Siam Thai

Small business marketers love the chase. Love the new fangled way to make the phone ring. They love to think of a marketing promotion as a single event. But it’s precisely this view of marketing that holds most small businesses back. They fall prey to the “marketing idea of the week” and never fully explore what it takes to create and build a completely functioning, consistently performing, marketing system.

In this article I am going to outline the basic steps that any business can follow on the way to creating their very own marketing system. But first let’s explore this word system in the context of marketing. Small business owners have no problem thinking systems when it comes to say, accounting or hiring. When it comes to marketing though, all bets are off. It’s as if they are waiting for magic fairy dust to fall upon them with the next great marketing innovation.

Look, effective marketing is little more than creating and operating an effective marketing system. Now, when I use the word system I mean several things. 1) The system is documented – You can’t have a system or a step in a system unless you write it down. 2) The system is built on sound marketing principals and 3) You constantly measure, innovate, and refine the system.

Okay, so on to the system building steps.

1) Narrow and define a target market – Small business owners love to say yes. “Sure we can do that.” The next thing you know the target market is roughly anyone they think will pay them. You must commit to a narrowly defined target market and you must focus all of your attention upon serving that market like no one ever dreamed of. A narrow marketing focus might be – Estate Attorneys – as opposed to Law Firms.

With the continued proliferation of the Internet, the meaning of the word “marketing” also seems to proliferate. Cyberspace has opened up a whole arena of new marketing technologies, techniques, and twists. Amidst the online exuberance, it seems each online marketer or salesperson changes the definition of marketing to suit his or her preference.

Many times, ill-conceived notions and perceptions reduce the meaning of the word “marketing” to a shadow of it’s true self. Many see marketing as a series of tactics or gimmicks. Some define marketing as pyramid programs and the like. Others treat the words “marketing” and “sales” or “marketing” and “advertising as synonymous. None of these adequately convey the definition of marketing.

Different Marketing Definitions

Along with all of the new terminology, new techniques, and new twists the Internet has brought us, it has also opened opportunities for misguided notions about the definition of marketing. While the above definitions describe different facets or definitions of related terms, they do not convey the much broader process that is truly marketing. By taking a look at some dictionary and trade definitions of marketing we can get a better feel for what marketing is truly about:

American Marketing Association Definition

The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives. (Note 1)

American Heritage Dictionary’s Definition of Marketing

The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer. (Note 2)

Merriam Webster’s Marketing Definition

1 b: the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.
2: an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer. (Note 3)

Marketing Definition From MSN Encarta Dictionary

When you need to grow your company it can be one of the hardest tasks that you do. That is the time that you should know how having a digital marketing agency can help you out in growing your company. Once you know about how they can help you out, you will want to hire them to ensure that you get the proper level of results for your company, even with the ever changing digital age. The problem is, many companies think that they can handle this on their own and that could lead to them thinking they can do the job themselves until they start to not have any results.

One reason that the digital PR can help you in growing your company is because it will allow you to get your information out in multiple formats. Now, you could think that this is not possible because you could not do it yourself, but you need to realize that many of these companies specialize in only this type of aspect in the marketing world. Since they specialize in this aspect of marketing, they will know what actually works in this genre. Then you can see that your company will start to grow rather than remaining stagnant.

Another reason that you need to use a digital marketing company is because it will help you in growing your companies following. Now you could think that your company already has a large enough following, but you need to realize that with the constant expansion of competition that is present the chances are good that you could lose your competitive edge. Then you will not be able to have the sales that you need to continue growing your company. However, once you start to use these companies, you will notice that the growth that your company will have is going to be higher than what you thought possible.