BEST PRACTICES :: What's the Point of Marketing?

Mention "marketing" at a cocktail party and you'll most likely be met with blank stares. Tell someone you're a doctor, a lawyer, an architect, or a plumber and people have a pretty good idea what it is that you do. This is not the case with marketing. The problem is, few people understand what marketing is and those that do understand often don’t see the point.

So, what is the point of marketing?

There are all sorts of marketing strategies but most to all of them boil down to sales support. Ultimately, all the Branding, Positioning, or Messaging in the world is meaningless if it doesn’t support your sales efforts and therefore your business objectives.

When marketing supports sales, whether through sales brochures, business cards and trade shows, or though promotions, public relations and advertising, it must always keep in mind that unless its activities somehow help the sales team sell, they’re pretty pointless.

This is not to say that all your marketing activities must directly impact sales, but if they are not a direct contributor, you’d better have the ability to demonstrate how they contributed—albeit indirectly.

Watch TV for 20 minutes and ask yourself every time you see sponsored space if that ad is supporting that company’s sales efforts. Every time a celebrity holds a soda (label out), a NASCAR screams across the screen with all manner of logos on it, or a 90-pound model eats a greasy potato chip, "Is this somehow contributing to my decision to purchase that?"

With the possible exception of the model, I contend that these types of marketing are criminally inefficient and, at the same time, teeth-grindingly common.

It’s unlikely that you’re a major sponsor or have a media purchasing budget that rivals a small country’s GDP, but you don’t have to be one of the ‘big boys’ to make similar errors in your marketing.

There are essentially two keys to making sure your marketing activities aren’t rendered pointless.

Number 1 :: A Marketing Audit
The first is to track the results of recent marketing campaigns through the sales process. Determine if your marketing is helping to close deals, or if it’s just getting in the way?

Number 2 :: Allocate an Adequate Marketing Budget
The second way to make sure your marketing efforts aren’t rendered pointless, is not to strangle the potential out of your marketing by not allocating adequate funding and time. Like trying to start a campfire in the wind, there’s little point if you’re only willing to use one match.

When sales are a key factor in the success of your business, the whole point of your marketing activities are to support that effort. Everything else is pretty pointless and best left at cocktail parties.

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