What is marketing and what is its purpose?

What is marketing and what is its purpose?

If you had asked me at the beginning of my career to define what marketing was, I would have no doubts. “Marketing is about promoting products” I would say. But today it is one of the most difficult questions to answer.

The term is so broad and flexible that it is difficult to pin down.

Marketing is present in all phases of the company, from start to finish. Without marketing, you can’t truly understand your target audience, develop a product that meets their needs, or successfully bring it to market.

→ Click here to download our free guide to digital marketing basics (Download Now).


Marketers
have their finger on the pulse of your consumer persona.

In this guide I will show you in practice what marketing is, what types there are, what the 4 P’s are and how it differs from advertising.

I’ll also spice things up with some expert tips. Whether you’re a pro looking for a refresher or a newbie trying to get the hang of it, you’ve come to the right place.

Table of contents


What is Marketing?

Marketing refers to all the measures a company takes to attract an audience for the company’s products or services through high-quality messages. The goal of marketing is to create independent value for prospects and consumers through content, with the long-term goal of demonstrating product value, strengthening brand loyalty and ultimately increasing sales.

Modern marketing began in the 1950s when people began using more than just print media to promote a product. As television – and soon the Internet – entered households, marketers were able to run entire campaigns across multiple platforms.

And as you might expect, over the last 70 years, marketers have become more and more important when it comes to optimizing the way a company sells a product to consumers to optimize success.

In fact, the fundamental purpose of marketing is to attract consumers to your brand through messaging. Ideally, these messages will be helpful and educational to your audience, allowing you to convert consumers into leads.

These days there are literally dozens of places to run a marketing campaign – where do you even start?

3 pillars of marketing

Where your marketing campaigns take place depends entirely on where your customers spend their time. It’s up to you to conduct market research to determine which types of marketing – and what combination of tools within each type – are best for building your brand.

We have two main categories of marketing: digital and traditional. The third, not so popular but extremely effective approach also deserves a separate place: neuromarketing. Let’s find out what’s included in each.

1. Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is the use of online channels and platforms such as social media, email and search engines to promote and sell products or services.

The main components of it are:

Search Engine Optimization

“SEO” is the process of optimizing content on a website so that it appears in search engine results.

It is used by marketers to attract people who perform searches that indicate they are interested in learning more about a particular industry.

29% of marketers consider SEO as one of the leading trends they use. And just like in other areas, AI has made significant progress here and has significantly aided search engine optimization.

Actually, 54% of marketers use AI tools to automate SEO tasks such as meta tags, link descriptions and alt text.

Additionally, 45% of marketers believe AI/automation tools are best for optimizing websites, 40% say they improve user experience, and 37% estimate they save time.

Blog marketing

Blogs are no longer just for the individual author. Brands are now publishing blogs write about their industry and capture the interest of potential customers searching for information online.

Today, most marketers use AI to help with content creation. Almost half (46%) rely on it to write marketing copy and over 40% use it to create outlines.

Personally, I like to use it for proofreading – a time saver for writers.

How marketers use AI for content creation

Social media marketing

Companies can use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and similar social networks to create impressions on their audience over time.

Social media platforms with the highest ROI

Social media is the number one place where Gen Z and Millennials discover products 31% of people use it to find answers.

Additionally, 17% of users buy products through social media and most sellers find it effective, with 59% seeing more sales in 2023 than in 2022.

It’s clear that investing time and energy into social media is worth it, and one of the best ways to speed things up is – you guessed it – incorporating AI. Actually, 46% of marketers use AI to write social media posts.

Marketers are using AI for different types of content

Download our free step-by-step instructions and create your digital strategy.

Search engine marketing

This type of marketing is a little different from SEO described above. Companies can now pay a search engine to place links on pages in their index that attract a lot of attention from their target group. (It’s a concept called “pay-per-click.” I’ll show you an example of this in the next section.

Recent data shows that SEM spending is increasing expected to reach $306.7 billion in 2024 As companies recognize its potential to target and convert customers with high purchase intent.

SEM can deliver strong ROI, especially with targeted strategies. On average, companies You’ll get $2 back for every $1 you spend on Google Ads. shows how powerful SEM can be when done right.

Video marketing

While once there were only commercials, marketers are now investing money in creating and publishing all kinds of videos that entertain and educate their core customers.

Marketers are turning to TikTok, YouTube and Instagram to connect with younger audiences who prefer social videos over search engines.

Short videos deliver the best ROI and this is the case expected to grow fastest in 2024, A quarter of marketers plan to invest heavily in the company.

Marketing Trends 2024: TikTok is the leading platform for marketers

“Use social listening tools to identify key questions from prospects and customers, then create content to answer them, or leave it to the brand advocates,” he suggests Oh, FrostSenior Director of Global Growth at HubSpot.

PS: If you’re interested in combining human and AI content for your social media, I recommend this podcast where Nathan Lands and Matt Wolfe look at the latest AI video generators like Gen 2 and Leonardo Motion and how they do it Changing the game for all of us:

2. Traditional marketing

Compared to digital marketing, which takes place exclusively online, traditional marketing focuses on offline connections with people.

Let’s break it down.

Print marketing

As newspapers and magazines better understand who subscribes to their print material, companies continue to sponsor articles, photos and similar content in the publications their customers read.

However, we have to admit that print marketing is not nearly what it once was.

Digital marketing has completely shaken its dominance. According to Statista, global newspaper advertising spending is expected to be approximately $28.3 billion in 2022 – a significant decline from its 2007 peak of $113 billion.

Spending on newspaper advertising worldwide from 2000 to 2024

Image source

Broadcast Marketing

38% of consumers discovered new products through TV advertisingsuggesting that broadcast marketing is still alive and far more popular than print advertising.

TV spots reach the right audience on popular shows at peak times, while radio spots engage people in their daily routine, especially on the go.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing uses telephone calls to reach potential or existing customers directly. There are two main types:

  1. Outbound telemarketing: Companies initiate cold calling to promote products and services or obtain feedback from customers.

However, based on cognitive research, The average success rate for cold calling is only 4.8%. This value is significantly lower compared to other sales methods.

Cold calling success rates

Image source

2. Inbound Telemarketing: Customers call companies in response to advertisements or promotions for inquiries, orders, or support.

Honestly, I don’t like telemarketing, especially cold calling. It often feels too intrusive and irrelevant. However, it is still a part of marketing, so we simply cannot ignore its existence. 🙂

3. Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing combines neuroscience with digital and traditional marketing to understand how people make decisions and respond to advertising. It’s one of the most fascinating things I’ve dealt with recently. Let me show you how it works:

  • Brain scans. Track brain activity with fMRI and PET to see responses to marketing.
  • Electrical brain activity. Use EEG and ERP to measure real-time reactions to ads.
  • Body reactions. Measure stress and emotional responses with tools like skin conductivity and heart rate monitors.
  • Eye tracking. Track where people look and for how long to measure advertising effectiveness.
  • Behavior tracking. Analyze decision speed and choice to understand preferences.
  • Neuroeconomics: Study decision-making by combining brain science, psychology and economics.

Relationship between brain regions and neuromarketing tactics

Image source

According to Neuromarketing, neuromarketing improves various sectors by improving customer experience in retail, shaping perception in consumer electronics, increasing patient engagement in healthcare, increasing trust in BFSI, and tailoring content in media and entertainment Insights into corporate research,

Global Neuromarketing Market Share by Application

Image source

Click Here to receive your free introductory marketing psychology eBook.

Why is marketing important?

I could write a book about it because marketing is important for so many reasons. But here are the top six, according to the experts I spoke to.

1. Marketing builds brand loyalty and customer relationships.

“Focusing exclusively on short-term sales should not come at the expense of long-term customer relationships,” emphasizes Rosario MaccarroneDirector and Head of Student Services OPIT.

Instead, focus on a strong marketing strategy that supports continued growth and builds brand loyalty. Rosario points out:

“One of the successful campaigns I led at OPIT involved revamping and promoting our course offerings. After noticing a decline in subscriptions to our advanced technology courses, we launched a campaign focused on showcasing real-world applications and success stories from former students.”

He continues, “This resulted in immediate course enrollments (short-term goal) while building a strong alumni-student network, driving tremendous potential for long-term engagement and brand loyalty.”

Free Download: How world-class companies build customer loyalty

Marta Romanian, Vice President of Global Branding Avengaagrees Rosario, explaining that the obligation should not end once the service is provided:

“We continue to provide insights that could benefit them, which helps build long-term trust. When a customer purchases a short-term service or solution, we also send them personalized recommendations about services they may need in the future. This is how a short-term collaboration turns into a long-term relationship.”

2. Marketing guides smart pricing decisions.

Marketing reveals what customers want and how much they will pay. It helps you understand customer behavior, keep an eye on competitors, and identify trends so you can set prices that attract customers.

“We once re-evaluated our master’s degree in data science based on market feedback and competitive benchmarking. We reduced costs by 15%, which resulted in a 25% increase in enrollment for the next group,” shared Greta Maiocchi, Head of Marketing & Admissions OPIT.

Competitive pricing strategy

Debbie MoranMarketing Manager at RecurPostShe also shared a success story from her company:

“One of the most effective examples of pricing adjustment was our Enterprise Plan. Initially, the price was too high for the features it offered, which led to slow adoption. After restructuring based on user feedback, we saw a 50% increase in business signups within three months.”

3. Marketing builds brand awareness.

Marketing helps companies reach new target groups and open up new markets. Targeted advertising, social media campaigns and partnerships can attract potential customers who may have never heard of the company.

Ally Moisse out of Pearl Lemon Group illustrates this using a current multi-channel campaign – emails, cold calling, cold calling via email and marketing activities on X:

“We conducted industry conversations and shared insights, which helped us connect with leads in a more organic and unobtrusive way.”

The best thing about marketing is that it is not strictly tied to just one channel and opens up the opportunity to spread a company’s awareness far and wide. Moise confirms this:

“The success of our campaign was based on the way these channels worked together. Each approach reinforced the other and created a consistent presence that resulted in higher engagement and better conversions overall.”

4. Marketing helps you understand customer behavior.

Marketing often reveals why your customers might be hesitant to make a purchase. What concerns or objections do people have? Worried about price or fit? You can learn a lot through surveys, feedback, and observing their behavior.

By identifying these issues, you can improve products and make changes that help turn concerns into sales.

Here’s something Elisa Montanari, Head of Organic Growth Wrike have to say:

“If customers are holding back because they can’t afford your products, that’s a completely different problem than if they don’t see the value of your product. Take a close look at your marketing data to understand why people are hesitant – if it’s a perceived value issue, you can change that with the right messaging.”

5. Marketing sells the experience and JTBDs.

We use marketing to sell, but marketing is not about selling products or services.

It’s about selling experiences and emotions. It contributes to how customers perceive and interact with a brand. Through storytelling, visuals and messaging, marketing creates an emotional connection that encourages repeat business and builds a strong brand identity.

Additionally, smart marketing gives potential customers a sense of the tasks to be completed (JTBDs). This allows consumers to easily sign up for your services or products.

When I promoted my freelance writing services on LinkedIn, I didn’t post anything like “Check out my articles, cooperate with me.“Nobody cares.”

Instead, my posts were tailored to the JTBDs of content marketers, my target persona. For example, I shared how one of my articles went viral and landed in dozens of high-quality links. Or my approach to editing or spicing up content with expert tips, and so on.

This type of marketing is primarily about selling and improving my personal brand, but the influence is indirect. I’m just showing my potential clients that I’m going to take a lot of the burden off their shoulders by providing content that’s relevant to their audience and will be consumed by them.

6. Marketing provides a competitive advantage.

Marketing helps companies shine in a crowded market. But that won’t happen if a good ad goes viral. Sure, people will notice your brand in that moment, but there won’t be a lasting impression.

I talked about this with the amazing Marta Romaniak, who says, “Business owners sometimes confuse advertising with marketing.” She emphasizes that advertising is just one piece of the larger marketing puzzle.

A solid marketing strategy is what truly sets your brand apart from the competition.

However, gaining a competitive advantage through marketing does not happen overnight. You can’t expect instant results from a single campaign.

It’s about consistently spreading your message, engaging with your audience, and adapting your strategy over time. Real, lasting success comes from sticking with it and working at it over time.

Now let’s dive a little deeper into the differences between marketing and advertising.

Marketing vs. Advertising: What’s the Difference?

If marketing is a wheel, advertising is a spoke of that wheel.

Marketing includes product development, market research, product sales, sales strategy, public relations and customer support.

Marketing is necessary at all stages of a company’s sales journey and can leverage numerous platforms, social media channels and teams within the company to identify its target audience, communicate with them, amplify its voice and build brand loyalty over time.

On the other hand, advertising is only one part of marketing. This is a strategic effort, typically paid to raise awareness of a product or service as part of the more holistic goals mentioned above.

Simply put, it is not the only method marketers use to sell a product.

“If all you want to do when hiring a marketer or setting goals for your marketing team is to create ads, that’s okay because you’re making their job easier. But don’t be surprised if the results don’t meet your expectations,” insists Romanian.

“Ads are good for short-term solutions as part of your marketing strategy. However, marketing is a key to the long-term success of your brand.”

Here’s an example (keep reading – there’s a quiz at the end):

Let’s say a company is launching a brand new product and wants to create a campaign to promote this product to its customer base.

This company’s preferred channels are Facebook, Instagram, Google and the company website. The company uses all of these areas to support its various campaigns on a quarterly basis and generate leads through these campaigns.

To publicize the launch of its new product, the company publishes a downloadable product guide on its website, posts a video on Instagram introducing the new product, and invests in a series of sponsored search results on Google to drive traffic to a new product to direct product page on his website.

Which of the above decisions was marketing and which was advertising?

The advertising took place on Instagram And Google. Instagram is generally not an advertising channel, but using it for branding can help you build a follower base ready for a soft product announcement every now and then.

Google was definitely used for advertising in this example; The company paid for storage space on Google – a program called Pay per click (PPC) – to drive traffic to a specific page focused on the specific product. A classic online ad.

How to create a PPC campaign

Where did the marketing take place? This was kind of a trick question since it was marketing related the entire process.

By aligning Instagram, Google, and its own website with a customer-centric initiative, the company executed a three-part marketing campaign that identified its target audience, created a message for that audience, and disseminated it throughout the industry to maximize its impact.

It is important to know that this type of marketing campaign requires proper coordination and monitoring of multiple channels. You need to adapt your approach to each individual channel and still get them to achieve the same results: generating sales.

Here is a unified marketing software solution can be useful. It includes the tools necessary to monitor and manage campaigns across multiple channels – from websites to email to online advertising.

The 4 Ps of Marketing

In the 1960s E Jerome McCarthy came up with the 4 Ps of marketing: product, price, location and advertising.

Essentially, these 4 Ps explain how marketing interacts with each phase of the business.

Download now: Free marketing mix templates

What is marketing and what is its purpose?

product

Let’s say you have an idea for a product that your company should sell. What’s next? You probably won’t be successful if you just start selling it.

Instead, your marketing team must conduct and interpret market research Marketing analytics Transform data into actionable insights and answer some important questions: Who is your audience? Is there marketability for this product?

Which messages increase product sales and on which platforms? How should your product developers modify the product to increase the likelihood of success? What do focus groups think about the product and what questions or concerns do they have?

Marketers use the answers to these questions to help companies understand demand for the product and increase product quality by addressing concerns raised by focus groups or survey respondents.

Price

Your marketing team checks competitors’ product prices or uses focus groups and surveys to estimate how much your ideal customer is willing to pay.

If you set the price too high, you will lose a solid customer base. If you set the price too low, you may lose more money than you win. Fortunately, marketers can use industry research and consumer analysis to estimate a good price range.

Location

It is crucial that your marketing department uses their understanding and analysis of your company’s consumers to make suggestions about how and where to sell your product.

Maybe they believe an e-commerce site will work better than a retail location, or vice versa. Or perhaps they can provide insights into the locations that best sell your product nationally and internationally.

Financial support

This P is probably what you expected from the start: Advertising includes any online or print advertisement, event, or discount that your marketing team creates to increase awareness and interest in your product and ultimately lead to more sales .

At this stage, you will likely see methods such as PR campaigns, advertisements, or social media promotions.

Hopefully our definition and the four Ps will help you understand the purpose of marketing and define it. Marketing touches all areas of a company. Therefore, it is important that you understand how you can use marketing to increase the efficiency and success of your business.

Marketing is your eyes and ears.

Although we can summarize the definition of marketing in one sentence, it will always feel incomplete. Because marketing is a mix of everything and the core of every company.

Without marketing you don’t exist. Nobody will see you. Nobody will hear you. Nobody will recognize you. Without marketing, you won’t understand the needs of your target audience. You won’t create the products or services they’re looking for.

That’s why you need a smart marketing strategy that focuses on where your target audience is, what they need, and design everything around that.

If they’re on LinkedIn, that’s where you’ll spend most of your time and effort. If they’re on TikTok, make videos. Entertain her. Educate them. Give them what they want and chances are they will give you what you want in return.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in May 2018 and has been updated for completeness.

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