Marketing is Not an Add-On Function


marketing-strategies-426545_960_720I was recently at a marketing event and was asked by a newly minted graduate what I felt was the most important part of marketing. Without hesitation I said psychology. I got the sideways look asking for more, and what ensued was a great conversation about the underlying core of what marketing is and does.

Know. Thy. Audience.

I say it often enough and include it in my posts and writings regularly, but this is the heart of what we need to do. Putting aside all the tactics and platforms, before we select partners and cadences, we need to understand what our customers are looking for, how they want content, where they are looking for it, and how they use or need to use our products or services.

Don’t Market From the Boardroom.

Large and small businesses alike approach marketing as an add-on function, an extension of their sales and mission, using existing approaches, views, and biases that stem from their own views, and their own expectations.

That’s not marketing.