The Job of Marketing — Once & For All

Nearly 4 out of 5 CEOs have very strong feelings about marketing. In 2012, 78% thought?marketing agencies lost sight of core business goals . In 2021, 78% said they’d?increase digital marketing budgets if marketers could demonstrate that their online activities directly impact sales ?and were?banking on marketing leaders to drive growth . CEOs express various ideas, wishes, and needs, but as a group of marketers, we need to make something objectively clear.

First, we know that revenue is critical. It is the lifeblood of all businesses. If your product or service does not sell, the company will not survive. So we know it, we get it, we feel it. But, alongside that, there’s something about sales that we repeat time and time again—even though it sometimes makes people recoil initially.

OUR JOB IS NOT TO SELL. Even if you’re in the sales department and your job is to “close the sale.”

OUR JOB IS TO CONVINCE. Full stop.

Marketing’s full purpose lives within the power to persuade, induce, and win over. Never to push, pressure, or force. Therefore, the entire marketing suite is set up sequentially to do our best to convince people to buy from a business:

• marketing —?understanding who to communicate with;
• advertising —?figuring out what the message(s) needs to be;
• promotion —?the activity of communicating your message(s); and
• public relations —?the professional maintenance of the relationship between the public and a company or other organization.

The end product remains connected to revenue goals, but shifting your perspective from selling to convincing can prove advantageous to your company’s morale and coffers?because you cannot control any consumers’ actions.

Now, as a reminder, the reason our approach here is so firmly ensconced in defining and communicating what your company’s brand is—the reason we designate your brand as your business’s most important asset—is because that’s where the foundation of your ability to convince begins. Sales are the goal, but the actionable objective to reach the goal is to convince. The best brands know this, and if you aim to be the best, you better know it too.?

For more information on how my agency can help you with this and for the original posting of this article , please visit thebrandarchist.com .