Marketers have existed right since the days of barter trade exchange. This was a period when you didn’t have to promote your goods or services or prepare a marketing strategy and plan like we do today. The objective was simple - to exchange what you had with what you wanted i.e. to sell.
While the ultimate objective hasn’t changed, the role has undergone a sea transformation. You are not only exchanging goods or services with people in your vicinity but selling it to people across continents. You have newer mediums to reach out to these people. You have access to novel ways of understanding who these people are so that you can pitch them the right thing. There are many more stakeholders today which greatly influence the chance of sales transaction going through.
Depending on the nature of your business (goods or services), size of your company (small, medium or large) and organizational lifecycle stage (startup or established firm), you may have varying degree of disposable resources. This availability of resources and/or funds along with talent have a direct impact on marketing results. But basics of the game still remain the same. You have to identify the target group for your offering, assess the best route to reach out to them and click with them so that they complete the purchase.
Today, technology offers various ways to help marketers achieve this objective. To identify the target audience, you can scan social media for right communication, trending topics or event information. Social media tracking tools and big data technology are of great help to the modern marketer. Your ability to define your audience is proportionate to your ability to effectively leverage these technologies!
Marketers can reach out to their target audience through websites, mobile apps, emails, SMSes, banner ads, pay per click ads, in-video ads, tickers etc. While they do that, they have to also think about regulatory compliances. To manage this, there are a number of marketing automation platforms at the disposal of marketers.
Lastly, how well a marketer analyzes the campaign data and takes proactive, and at times innovative, actions spells the success of overall marketing function. The world is full of stories of how technology has helped startups and enabled small companies with shoestring budgets to lock horns with big enterprises. The new wave of light asset startups are defining the modern era of technology-led marketing. So, marketers that are leveraging technology in their favor are performing better than the one who have deep pockets. And all of this helps them in selling more!
