What Is Marketing?

Simple question: What is marketing? As in if somebody asked you to give a one-sentence definition of it, would you know the answer? Is it the same as advertising? Or is it sales? Let's find out.

Type into Google the search 'What is marketing?' and the definition given is 'the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.'

Let me be completely honest, I have worked in marketing since 2008 and when I decided to publish this article, I couldn't instantly provide a definition as definitive as the one above. That's not because I don't know what it is or the mechanics of making it work, but because I think it is much more encompassing than that.

My definition would be 'It is the activities and communication processes that a business undertakes to offer their products or services to their target audience. Through understanding, analyzing and relationship building, it works alongside all aspects of your business including advertising and sales to better understand your customer's needs.'

And it's probably fair to say, if you could come up with a definition, it would likely be closer to Google's answer, than mine.

What Does Marketing Entail

At its core, it is understanding your customers and providing them value and if you take that and align it to your business, it basically determines your long-term success. If your business can identify your target audience and their specific needs, you have a much better chance of being successful.

Marketing in itself touches nearly every area of a business. From communication and research to branding and design, it's imperative that your message across these areas is consistent to really help optimize your processes.

In broad terms, there are typically two categories of marketing practices: B2B and B2C.

B2B

B2B (business to business) involves your business marketing to other businesses about the product or services you offer. This can include consultancy services, training, IT support, legal advice, accounting.

Although B2B is marketing to a business, campaigns still involve targeting to people, you just target the people who have decision-making abilities within that business.

B2C

B2C (business to consumer) involves your business marketing directly to people who may be interested in your product or service. This can include candles, televisions, cars, holidays, houses, etc.

B2C campaigns are usually carried out through a much smaller window to make a sale as these transactions are usually triggered by emotional reactions and responses to fill an immediate need.

From the two categories above, what type does your business need to be doing?

Now you know which category you should be marketing to, let's have a look at the approach...

Marketing Types

The type of marketing your business should be carrying out depends on where your customers are. You've decided whether you fall into B2B or B2C, now to drill down on your audience on another level you have to determine what is the best way to target your potential customers who fall within your category. Are they spending their time on Facebook? If so, you need to look at social media marketing. Does your target audience read trade magazines often? You probably should be running adverts or editorials in them.

There are umpteen marketing types, but the main ones you likely to need to know about are:

• Social media marketing: Involves creating and sharing content on social media platforms in order to raise brand awareness and increase sales.
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO):The activities carried out in an attempt to improve your organic search results on search engines such as Google and Bing.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Involves the promotion of your website or products through paid advertising on search engines such as Google and Bing.
• Blogging:Publishing informative or educational content via blog posts to build relationships with your target audience.
• Internet Marketing:Promoting your business and it's services or products over the internet using tools that build awareness and generate sales.
• Video Marketing:Using video to promote your business and it's services or products.
• Print Marketing:A form of marketing where a business is promoted through physically printed media such as magazines, flyers, posters, etc.
• Email Marketing:Is the process of sending emails to an individual or group to promote your business or service/product.
• Content Marketing:Involves creating and sharing content such as videos, blogs and social media posts that do not typically promote a business or product, but is intended to stimulate interest and increase brand awareness.
• Influencer Marketing:Targeting industry leaders and influencers to help promote your business or product.

Getting Started

The number one thing to consider when deciding which category your marketing falls into and what type of marketing you should be using is who your target audience is. If you do not know who your audience is and where they spend their time, you are basically shooting in the dark. Let me say that again:

If you do not know who your audience is and where their attention is, your strategy will fail.

I cannot emphasize this point enough and the success of your whole marketing strategy comes down to how well you can identify your target audience.

So, here's what you should do, picture your perfect client and then write down how old they are, are they male or female, where do they live, what hobbies do they have, how much do they earn, where do they spend their time, etc.

The reason I created Hearnely is that I so often see small businesses struggling with their marketing strategy and unable to identify who they should be targeting, but once you can drill down these details it will help massively in the way you should be communicating with them and with what content you should be producing.

By knowing the above, you can then produce content that you know will grab their attention and in turn, help develop that relationship with them.

I'd love to hear who your perfect client is. Let me know in the comments and I'll give you some advice on what types of marketing you should be using to target them!