Why marketing matters?

From Startup Founders to CEO’s and CFO’s, not everyone believes in the merits of marketing.  

This guide is for marketing leaders and non believers to help unlock your creative potential.

The Sceptic phenomenon

Marketing scepticism is more common than you think.  Marketing leaders and teams all over the World are under pressure to prove their value to the C-suite while navigating budget cuts, a challenging operating environment, advancements in technologies and being asked to do more with less.     

If allowed to thrive culturally, marketing scepticism leads to missed opportunities. It culminates in a reluctance to embrace change or adopt new marketing initiatives and methodologies that can positively shift the dial for brands.

Is marketing investment a black hole?

To answer this, let’s take a look at the World’s leading brands.  Interestingly, they consider marketing as an investment rather than an operational cost.   According to Marketing Week, almost half of brands consider marketing as a cost rather than an investment.

Strong brands can charge a premium for their products and services. Equally, successful challenger brands invest more in marketing than the category leader to increase marketing share. They can also adopt a brave marketing approach, i.e., doing more with less.

Conversely, in a tough economic climate, and with pressure to meet short term financial objectives, ‘short-termism’ is an approach adopted by corporations looking to increase profits for shareholders by reducing costs.    

Contrarily, the IPA has reported that the strongest brands deliver greater returns for shareholders.  Equally, a seasoned analyst or marketing-savvy investor will consider a lack of marketing investment as a gargantuan red flag.  

The key take-out is that successful brands balance investing in longer-term brand building while generating short-term results even in a tough economic climate. They understand that marketing investment has a cumulative impact over time.  

Our no-nonsense guide to why marketing matters explores five challenges and solutions to help marketers, agencies and business leaders unlock their brand's potential.  

Challenge #1

Senior managers don’t understand the value or impact of marketing.

Solution:

Educate on what marketing is, how marketing supports business goals and how marketing expenditure impacts longer-term business and financial objectives.

What is Marketing?

According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing,“ Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.”

The definition of marketing in search outlined by Google and Oxford Languages (the World’s leading dictionary publisher) is;  marketing is the activity or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.

Author, Entrepreneur and Business Thinker, ‘Seth Godwin’ said, ‘Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem.  Their problem.  Marketing helps others become who they seek to become’.

In the words of ChatGPT, “Marketing is the process of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.  It involves understanding customer needs and creating value to satisfy those needs, ultimately aiming to build strong customer relationships and drive business success.  Key components include Marketing Research, Product Development, Branding, Pricing, Promotion, Distribution, Sales, Customer Service, Analytics and Measurement. Overall, marketing is about understanding the customer, creating products and services that meet their needs, and effectively communicating and delivering those offerings to drive business growth.

We believe Marketing is a positive thing.  Marketing is putting your customers first and how you make them feel, think and do.  It’s solving their problems with incredible products or services.  It’s crafting memorable stories and creating engaging experiences that make their lives better.   

And finally, marketing is a strategic and measurable approach.  It directly links to your overarching business goals.  

Challenge #2

Lack of understanding of how marketing directly impacts business objectives.  

Solution:

Ensure your marketing strategy and activity directly links to your overarching business goals.  Avoid using marketing jargon, and consider tailoring your communication style for different stakeholders.

Marketing ‘is’ strategic  

Your marketing strategy and marketing plan outlines the approach to support your overarching business goals.  

A marketing plan covers the tactics or activities marketing will take to achieve your marketing strategy goals and objectives.

Make sure your CEO/ Founder/ CFO is aligns with your Marketing Strategy and Marketing Plans. Agree on ongoing roles, responsibilities, budgets and reporting. 

Challenge #3

Lack of transparency around marketing impact and results.

Solution:

Measure marketing impact and communicate results.

Marketing is measurable

Measuring return on your investment ‘ROI’ for marketing and campaigns is a great way to measure your impact. However, ROI doesn’t capture your marketing efforts' cumulative impact and investment over time. Do report on marketing investment and impact on sales over a longer period of time.

Challenge #4

With a limited budget, how can startups looking to scale or ambitious brands challenge the status quo?

Solution:

Adopt a braver marketing approach.

Brave marketing

Startups and ambitious brands looking to challenge the status quo on a limited budget can adopt a brave marketing approach to leap ahead of the competition. It doesn't mean taking unnecessary risks, it's more strategic about doing the unexpected or taking a refreshingly different approach. Brands hungry to scale tend to have a larger appetite to risk - they are more comfortable adopting a braver marketing approach.

Challenge #5

What’s the one thing every brand should do well?

Solution:

Invest in your digital presence.

Be discovered digitally

Your website is your virtual window, enabling audiences to find and learn about you online. A well-designed and discovered website and social media presence helps to add credibility for your brand.   If there’s one thing you can do, it’s invest in your website and digital presence.

Unfortunately, building or refreshing your website is just the beginning. Websites need to be updated and maintained on an on-going basis from both a technical and a content perspective. If you're looking to increase leads, you need to increase the traffic to your website and/or other channels if you have them.  Growing your email database means you can communicate directly with your prospective consumers.  Email marketing is still effective in generating sales.  

Providing quality content that adds value to your consumers will help build trust, increase their positive perception of your brand, and generate traffic and leads.  

In B2B marketing, winning new customers can take months.  At different stages - your prospective customers will need different content.  Consumers want to find the information they are looking for online, i.e. search for the solution online before speaking to a salesperson.  It means ensuring the information consumers need can be found digitally via your website and social media.  So, the quality of your content in June (and your marketing efforts) can impact your results in September if it takes four months to build trust and convert a prospect to a customer. 

If you invest in developing quality content but don’t invest in maintaining your website (from a technical perspective) or social channels, your results will be negatively impacted. This requires a strategy and needs to be an ongoing effort, i.e., weekly/ monthly.  Consistency is important.

Paying to promote your content via social media or other activities is another way to increase awareness of your business among your target audiences.    

Ready to unlock your brand's potential? Start here to discover how our scalable content marketing engine can help your brand reach the next level.