Should Your Business Take A Marketing Focus?

A marketing focused approach to your business could boost sales and customer satisfaction.
How important is marketing to your business? Many businesses see marketing as simply “a way to sell things”, when in fact your business could thrive from centralizing marketing in all of your operations. A marketing focused business is a strong one: your team will work cohesively to meet and exceed the needs of your customers.
So what is a marketing focused approach to business?
In a marketing focused business the customers’ needs are at the heart of everything you do. All internal communications are aligned to ensure the customer is the focus of the business; your market performance highlights how successfully you are able to streamline your company’s activities. Complete openness powers a marketing focused business, so be prepared to bare all to your employees if you wish to go down this route.
How well your company is performing is not only the concern of your board, it’s in the interest of your employees to know how well their performance is affecting the company. Companies of yesteryear didn’t focus as heavily on their place in the market, but today’s digital companies must compete for their spot in the lineup, and as such must take a keener interest in how the market is looking and what is required of them to meet the needs of a customer that has increased control over the businesses they choose to buy from.
The digital age has brought about a shift in power for world business. Whereas once customers had limited channels to voice their opinions about the companies they dealt with and purchased from, now a simple Tweet can be a PR disaster for those businesses. Getting to know your customers, what they expect from your business, the quality of product they’re expecting and the care you take to look after them will benefit your business greatly, as happy customers are more likely to refer a friend, make a return visit to your site and praise you online.
Putting increased focus on your internal communications is a big step towards becoming a marketing focused organization. Encouraging interaction between teams – such as sales, marketing, operations and finance – will give everyone in the company a valuable insight into what’s going on in all areas of the office, allowing them to work cohesively towards a common goal of exceeding the needs of the customer. Need more persuading about why internal comms are so important? Check out this blog post.
When your operations are streamlined your business should begin to work like a well-oiled machine. Marketing employees can provide insight on consumer behaviour and guide sales representatives to do some damage limitation on any unhappy customers who are voicing their opinion online. Social listening can give your business a great insight into the conversation around your brand online, and it’s important that all areas of your business are listening in if you hope to turn some of those virtual frowns upside down.
Place marketing at the centre of your business and you won’t regret it. Gone are the days when just sell, sell, sell was an adequate company ethos; understanding what your customers need and exceeding those needs wherever possible is the name of today’s digital business game.
Launch your online presence with a little help from WestHost today!