What is the Value of Marketing?

Marketing can be the one department that is in the "grey" area. Many companies don't understand and/or value what marketing brings to the company. Some of the questions I frequently get asked are: Is marketing a part of sales? Should they work together? Do you really need marketing; I mean how can you even measure the activities that go on? Why should I hire a person or start a department for Instagram likes?

If we were really honest, a lot of marketing professionals and departments haven't done a great job of showing our value and what a marketing department should be.

Marketing should work in conjunction with sales.

I like to think of marketing and sales as best friends. Sure, each can function and/or survive on their own, and may even be productive. But when you put the two together, you have a dream team of efficiency, better messaging, higher lead generation and higher conversions to sales.

Sales are the eyes and ears on the street. They should be telling marketing what customers are saying and wanting. Then, marketing should be crafting targeted messages to each of the customer groups for better sales tools that lead to conversions. Marketing should be creating and distributing content that generates qualified leads to pass off to sales. And sales should be effectively following up on leads, communicating where the leads are at in the process, and converting to sales.

Marketing efforts should be planned and should all work together.

I think the main misstep many organizations have when it comes to marketing is doing marketing activities to complete a checklist without them all having a purpose and without them working together for a greater goal.

Marketing is not just social media. Marketing is not just advertising. Marketing is not just events. Marketing is definitely not just graphic design. Likes, traffic, and activity are good, but if there is no way to convert them to leads and eventually to sales then your efforts are literally being wasted.

Marketing should be measurable.

And the million dollar question is "How does marketing make me money?" Well, when done correctly, marketing can be - and should be - measurable!

Sales departments have long been set up to prove their value, which is why it has always been looked at as the heart of companies.

Marketing, however, has been slow to show how we add to the bottom line. Thankfully, we are no longer confined to adverting through billboards and print ads that are hard to link the viewership and conversion to sales.

The digital age has brought so many more opportunities at a much more cost efficient manners. Banner ads, Social Media Ads, HTML Emails, Evites, and Google Analytics (just to name a few) are all ways that you can not only measure the success of a campaign, but you can target your audience, manage your advertising budget efficiently, and actually show how marketing efforts have converted to sales.

Is your marketing department currently adding value to your company? We would love to help you so that it does!

About The Mom in Stilettos Marketing Firm

The Mom in Stilettos is a boutique marketing firm for small - medium size businesses. With over 10 years of marketing experience, we offer a variety of services such as: