good marketer never stops learning.
Though the fundamentals of marketing may remain steady over time, the specific strategies businesses deploy are affected by a number of factors, such as:
- Changing consumer demographics: Younger generations of people may respond to different appeals, compared with older generations. Customer opinions can greatly influence your content strategy.
- Emerging technology: Mobile devices, voice search and other developments offer new ways for marketers to reach their customers.
- Fluctuating market conditions: The global economy is in constant flux; what was affordable to consumers yesterday may be out of reach tomorrow.
- Cultural shifts: Political and social movements shape the way consumers view companies and their offerings.
That’s when you turn to expert advice. Blogs are a great place to start. Those of us embedded in the world of marketing every day share our experiences, analyze reports and make educated predictions about the future of marketing.
Types of online marketing
Once you know who makes up your target audience, you’ll need to determine how best to reach them. Integrated marketing strategies create a unified experience across all platforms.
Some of the most prominent channels include:
- Content marketing.
- Email marketing.
- Social media marketing.
- Pay-per-click advertising.
- Influencer marketing.
Task:
Working with a partner, or individually, design a presentation that explains the following:
Trabajando con un compañero, o individualmente, diseñe una presentación que explique lo siguiente:
¿Qué es el Marketing?
¿Por qué es importante/útil?
¿Cuáles son tres hechos significativos sobre el marketing?
¿Cuál es un ejemplo de la vida real de cómo se usa o es útil el marketing?
Puede elegir el método de presentación entre los siguientes:
póster
video
actuación
pódcast
otro
Working with a partner, or individually, design a presentation that explains the following:
- What is marketing?
- Why is it important/useful?
- What are three significant facts about marketing?
- What is a real-life example of how marketing is used/useful?
- poster
- video
- performance
- podcast
- other
Trabajando con un compañero, o individualmente, diseñe una presentación que explique lo siguiente:
¿Qué es el Marketing?
¿Por qué es importante/útil?
¿Cuáles son tres hechos significativos sobre el marketing?
¿Cuál es un ejemplo de la vida real de cómo se usa o es útil el marketing?
Puede elegir el método de presentación entre los siguientes:
póster
video
actuación
pódcast
otro