So many people think marketing is advertising. These are usually the same people who think their brand is their logo. And they market their business in an outdated way that people no longer engage with.

What is Marketing?

Marketing is not advertising, sales copy, face to face communication, media, search engine optimisation, print materials, brand/service/product awareness, exhibitions, and customer service. Marketing is a strategic and innovative combination of all the above.

Marketing is a variety of avenues taken to fit a specific strategy or campaign.

People have been marketing things and ideas for thousands of years. The best marketing is done “for” people – not “to” people! At its very core, it is communication – communicating ideas, services and products. It is done by everyone who wants to convey a message – this ranges from governments to businesses and even charities.

Marketing comes in many forms and to do it properly, you must know what works!

Aggressive marketing

Over the years, we have experienced an enormous surge in distasteful aggressive marketing. Forcefully spamming people to get their attention. This selfish type of marketing annoys people more than it does anything else.

With so many marketers using this outdated and ineffective strategy, people have become more distrusting and no longer pay attention to most emails and ads. Time is valuable for everyone – not just for you but for the people viewing spam. If they are not interested or, due to the culture of spamming, generally distrust ads, then you are wasting your time and theirs.

What is the right marketing strategy?

There’s no such thing as a single (one fits all) perfect marketing strategy. Marketing is about trial and error more than anything else. Of course, you must understand your brand/product/services better than anyone else; you then need experts in the various regions of marketing to shout out your BIG IDEA! Yes, you need a big idea.

You need to think deeply about how your product impacts people’s lives and find creative and engaging ways to illustrate it to others. People should not be forced to hear about how fantastic your brand is or the hundreds of great features your products and services have. Keep it simple and make it meaningful. Tell them how it will solve their problems and impact their lives.

Once you have the right idea or angle, you want to use the right tools to get your big idea to a willing audience. This means sending out targeted messages and signals to interested people.

Be specific – know your audience and target them directly with an emotive pitch to interact with you.