How important is marketing, really?

In both my role as a business owner of griffin+row and my role as a mentor of CEOs, it is clear to me that in good and bad times marketing is the key!

The saying goes: The difference between small business and big business is simply marketing.

Marketing is really something that we need to lock in like concrete, and requires weekly effort.

Marketing is not something we simply think about when times are tough – if we do this we won’t be in business when times are tough; we will just wither and fade.

In fact in more challenging times, when the pie is growing at a lower rate, we need to work harder at getting a bigger share of that pie.

It does not matter whether your business is service or product based, you need to have a clear view of :

• Who your current customers are.
• Who your potential customers could be.
• The reasons anyone would want to buy your product or services and why they would pay the price you are asking.
• How you should communicate those benefits to effectively keep your customers engaged.
• The best mix of marketing activity to keep your service or product animated.
• How you can most effectively spend your marketing dollar by segment.
• How you can best monitor your marketing spend.

Now marketing is such a fabulous part of business because actually it’s the whole of your business:

• It’s what you are selling.
• How you are selling it.
• To whom you are selling it.
• And at what price.

Marketing covers the whole business, from the birth of your product to its final destination – the hands of your happy customers! If marketing were easy, every business would be successful – and there are many that get the product, the message and the mix right.

In today’s complex digital, global world, the reward for getting marketing right is huge!

Along with everything else, you can Google a definition for marketing – there are 30 million of them – that’s really an indication of  how important marketing is!

There are so many great models out there for great marketing that you will have one in your industry – you may even be the model in your industry. You will know that because it will reflect in your bottom line!

To read more Marcia Griffin expert advice, click here.

Marcia’s latest book, High Heeled Success (pictured left), is a frank account of building a business from a solitary sales person to a multi-million dollar business with 4700 sales consultants around Australia and New Zealand. Contact Marcia to purchase. Marcia’s latest venture is skin care company griffin+row.

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