In Marketing --- Start with the business purpose

Marketing is simple - you attract traffic to your website and convert the visitors into customers. Then why do so many marketing campaigns fail? Why do business owners are unsatisfied with delivered marketing results and messages? In most cases, the problem is that business owners don't know how to tell their product message to people responsible for marketing!

Summary of this article:

• You need to understand WHO is involved in business to know how they affect the business mission.
• Write down the business mission, vision, strategy, and goals, and the marketing team will work more productive and have better results.

The purpose of this article is to take down all complexities of marketing and look at it in the most simplistic terms. You can find complexity in every detail, but let's orient on the bigger picture for now.

The WHO in the business.

The first thing you have to do is understand who the people behind the business are? Try to consider the following options:

• A business owner or co-owners,
• Board of directors,
• First employees or first managers,
• Advisors, mentors,
• Investors, lenders.

All the people above will have some saying or opinion of how you should create the business. You must understand your mindset and also those of others involved. There will come times when you will question: "Why did I include this person into my business?" or "Where this idea came's from?". By analyzing the people who give advice or help make a decision, you can understand better if there are any conflicts. 

Imagine that You want to create a business training center to share your knowledge. You want to launch online quickly and develop the business slowly to have long term value where you are in control. You have received funding from a conservative relative that tries to persuade you that you also need a physical classroom. And you have chosen a minority partner that wants to experiment and attract external investment. 

All these different personalities will impact the company's future. You have to be smart to understand what decisions and ideas come from people and create a synergy business with all parties involved. If you are experienced enough - you can deal with different personalities, but I recommend keeping it simple, and it is easier to deal with fewer people. 

Your ACTION plan for WHO:

1. Understand why you are creating the business (read below).
2. Write down all people that will have some saying in the company.
3. Analyze if there are any contradictions - can you keep them in check or need to get rid of some "advisors"?
4. Understand WHOm you don't have and what advisors, partners, or first hires you need for success. 

Always start with a goal (WHY).

Every business has a purpose, a vision, and a mission; the problem is when you don't know this purpose.

1. Somebody has created a company to be more comfortable. 
2. Simultaneously, someone else is willing to risk all for it to be a billion-dollar idea.

Both cases are very different approaches and strategies for these two extremes. That is why it is needed to understand the purpose of your business. 

Business vs. personal purpose

You need to understand how your business purpose binds with your personal purpose. If you want to live a comfortable and calm life, it will not go well with ambitious business goals that will attract much stress at one point or another. Everyone should understand their purpose, and only then think about how business can help. 

The founders or leaders of the business should be very clear about their objectives and understand how the company will help realize this purpose.

Employees need to know this WHY (both personal and for the business) to perform better.

Measurable goal setting drives results.

When you have narrowed down your purpose, create primary and secondary measurable goals. There are numerous studies on why it is essential to set goals:

• rewards and higher goals drive better results (study). 
• It is also vital to have speedy and constant feedback on how we are doing with these goals (study). 
• It is crucial to get peer group help to achieve the goals (research about Kohler Effect). 
• But be very cautious of creating a buzz around your purpose and get the "dopamine rush" from the buzz itself than the achieved goal (study about how bragging about plans on Facebook is doing more harm than the results). 

Business is a team effort.

Sooner or later, there will be more than one person in the business. Many co-founders, employees, or even freelancers and cooperation partners need to know your company's goals. Remember - if they understand the business purpose, you will have less unproductive conversations about why this task is being done and more synergy in development. 

Your ACTION plan for business GOALS:

1. Write down SMART goals, so that others can understand them.
2. Create a reporting system to see your progress yearly, monthly, or even daily.
3. Share the goal with your team and people who work with you (for example, a mentor or a friend).
4. Be careful about what you share publicly about your goal (see above study)!

Business strategy and mission (HOW). 

By now, you should have understood the goal or the WHY of your business, and now you must know HOW you can achieve it. 

Values, vision, and mission statement, all these topics have been covered in many books and articles. 

In a nutshell:

1. Vision - short why the description of the big picture (purpose) of your business.
2. Mission - how you will achieve your vision.
3. Values - how you will behave in your mission.
4. Strategy - one or more ways how to accomplish the mission. 
5. Goals - what measurable activities you'll do to achieve the strategy.

Sooner or later, some business coach, adviser, partner, or employee will come to you and ask your vision, goals, strengths, and other descriptions about the business. Company owners should create a document and preferably a video that describes the WHY, HOW, and WHAT of the business. This material will help as a fundamental understanding of how to follow one path. And this applies not only to marketing, but also to product developers, salespeople, customer service, and all other people involved in the business. You want them to receive the same message and understand the big picture.

Think of this as a translation device from your brain to other people's brains. You might have a gut feeling of what you want and need, but it will take a long time to explain what you want to achieve to others. And each time you tell this story - it will be slightly different - better to have it written down.

Only then comes digital marketing. With this information available, you can always ask a few questions about your marketing campaign?

• Does this campaign represent our business purpose? How?
• Is this ad compliant with our values?
• Does this event help us achieve our goals?
• Does public communication comply with vision and values? (especially if different people do communicate on various networks)