Marketing and entrepreneurship are two sides of the same coin; you need effective marketing to bring your entrepreneurship to life, and there won’t be any marketing if there were no entrepreneurship in the first place. To fully underscore the importance of marketing in entrepreneurship, we must understand what marketing really entails.
What Is Marketing?
Marketing is the commercial process involved in promoting, selling, and distributing of goods and services. It is the whole gamut of commercial efforts geared at advertising your products, increasing sales, and achieving the widest distribution possible. It centers on fixing your products in the minds of potential customers and getting them to develop loyalty at purchasing your products alone.
With this in mind, let’s examine the importance of marketing in entrepreneurship and the benefits to gain from the promotion, sales, and distribution of new products:
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Marketing Plants Your Brand In The Minds Of Customers
The core purpose of marketing is to make your product the number one choice for customers. Marketing fixes your products in the minds of potential customers – and when they are in actual need of related products – your brand comes to mind first. When customers think of your product first – before others – they are more likely to purchase from you.
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Marketing Boosts Sales and Increases Revenue
Once marketing makes your product the first option with customers, it makes them want to buy from you again and again. With instantaneous and repeat purchases, your sales revenue grows and your business acquires a solid standing in the market. Marketing increases the visibility of your products and this increases overall sales in record time. The overall aim of your business is to grow through sustained revenue streams and product marketability.
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Marketing Helps To Acquire and Retain Customers
Marketing is not only about acquiring new customers, it is also about retaining existing customers. The same marketing strategy can achieve both – acquire new and retain old customers. With a solid customer base, you will not fear new and trendier products upstaging yours in the market since you have built a name and a loyal following over the years.
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Marketing Enhances Your Company’s Reputation
Your overall company reputation, brand name, product quality, customer base, and future prospects all depend on the success of your marketing efforts. Quality marketing is the central force that holds all aspects of your business together, and it’s the pedestal upon which your success lies. The more effective your marketing campaign, the more your company reputation grows, and the more people do business with you by purchasing your offerings.
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Marketing Helps You To Engage Directly With Customers
With effective marketing, potential and existing customers are able to engage with the company behind the products they buy. Marketing provides the avenue whereby customers are able to relate with the company directly through targeted messages and coordinated feedback. Companies are able to pass direct messages and business news to customers through select marketing channels, and audiences receive the messages without third-party interventions.
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Marketing Provides Insights Into Your Business
The more customers know about your company, the more the chances of buying from you. In fact, the more customers are kept abreast of what is happening within a company, the more they are likely to stay with the company. To this end, you can beat the competition by constantly singing the tunes your customers want to hear – product discounts, company news, product applications, and user insights among others.
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Marketing Drives Corporate Initiatives
Customer data obtained through marketing initiatives enable company executives to make informed decisions regarding product development. Entrepreneurs are able to chart new territories for business expansion through the feedback they get from marketing initiatives. When it comes to corporate decisions regarding the what, when, why, who, where, and how – executives are able to make plans for new business directions based on these factors gleaned from marketing statistics.
In conclusion, other importance of strategic marketing to entrepreneurial success include the capacity to beat industry competitions hands down, diversify revenue options, maintain industry leadership, sustain customer relationships, and achieve company objectives faster. It must be noted that without marketing, customers may not understand why they need your products; but marketing creates needs, and fuels purchase response to the identified needs.