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| Digital Marketing |
Marketing is the process by which a business markets its products or services to customers to increase sales and company image. This process involves a number of stages in creating and implementing a marketing strategy.
Marketing activities develop along with technological advances. Marketing used to be limited to media such as billboards, pamphlets and banners. However, recently, various marketing strategies have begun to spread to digital media, such as social media, online advertising, and others.
So, to understand what marketing is more deeply, we have summarized it completely in this article. Come see our discussion below!
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What is Marketing?
Marketing is the process of planning, implementing, and evaluating activities designed to promote a product or service to a specific market. The goal is to influence consumer behavior, increase brand recognition, and increase profits for the company.
Marketing activities involve a number of stages. For example, identifying consumer needs and desires, developing products or services to meet these needs, and advertising and selling products or services to consumers.
Along with advances in technology, the definition of marketing is increasingly broadening. There are two types of marketing currently understood, namely: online and offline marketing. These two are differentiated according to the type of media used, internet-based and not.
Difference between Sales and Marketing
Marketing is closely related to sales, in fact many people think the two are the same thing. However, in fact, sales and marketing are components in a company's revenue target strategy that have different goals. The differences between sales and marketing are as follows:
1. Business Functions
Sales is responsible for all actions related to product sales. Meanwhile, marketing has the function of increasing public interest in the company's goods provided through sales.
2. Work Process
Marketing has a mission to increase the target audience's awareness of the company's products, so that it can be a solution to their problems. Therefore, marketing focuses on providing complete information about the goods to be sold.
This is different from sales, which directly executes or makes sales to target customers . Sales involves more communication with potential buyers. This includes a number of activities, such as making offers and answering customer questions regarding products.
3. Scope of Work
Jobs in the marketing field can include but are not limited to Market Research, Public Relations, and customer satisfaction. Meanwhile, the sales sector generally only focuses on approaching potential clients directly to offer products.
Jobs in the sales field are often short-term. This is different from marketing work, which requires consistency to maintain ties and develop harmonious relationships with business partners to market products.
Marketing Objectives
As discussed above, the goal of marketing is to achieve strategic targets that will add to the long-term success of the company. One of these achievement targets can be explained by increasing brand or product awareness in the market.
Through increasing awareness, companies can attract potential buyers, expand market reach, and create additional value that differentiates them from competitors. If focused on these goals, companies can achieve long-term growth and higher revenues.
Also Read: 5 Content Marketing Strategies That You Should Try in 2024
On the other hand, companies also cannot escape from their business nature, namely increasing sales and market share. Companies can increase their sales volume and market share through marketing strategies that are designed and executed as efficiently as possible.
This also includes increasing profitability. Apart from increasing operational efficiency and profit margins, companies can also achieve better levels of profitability through targeted marketing strategies.
Marketing Functions in the Company
Not only does it help the company achieve the goals previously mentioned, but within the company, marketing has many other functions. Some marketing functions are as follows:
- Market research: Marketing activities involve gathering information about potential customers, competitors, and overall market conditions.
- Product development: Market research leads to the development of new products or the modification of old products to meet market demands and desires.
- Determine the price: Through marketing research, companies can determine the right price for goods or services, taking into account production costs, profitability, and client price preferences.
- Promotion: Marketing can facilitate communication with potential consumers, including through advertising, sales promotions, etc.
- Distribution: Marketing activities also include making decisions about how to distribute goods or services to clients, for example, through retail stores, e-commerce, or distributors.
- Building relationships with customers: Marketing is one solution to build closeness between brands and customers. This can be realized through actions such as interacting on social media, providing after-sales service, and accepting suggestions and criticism from customers.
Types of Marketing
Judging from the methods and media used, marketing can be divided into several types. The types of marketing are as follows:
- Outbound marketing: Outbound marketing is a marketing approach that focuses on advertising through various media, such as print ads, TV ads, phone calls, and emails.
- Inbound marketing: In contrast to outbound marketing, this marketing method focuses on getting consumers by involving consumers in the strategy.
- Digital marketing: This type of marketing approach relies on electronic media and technology, no longer traditional methods. The media used include social media, email, and websites.
- Search engine marketing: This is a marketing technique that includes all marketing operations to advertise a company's products or services on the main search engine page or search engine results pages (SERP).
- Content marketing: This is a type of marketing that is quite popular because it can help audiences find the information they need on the internet.
- Social media marketing: Social media marketing is a type of marketing that involves developing content to promote brands, products, or services offered and sold on various social media platforms.
- Video marketing: In short, this type of marketing uses video as the main medium to introduce products and increase conversions.
- Voice Marketing" This is a type of marketing that uses other major media platforms, such as Amazon, Alexa, and Google Home, to educate and answer questions about topics of interest to consumers.
So, that's the understanding and various things about marketing that you need to know. By now, you already know that marketing is one of the most important pillars of business. Hopefully, this article helps you understand marketing more deeply.
