Marketing Is Important--Authentic Marketing Is Best

In the early stages of my deeper relationship with marketing, an experienced marketing consultant told me that marketing is the most important of all business functions.

At the time I didn’t agree. It seemed to me to be that this statement was little more than self-promotional hype. It sounded very much like the marketing equivalent of the sales-justifying phrase: “Nothing happens until a sale is made”.

However, as my understanding of marketing increased, I began to understand the value of this belief.

Marketing Generates New Business

It is after all, marketing that generates the new business that all business organizations need to survive, grow and thrive.

New clients, who represent one of only two sources of new business, are attracted by marketing communications of one form or another.

The other source, repeat business, is also generated by some form of marketing, if only the simple memory of welcome help received in the past. Typically, this memory is reinforced and kept alive by any or all of keeping in touch, advertising and other forms of maintaining brand awareness.

At another level, marketing services is about developing and maintaining the inter-personal relationships upon which successful businesses are based.

The purpose of advertising, networking, content marketing or any kind of direct outreach is to identify potentially ideal clients with whom we can develop a mutually beneficial relationship.

Once these connections have been made, effective marketing helps not only maintain but enhance these interpersonal relationships.

The bottom line on maintaining relationships, whether personal or business, is that the more authentic each party is, the better the relationship.

Who wants to interact with either an individual or service business considered to be unreliable or untrustworthy?

False Advertising & Hyped Marketing

According to the website Truth In Advertising,

“False advertising has been around…well, as long as people have been selling products. From “health tonics” that claim to cure baldness to cigarette companies denying the link between smoking and cancer, marketers throughout history have exaggerated benefits, denied side effects, and blatantly lied in order to sell their products or services.”

Consumers, including our own potentially ideal clients, tend to see most marketing as little more than false advertising, overly hyped promotions and aggressive, pushy sales pitches.

For our marketing messages to generate the results we want, we must somehow distinguish our marketing from the promotions marked by exaggerated benefits, and blatant lies.

Authentic Marketing Is About Relationships

The best, most authentic marketing is based on building and maintaining trusting relationships, not aggressively pitching products or services.

If we consistently ensure that our marketing is truly authentic … in other words, aligned with our personal values and beliefs … we can distinguish ourselves from false advertising & overly hyped promotions.

With authentic marketing, you can also expect to generate more business for your business.

One Thing to Make Your Marketing More Authentic

As noted in the precious paragraph, authentic marketing is aligned with our personal values and beliefs.

Take a few minutes to reflect on your core values and beliefs. These are the factors that give you a sense of purpose and meaning. They help define who you are as a person and what you stand for as a service professional.

With those values and beliefs in mind, what is one thing that you can do align your marketing more closely with who you are as a person and what you stand for as a service professional?

If you need some help, you might check out: Stop Sabotaging Your Marketing

And to make good things even better, you are more than welcome to share your thoughts by way of a comment to this article.