At the core of business growth is the use of marketing and advertising. But these areas have changed dramatically with the development of the internet – in mostly good ways. This means more to learn if you are doing it yourself or why more businesses work with specialists such as Abacus Marketing to handle it for them. But the reasons for using it, no matter how do you it, are strong and relevant for all businesses.

Basic types of marketing

There are many types of marketing and paths to follow with advertising as well as specialist areas within them. But a few of the ones you need to know to help decide on what options to use include:

  • Content marketing – the use of content including blog posts, video and podcasts to inform and educate clients as well as making sales and building leads
  • Social media marketing – using sites such as Facebook and Instagram to promote your business and make connections with clients
  • Search engine optimisation – getting traffic from search engines such as Google
  • Paid per click (PPC) advertising – paid ads through search engines where you pay for each click to the website - See SEO & PPC comparisons here.
  • Email marketing – offering opt-in freebies to build an email list then marketing to these people

As well as these there are more traditional routes such as advertising in newspapers, billboards and radio ads.

Five reasons why you need marketing

Now we have established what marketing and advertising are in the modern, digital age, let’s take a look at the core reasons why people use these approaches.

Effective engagement with customers

Reaching people is one thing – a paid ad in a newspaper will reach potentially thousands of people. But if they aren’t the right people and don’t engage with what they see, then it is also a waste of money. Effective marketing and advertising create engagement with customers and helps them move along the sales funnel.

Getting that engagement is often done with a number of components. You may get their attention with a blog post and get them to sign up to your email list after they have read it. They may then respond to an email or follow a link in one. They may ask a question on social media or send a query through your website. All of these engagements give you data about them and a chance to engage with them further.

Increase revenue options

By using different marketing techniques and approaches, your business can increase revenue options. Whether that is selling more of the product you have, starting a new line or offering a new service, there are lots of different options.

If you have the marketing in place and know how to use the features available, it is then easier to create new marketing plans for new products or services. In fact, you may even have customers who are interested in it who have received existing marketing for your primary product. Or at least who already know who your company is.

Make informed decisions

Almost all types of marketing and advertising come with a range of analytics and data that allows you to make more informed decisions after it. Everything from the number of clicks on a paid ad to how many people see a Facebook Live video tells you something about your audience, their likes and dislikes and what resonates with them.

Then you can adapt the strategy as needed based on this data. No more blindly creating content or ads based on what you think your audience needs – you have data to help you be certain. Even if things don’t work as planned, this helps you to learn and provides yet more data.

Build and maintain the company’s reputation

We’ve all seen examples where marketing goes wrong or ads are off-base and create a negative reaction. But these are few and the majority of marketing is successful in varying degrees. This helps to build the company’s reputation, associating it with positive, useful things and future positive advertising and marketing reinforces this.

That know-like-trust factor or ‘EAT’ is also important for areas such as search engine optimisation, helping to get traffic from search engines such as Google. By building a good reputation, having positive reviews and feedback and dedicated fans who share your stuff, it has a positive impact on other types of marketing that rely on organic factors rather than paid ones.

Marketing boosts sales

The most important thing for any business is making sales and that is the primary aim of marketing. If you don’t advertise your business in one or more of the many different ways, how will people know you exist? Digital marketing, in particular, has the scope to reach thousands or even millions of people.

Without the right marketing and advertising, your business is always limited in its growth. You need to get people through the door, on the website or on the phone, depending on your aim. That way you can increase sales, increase customer value and retention and grow your company.