How it Affects Business and How to Market the Right WayThe Role of Marketing:

Sales and marketing are often mistaken for each other. But, in reality, they are two separate entities – which this slideshow serves to demonstrate.

What Is Sales?

“Any of a number of activities designed to promote customer purchase of a product or service. Sales can be done in person or over the phone, through e-mail or other communication media. The process generally includes stages such as assessing customer needs, presenting product features and benefits to address those needs and negotiation on price, delivery and other elements.” (American Marketing Association)

What Is Marketing?

“The activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” (American Marketing Association)

The Functions of Marketing

1. Distribution 2. Financing 3. Market Research 4. Pricing 5. Product and Service Management6. Promotion 7. Selling

Distribution

Deciding how you will deliver your products or services to your customer. Your precise strategy can depend on many factors – such as where you are located and who your prospective clients are.

Financing

Creating a financial plan that allows you to spend your money as wisely as possible – without putting all of your eggs in one basket.

Market Research

Researching your target demographics to ensure you’re building a successful marketing strategy (age, gender, and location, for example).

Pricing

Setting the right price, to bridge the gap between your product or service and your customers’ needs and financial resources.

Product and Service

Management

Staying on top of customer reviews and comments – ensuring that any issue spotted by your customers is resolved in due time to make your product or service more attractive.

Promotion

Creating advertisements that make potential customers aware of your products or services.

Selling

Begins once you have completed the entire marketing process and it is considered to be one of the main foundations in marketing.

The Difference between Marketing and Sales While the difference between marketing and sales is complex, inSegment makes it clear:

Say you’re a salesperson in 1995, trying to sell a smartphone with all its bells and whistles – but you won’t be able to sell it because, in 1995, it didn’t exist yet. That is, marketers hadn’t yet pitched their ideas for such a product, or realized the need for it. Without marketers, a salesperson has nothing to work with in the sales process.

Inbound Marketing While the more traditional outbound marketing approach involves outsourcing, inbound marketing is a modern approach that brings people in, and draws them to your business.

Most of the time, inbound marketing involves creating plenty of content to attract an audience by providing them with the information they need. .

Types of Inbound Marketing

A. Social Media B. Content Creation C. Email Marketing

Marketing Performance Metrics Perfecting your marketing campaign is important, but it’s essential to measure it, too. To find out how your campaigns are performing, be sure to invest in robust performance metrics (for example, Marketing Score).

About the Author

Alexander Grosu is an SEO Manager at inSegment, one of the leading digital marketing agencies in Boston.

With a keen passion for writing, he regularly shares information and tips about the latest SEO, PPC and digital marketing trends.