Marketing is one of the most necessary operations of any business. The way in which you market your enterprise is the key to determining whether or not it will succeed. Business owners want to invest as much in their products as they can, but this is all for naught if the message doesn’t get to the people it needs to. Marketing is as much an art as a science; grabbing the attention of potential customers can be a difficult proposition because human desires and thought processes can be fickle. Nevertheless, a business that can’t communicate to customers will always lose out. Why is franchise marketing agency is so important? Here are some insights.
Marketing Informs
At its irreducible core, marketing is about spreading information. Chances are that someone else is offering a similar service to yours, so it falls on you to tell potential customers exactly why they should choose your product over someone else’s. That means knowing your product and your mission intimately of course, but it also means knowing your customers and their needs. This is where solid market research comes in. That can take the form of gathering qualitative information through surveys and questionnaires, or it can be more quantitative and precise, using statistics garnered from focus groups and economic data. In other words, marketing is how you erase the unknowns.
Marketing Builds Relationships
Building loyal relationships with your customers is incredibly important. Studies show that businesses are up to five times as likely to successfully sell a product to an existing customer than to a new one. Because these relationships are ongoing, marketing campaigns have to be a sustained effort. This means keeping customers engaged. In-person engagement is still important; the overwhelming majority of customers prefer a human to a robot in customer service after all. The Internet offers other avenues for communication though, including the text messaging of promotional offers, regular updates on the company website and the ability to coordinate live and online events. Brand loyalty is something you have to earn from consumers.
Marketing Keeps You Relevant
A good campaign gets you noticed in the market. A great campaign keeps you there. Trends change and progress happens. Complacency is the enemy of profitability; without showcasing how your business is adapting to and fitting into current socioeconomic trends, you risk falling behind in growing your customer base as well as losing current customers who you may be taking for granted. Even small changes like streamlining the layout of your website to a more hip and modern format can do wonders for keeping you legitimate in the eyes of consumers. You have to adapt to the customers in this regard, not the other way around.
Marketing Gives You Choices
Having options when it comes to the direction of your company is a beautiful thing, especially during the chaotic startup phase. Marketing early and to a wide range of people is an excellent idea. You can experiment in this phase and see which products they respond to positively and which ones they don’t. Remember that consumers may be mercurial at times, but this can work to your advantage. Some research has shown that when shopping online, many consumers engage with seemingly irrelevant search results. Peoples’ perceptions of what they need and desire are always subject to change, and by knowing your customers’ attitudes, you can shift the offerings of your business to fill those needs.
Marketing Makes Sales
This is what it’s all about, right? The endpoint of marketing needs to be return on investment. In a straightforward sense, marketing ROI can be calculated by comparing the cost of the overall campaign to the revenue brought in as a result of it. However, this is an oversimplification of the complicated relationship between business and consumer. You’re not guaranteed success if you market correctly, but you are guaranteed failure if you don’t market at all.
It’s impossible for a business to have success without selling themselves first. By learning how to run an effective marketing campaign, entrepreneurs can ensure that the right message gets to the right people.
