Marketing

What Is Marketing? Definition, Benefits, and Strategies

June 2023

Marketing is the process of getting potential clients or customers interested in your products and services. The key word in this definition is "process." Marketing involves researching, promoting, selling, and distributing your products or services.

 

This discipline centers on the study of market and consumer behaviors and it analyzes the commercial management of companies in order to attract, acquire, and retain customers by satisfying their wants and needs and instilling brand loyalty.

 

* Do you want to know the top digital marketing trends for 2024? Download our  free ebook to discover our top tips and predictions!

 

Index

Definition of Marketing

The American Association of Marketing defines marketing as:

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.


Today, marketing is something that every company and organization must implement in its growth strategy. Many companies use marketing techniques to achieve their goals without even realizing it, as they work to promote themselves and increase sales of their product or service. 

 

People often do not know exactly what marketing is and, when asked, they define it as selling or advertising. While these answers are not exactly wrong, they are only a part of marketing. There are many other aspects like product distribution, promotion, designing and creating materials like landing pages and social media content, improving customer experience, doing market research, establishing market segments, and much more.

 

Marketing is very broad and encompasses all the strategies that help a company, brand, or individual achieve its objectives.

 

The 4 Ps of Marketing

According to E. J. McCarthy, the 4 Ps of Marketing serve as a fundamental formula for identifying and working with essential elements in your marketing strategy.

  • Product. What are you offering to your customers? The product should be designed to meet your target audience's needs, motivations, and wants. 
  • Price. How much do you charge for your product? Price is an extremely important part of a marketing strategy. It impacts various factors, including your profit margin, target market, financial goals, and trends. It's important to set a competitive price that reflects the product's value and its appeal to your customer. 
  • Place. Your product's strategic placement, whether through online channels or physical stores spread across different locations, should prioritize accessibility and a seamless purchasing experience for potential customers. 
  • Promotion. How are you communicating the value of your product to customers? This refers to using various promotional channels you can use to engage with your target audience and showcase the benefits of your product or service within the market.

 

 

What Does Marketing Do for Your Business?

Marketing offers numerous benefits for your business. Here are a few of the most impactful ones.

 

1. Raising Brand Awareness

Effective marketing introduces your brand and offerings to potential customers, building trust and loyalty over time. This is important because it gets people acquainted with your brand and the products or services you provide. It also makes you memorable to customers who can begin to trust your brand, become loyal clients, and tell their network about you.

 

2. Generating Traffic

A well-executed marketing strategy drives qualified leads to your website, ultimately increasing sales. Lead scoring and optimization techniques can assist in this process. 

 

3. Increasing Revenue

Marketing strategies, such as website optimization, SEO, email campaigns, and A/B testing, increasing sales and revenue.

 

4. Building Trust in Your Brand

Establishing trust leads to customer loyalty, repeat purchases, positive reviews, and valuable word-of-mouth promotion, which is still one of the most effective types of promotion.

 

5. Tracking Your Metrics

Metrics provide invaluable insights for creating and optimizing marketing strategies. Analyzing data allows you to adapt and adjust your campaigns to continually improve their effectiveness.

 

Types of Marketing Strategies 

Marketing is a combination of many types techniques and tactics. Below we've listed some essential marketing strategies that you should know about. 

  • Marketing Plan: A roadmap for achieving business objectives through the creation and execution of a comprehensive marketing strategy.
  • Digital Marketing: Explore online strategies and channels to reach and engage target audiences.
  • Direct Marketing: A targeted and measurable approach to reaching and influencing potential customers. 
  • Email Marketing: A cost-effective way to reach and engage with a large audience, proven to generate leads and sales. Email marketing is still one of the most profitable and effective techniques, just make sure to define your segments well.
  • Mobile Marketing: The use of mobile platforms and applications to reach and engage target audiences, including mobile advertising, app marketing, and location-based targeting.
  • Viral Marketing: A powerful way to reach a large audience and generate interest in your brand by putting out engaging and shareable content. 

 

  • Performance Marketing: This performance-based approach focuses on generating measurable returns and guarantees advertisers only pay for tangible results.
  • Inbound Marketing: A content-driven approach to attracting customers by providing them with valuable materials that build trust, drives sales, and increase a brand's web traffic.

 

Don’t forget the most important step, which is developing your own marketing strategy! If you’re looking to launch (or relaunch) a product or service, we would be happy to offer our expertise. We can help you attract visits, fully optimize your campaigns, and get the best ROI!

 

Marketing Objectives

Your marketing plan won't work unless you know what you want to achieve. Here are 10 examples of marketing objectives.

  1. Increase brand awareness among your target audience. This is the most common marketing objective, especially for new brands. You can raise the visibility and recognition of your brand among your target audience by implementing strategic marketing actions and campaigns. 

  2. Increase market share. Secure a favorable position in the market by increasing your brand’s market share. The existing competition in the market will determine how much market share your brand is able to acquire. An objective can be to gain a good position and be considered as a reference for a segment of the market. 

  3. Launching a new product. Introduce a new product or service to the market and generate interest accompanied by a well-planned launch strategy and pricing. Keep in mind that the product or service you are launching must always be created to ease consumers' pain points.

  4. Improve ROI. ROI, or return on investment, measures how well your marketing campaigns perform. It is one of the most important marketing metrics to track.

  5. Introduce the company into new international or local markets. Expand your business into new markets will extend your reach and diversifying your marketing base. 

  6. Increase business profits. Increase the profits of your business through marketing efforts.

  7. Optimize the conversion funnel. Improve the efficiency of each stage of the funnel, from lead generation to sales.  

  8. Capture new leads. Leads are potential customers who have expressed interest in your product and service. Generating more leads will increase your sales. It takes time to build a solid customer database. That's why it's important to continually put effort into capturing new leads that could eventually turn into paying customers. 

  9. Customer loyalty. Create programs encouraging customers to stay loyal to your brand.

  10. Increase sales. The top priority for most marketing departments is increasing sales to boost revenue generation and achieve sustained business growth.

Ways to Update Your Digital Marketing Strategy

 

Ensure Your Content Is Relevant for Search Engines

If you want your content marketing strategy to be effective, you need to be easy to find online and the best way to do that is to rank well in search engines. This means optimizing your content for keywords your target audience is searching for. You can use the latest SEO recommendations,and keep up with Google’s periodic updates to align the content with their priorities.

 

2. Regularly Update Your Website

If you already have a fantastic website, congratulations! Now don't let that go to waste through a lack of maintenance. This includes making sure your website is mobile-friendly, adding new content, and fixing errors. You should also monitor your website’s analytics to see how people interact with it. 

 

3. Leverage the Power of Landing Pages

Landing pages are a great way to capture leads and convert visitors into customers. Make sure your landing pages are well-designed and optimized for conversions. Here are 5 reasons to incorporate them into your website:

  1. They focus on conversion.

  2. They are a great place to run A/B tests.

  3. You can create campaigns with different landing pages and ads for each target.

  4. They eliminate distractions and take the user directly where you want them to go.

  5. You can create different versions for different organic searches.

 

4. Use Marketing Automation

Automation can help you save time and improve results. Start by automating these five processes:

  1. Capturing leads in exchange for content. 

  2. Sending personalized newsletters based on each lead's interests.

  3. Recovery campaigns for inactive users and/or abandoned carts.

  4. Cross-selling campaigns ("other products you might be interested in").

  5. Purchase reminders for products that get used up and need to be replenished every X amount of time.

 

5. Avoid Common Blogging Mistakes

Blogging is a great way to generate traffic and leads. Your blog articles should address industry questions, attract traffic, and rank for relevant keywords. Avoid these common mistakes: 

  • Expecting immediate results

  • Publishing low-quality content; consider hiring an expert if needed.

  • Not staying up to date with industry trends and charges. 

  • Not providing value to the reader

  • Being overly promotional.

  • Not having a content plan based on keywords.


Ideal Qualities for Digital Marketing Professionals

Hiring and retaining the best talent is essential for success in digital marketing. So, what qualities should a digital marketer have? 

  1. Forward-thinking: Digital marketers should quickly adapt and embrace emerging trends and technologies. They should strategically leverage these tools to achieve their marketing goals and stay ahead in the ever-changing digital landscape.

  2. Curious. Successful digital marketers should have an insatiable curiosity that drives them to explore new ideas, trends, and technologies.

  3. Versatile. Digital marketers need to be versatile in their skill set, mastering the digital environment, utilizing various tools, and possessing strong analytical abilities.

  4. Collaborative: Digital marketing is a team sport. Marketers must collaborate effectively with other teams, such as sales, product, and engineering, to align their campaigns with the overall business objectives.

  5. Consumer-centric. Digital marketers need to be focused on the consumer's needs. Adapting to consumers’ evolving wants, preferences, and behaviors, crafting personalized experiences that resonate and create lasting connections are all key.

  6. Data-driven. Successful marketers need to be able to leverage the power of data to collect, analyze, and track the performance of their marketing campaigns and make informed decisions.

  7. Creative. A strong sense of creativity sets exceptional marketers apart. Creativity fuels brand differentiation and drives impactful marketing initiatives. 

The 10 Most Important Digital Marketing Skills Today 

These skills are crucial for digital marketers to excel in today’s dynamic and competitive landscape:

  1. Attract and retain customers through a digital strategy. 

  2. Embrace digital innovation and incorporate it into your business.

  3. Implement a customer relationship management (CRM) strategy to account for changing expectations and interactions in the digital age. 

  4. Stay up to date with industry news and trends. You must be able to provide insights about the digital environment.

  5. Coordinate and work as a team in digital environments. Collaboration is more important than ever to achieve objectives. A good marketer is a perfectly integrated member of the team, not a lone wolf.

  6. Create and execute a well-defined digital marketing plan.

  7. Align the customer experience with moments of truth to enhance engagement. Customer experience is one of the key pillars of marketing. 

  8. Utilize cloud platforms and social networks to share relevant content effectively. You need to be able to use these tools to build relationships and drive traffic to your website. 

  9. Possess knowledge of SEO and SEM to achieve optimal positioning for client websites.

  10.  Gather and analyze relevant data to derive actionable insights and make informed decisions. 

 

The History of Marketing 

Marketing has evolved over time from a focus on outbound marketing to a more customer-centric approach.

 

In the early days of marketing, businesses would use outbound marketing techniques to reach potential customers. This involved using mass media channels such as print, radio, and television to reach a large audience. However, this approach was often ineffective, as it did not consider the needs and interests of individual customers.


In the 1990s, the rise of the internet led to a shift in marketing focus. Businesses began to use inbound marketing techniques to attract potential customers who were already interested in their products or services. This involved using channels such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and content marketing to create content that would appeal to potential customers.


Today, marketing is more customer-centric than ever. Businesses are using data and analytics to understand the needs and interests of their customers, which allows them to create personalized marketing messages that are more likely to be effective.

 

To understand how marketing has changed, let’s take a look at this timeline HubSpot has assembled showcasing the innovations in this industry. 

 

1450-1900: Printed Advertising 

  • 1450, Gutenberg invents the printing press. The world of books and mass copies is revolutionized.
  • 1730, the magazine emerges as a means of communication.
  • 1741, the first American magazine is published in Philadelphia.
  • 1839, posters become so popular that it becomes prohibited to put them in London properties.

 

1920-1949: New Media

  • 1922, radio advertising begins.
  • 1933, more than half of the population in the United States (55.2%) has a radio in their home. 
  • 1941, television advertising begins. The first advertisement was for Bulova watches and reached 4,000 homes that had television.
  • 1946, more than 50% of the homes in the United States already had a telephone.

 

1950-1972: Marketing is Born and Grows

  • 1954, for the first time revenue from television advertising surpasses revenue from radio and magazine ads.
  • Telemarketing grows as a means of contacting buyers directly. 
  • 1972, print media starts to become less popular 

 

1973-1994: The Digital Era Flourishes

  • 1973, Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher, makes the first call through a cell phone.
  • 1981, IBM launches its first personal computer.
  • 1984, Apple introduces the new Macintosh. 
  • 1990-1994, major advances in 2G technology, which would lay the foundation for the future explosion of mobile TV.
  • 1994, the first case of commercial spam through e-commerce is produced.

 

1995-2020: The Era of Search Engines and Social Media

  • 1995, the Yahoo! and Altavista search engines are born. 
  • 1995-1997, the concept of SEO is born.
  • 1998, Google and MSN launch new search engines.
  • 1998, the concept of blogging arises. By mid-2006, there are already 50 million blogs worldwide.
  • 2003-2012, the era of inbound marketing begins.
  • 2003-2004, three social networks are launched: LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook.
  • 2005, the first video is posted on YouTube
  • 2006, Twitter is born.
  • 2009, Google launches real-time searches.
  • 2010, 90% of all American households have a cell phone. Instagram is created in October 10.
  • Young people between the ages of 13 and 24 spend 13.7 hours on the Internet, compared to 13.6 hours watching television.
  • 2011, Snapchat is created, driving even more young users to their phones and fueling the social media app craze.
  • 2012, there are already 54.8 million tablet users.
  • 2014, the rise of influencer marketing begins. Users and brands alike begin to realize the power of social media users with large followings. Marketing tools for Instagram and other platforms abound
  • 2014, for the first time ever mobile usage outweighs desktop usage. More users are checking social media, reading emails, and making purchases on their phones. 
  • 2015-2016, big data and marketing automation are explored and used more robustly to advertise to users. 
  • 2018, video marketing continues to grow, especially with Instagram’s launch of IGTV. Video content is no longer just limited to YouTube and Facebook. 
  • 2019-2020, Move over millennials! Gen Z is the new focus and they have a hot new app: TikTok. 

It will be interesting to see where marketing continues to grow. With new world events, like the COVID-19 crisis of 2020 causing millions of people to stay in doors, social media and marketing trends are sure to change, and we’ll be right here to track them. 

 

Cyberclick’s View on Marketing 

Marketing is any strategy or action which can help a company achieve its goals, increase its sales and profits, and/or has improved brand perception.


At Cyberclick, we live and breathe marketing and advertising; it’s in our DNA! We are experts in attracting users to our client's websites or landing pages through marketing acquisition. We analyze each new project we get; if we see it as viable, we can ensure certain results according to a client’s goals. This is what makes us a performance marketing agency. Our clients only pay when results are achieved! 

 

How Can We Help You?

  • We can help you optimize your digital marketing strategy and budget across all channels. 
  • We will track your progress and exceed your expectations.
  • We have an analytical vision and react quickly to changes. 
  • We always test and optimize your digital marketing plan for the best results. 
  • We will provide you with insights into your customers behavior so that you can improve your marketing efforts. 
  • We use technology and artificial intelligence to analyze results in real time. 
  • We will assess how to best optimize your digital marketing strategy and how to best distribute your budget across all channels.

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