Importance of Marketing

Marketing and sales are two different things and one should not be confused for the other. Marketing covers various aspects of business including advertising, public relations, sales, and promotions. Marketing will involve all the activities related to getting your product or service into the market, promoting it through advertisements, influencing customer behavior, and encouraging and increasing sales to increase profits of the business. Sales refer to the actual transaction of handing over the product/service to the customer for a price.

The present day marketing strategies are very different from those that existed 20 years ago, since Conrad Levinson introduced the concept of Guerrilla marketing.
The radical tactics that were brought then are in fact today considered quite basic and ordinary. Since today customers have access to such a huge variety of products, with advertising messages about each one of them, how will your product or message about your product be noticed by the customer. To survive in this kind of scenario the marketers have to be creative to get their messages noticed by the customer.

Companies without a marketing mindset are at a disadvantage in today's business world. Those who are still centered around their products, rather than their customers, are doomed to fail. Knowing what your clients' expectations are, exceeding them, and building a reputation based on that is the key to success. Pay attention to your customers, and they will come back time and time again. Ignore them, and they will disappear faster than you can spend your marketing budget to try to bring them back.

Marketing is not an exact science either; many people who know little about it fear that the marketers on their staffs are wasting valuable dollars. The truth is that it's an investment that always comes back to you eventually. So even though one campaign may bring mediocre results, another will bring astonishing profits.

Some people have a misconception about the term marketing, they feel that it is an easy task and anyone can do it. But as a business person you have to get rid of this view point and employ a professional marketing agency that will device your marketing strategy and help you execute it as well. Or you can also have the assistance of an independent marketing consultant who can oversee the marketing efforts that are being put in by the marketing department.

When you hire an outside agency or independent consultant, you are hiring professional experts in marketing. These are people who can focus on all your marketing needs and not be hindered by your internal politics, relations between employees, or lack of knowledge among staff in relation to marketing strategies and how they integrate with business strategies. These are people who can and do work in the industry and know ultimately what works and what doesnt. These are people you should take advice from.

Scott F. Geld is the Spokesman of Marketing Blaster, a Pay-Per-Click traffic source that repeatedly beats the major search engines in Conversion and ROI Ratios.