Content strategy focuses on the planning, creation, delivery, and governance of content.  Content not only includes the words on the page but also the images and multimedia that are used. Ensuring that you have useful and usable content, that is well structured, and easily found is vital to improving the user experience of a website. 

A content strategy is the high level vision that guides future content development to deliver against a specific business objective.

Creating a Comprehensive Strategy and Governance

The goal of content strategy is to create meaningful, cohesive, engaging, and sustainable content. It reiterates that your strategy helps you to identify what already exists, what should be created and, more importantly, why it should be created. 

Content Strategy was created  to help describe the content-oriented and people-oriented components you need to know. It has been adapted to discuss the components that come together to help you create a successful strategy and governance.

What is Advertising?

Advertising is a marketing tactic involving paying for space to promote a product, service, or cause. The actual promotional messages are called advertisements, or ads for short. The goal of advertising is to reach people most likely to be willing to pay for a company’s products or services and entice them to buy.

Finding Your Ideal Customer

When trying to zero in on the types of people who are more likely to need or want your goods or services, and be willing to shell out hard-earned cash for it, you might look at demographic characteristics, such as:

• Gender
• Age
• Education level
• Income level
• Zip code

By more precisely defining who your target customer is, you can better choose advertising vehicles that will reach more of your target customers for less money. Sure, you can buy an expensive ad in the punch Newspaper, for example, but if your best customers live in the East, you can buy ads in local papers there for far less.

Where to Advertise

Traditional advertising outlets include newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations. Today, however, advertisements are placed nearly everywhere and anywhere, including:

• Roadside billboards
• Sides of buildings
• Websites
• Electronic newsletters
• Print newsletters
• Inside bills
• Product packaging
• Restaurant placemats
• Event bulletins
• Store windows
• The sides of cars and trucks
• Subway car walls
• Airport kiosks
• Sporting arenas
• YouTube videos

Creating Effective Ads

Advertising messages themselves are designed to persuade an individual to buy a company’s goods or services. Even in business-to-business transactions, individuals have to first be convinced to choose one product over another. To accomplish this, ads have five main components:

1. Headline – This is the key attention-getting message. “Got milk?” is a perfect headline. Or Wendy’s old, “Where’s the beef?”
2. Subhead – Some ad headlines need clarification, much like a book’s subtitle.
3. Body copy – The meat of the advertising message occurs in the main section where the product or service’s features and benefits are highlighted.
4. Image – Unless you’re advertising on the radio, including a product photo, or image illustrating a key benefit is critical.
5. Call-to-action – At the end of the ad you want to invite the consumer to take a step towards doing business with you, such as calling a toll-free number, visiting a website, texting a certain number, or pulling into the drive-thru window.

While advertising is the only way to guarantee that your message will be seen or heard, it is expensive by comparison to other marketing methods. For that reason, it is more popular with large corporations and brands than small businesses.

Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market of potential customers into groups, or segments, based on different characteristics. The segments created are composed of consumers who will respond similarly to marketing strategies and who share traits such as similar interests, needs, or locations.

Why is market segmentation important for marketers?

Market segmentation makes it easier for marketers to personalize their marketing campaigns.

By arranging their company’s target market into segmented groups, rather than targeting each potential customer individually, marketers can be more efficient with their time, money, and other resources than if they were targeting consumers on an individual level. Grouping similar consumers together allows marketers to target specific audiences in a cost effective manner.

Market segmentation also reduces the risk of an unsuccessful or ineffective marketing campaign. When marketers divide a market based on key characteristics and personalize their strategies based on that information, there is a much higher chance of success than if they were to create a generic campaign and try to implement it across all segments.

Marketers can also us segmentation to prioritize their target audiences. If segmentation shows that some consumers would be more likely to buy a product than others, marketers can better allocate their attention and resources.

How to Get Started with Segmentation

Market segmentation doesn’t need to be complicated to be effective. There are five primary steps of segmentation.

1. Conduct Preliminary Research –  Get to know your customers better by asking some initial, open-ended questions.
2. Determine How To Segment Your Market – Decide which criteria (i.e. demographics/firmographics, psychographics, or behavior) you want to segment your market by.
3. Design Your Study – Ask a mix of demographic/firmographic, psychographic, and behavioral questions. Be sure to make your questions quantifiable.
4. Create Your Customer Segments – Analyze your responses either manually or with statistical software to create your segments.
5. Test and Iterate – Evaluate your segments by ensuring they are usable and helpful. If they aren’t, try segmenting based on other criteria.

Ensuring Effective Segments

After you determine your segments, you want to ensure they’ll be useful. A good segmentation analysis should pass the following tests:

• Measurable: Measurable means that your segmentation variables are directly related to purchasing a product. You should be able to calculate or estimate how much you segment will spend on your product. For example, one of your segments may be a coupon maven, who is more likely to shop during a promotion or sale.
• Accessible: Understanding your customers and being able to reach them are two different things. Your segment’s characteristics and behavior should help you identify the best way to meet them. For example, you may find that a key segment is resistant to technology and rely on newspaper or radio ads to hear about store promotions, while another segment is best reached on your mobile app. One of your segments might be a male retiree who is less likely to use a mobile app or read email, but responds well to printed ads.
• Substantial: The market segment must have the ability to purchase. For example, if you are a high-end retailer, your store visitors may want to purchase your goods but realistically can’t afford them.  Make sure, an identified segment is not just interested in you, but can be expected to purchase form you. In this instance, your market might include environmental enthusiasts who are willing to pay a premium for eco-friendly products, leisurely retirees who have can afford your goods, and successful entrepreneurs who want to show off their wealth.
• Actionable: The market segment must produce the differential response when exposed to the market offering. This means that each of your segments must be different and unique from each other. Let’s say that your segmentation reveals people who love their pets and people who care about the environment have the same purchasing habits. Rather than have two separate segments, you should consider grouping both together in a single segment.

Market segmentation is not an exact science. As you go through the process, you may realize that segmenting based on behaviors doesn’t give you actionable segments, but behavior does. You’ll want to iterate on your findings to ensure you’ve found the best fit the needs of your marketing, sales and product organizations.

Needs, wants and demands are a basic part of the marketing principles. On the surface, these three words look like simple, easy to answer concepts.

Though, it’s a primary method to answer the timeless question “what do customers want?”.

Let’s look a bit deeper.

Needs, wants and demands play a vital role in terms of marketing management. It becomes easier to deal with monotonous problems, related to marketing.

What’s the core idea of this strategy? Needs, wants and demands help us build a strong relationship with the consumer.

In other words, understanding this concept is vital for your business’ success.

Needs Wants and Demands: Marketing Concept

To begin with, needs, wants and demands are tied. We, humans, have infinite wants and demands.

When the feeling of deprivation emerges and our mind requires something, we call it needs. Now, let’s have an in-depth discussion about all three of them.

Needs

The easiest explanation of the concept “needs” is the basic human requirements like shelter, clothe, food, water, etc.

These are essential for human beings to survive.

If we take the topic further, other needs are education, healthcare, insurance, pension, etc.

Basically, things that we can associate with “needs” don’t require a boost because these are the products and services people always buy

Though, don’t feel relieved if you’re planning to promote a product or a service that falls under the “needs” category.

In the 21st century, thousands of brands are promoting the same products and services from the needs category.

In other words, there are thousands of competitors trying to sell the same things you are.

In addition, needs aren’t only physical. Needs can be a social thing, for example, social class, belonging to a certain society and need of self-expression.

Wants

This is quite different from needs.

Wants aren’t permanent and it regularly changes.

As time passes, people and location change, wants change accordingly.

Wants aren’t essential for humans to survive, but it’s associated with needs.

For example, if we always manage to satisfy our wants, it transforms into a need.

Here’s An Illustration of Needs, Wants and Demands

WHAT PRODUCTS CAN BE LISTED IN THE “WANTS” CATEGORY?

For instance, iPhone, CD player, dryer, eating out, Coca-Cola, big smart screen 8k TV, satellite, benz.

To summarize this concept, let’s say wants are shaped by one’s society and surroundings. When, you have the desire to purchase a product that isn’t essential for your survival.

Simply put, A want is a product desired by a customer that is not required for us to survive. So, want is the complete opposite of need, which is essential for our survival.

Today, majority of products desired by customers can be classified as a “want”.

Why?

Because, for most people, the only needs are shelter, water, food and clothe.

Demands

Let’s discard the boring explanation process and start with an example.

There are two options, you either buy a Samsung’s or Apple’s product.

Though, the prices are really different. The Samsung’s phone costs N350,000 and the Apple’s iPhone N550,000.

We’d prefer to purchase the Apple product, but the question is, can we?

If we, financially, are strong enough and can allow ourselves to buy a N550,000 iPhone, it means that we’ve transformed our want/need into a demand.

So, the key difference between wants and demand is desire. Consequently, for people, who can afford a desirable product are transforming their wants into demands.

In other words, if a customer is willing and able to buy a need or a want, it means that they have a demand for that need or a want.

Bottom Line

To say it frankly, needs wants and demands are an essential component of a marketing strategy. It helps the marketing department to decide, whether a product effectively sells or not

The use of a marketing mix is an excellent way to help ensure that ‘putting the right product in the right place,…’ will happen. The marketing mix is a crucial tool to help understand what the product or service can offer and how to plan for a successful product offering. The marketing mix is most commonly executed through the 4 P’s of marketing: Price, Product, Promotion, and Place.

THE FOUR P’S

Product

The product is either a tangible good or an intangible service that is seem to meet a specific customer need or demand. All products follow a logical product life cycle and it is vital for marketers to understand and plan for the various stages and their unique challenges. It is key to understand those problems that the product is attempting to solve. The benefits offered by the product and all its features need to be understood and the unique selling proposition of the product need to be studied. In addition, the potential buyers of the product need to be identified and understood.

Price

Price covers the actual amount the end user is expected to pay for a product. How a product is priced will directly affect how it sells. This is linked to what the perceived value of the product is to the customer rather than an objective costing of the product on offer. If a product is priced higher or lower than its perceived value, then it will not sell. This is why it is imperative to understand how a customer sees what you are selling. If there is a positive customer value, than a product may be successfully priced higher than its objective monetary value. Conversely, if a product has little value in the eyes of the consumer, then it may need to be underpriced to sell. Price may also be affected by distribution plans, value chain costs and markups and how competitors price a rival product.

Promotion

The marketing communication strategies and techniques all fall under the promotion heading. These may include advertising, sales promotions, special offers and public relations. Whatever the channel used, it is necessary for it to be suitable for the product, the price and the end user it is being marketed to. It is important to differentiate between marketing and promotion. Promotion is just the communication aspect of the entire marketing function.

Place

Place or placement has to do with how the product will be provided to the customer. Distribution is a key element of placement. The placement strategy will help assess what channel is the most suited to a product. How a product is accessed by the end user also needs to compliment the rest of the product strategy.

In business parlance, sales refer to the exchange of products and services for money whereas marketing is a broad term that involves a chain of activities such as market research, promotion, and sales. Marketing focuses on customer’s need, whereas sales stresses on the needs of the company.

Difference Between Sales and Marketing

In business parlance, sales refer to the exchange of products and services for money whereas marketing is a broad term that involves a chain of activities such as market research, promotion, and sales. Marketing focuses on customer’s need, whereas sales stresses on the needs of the company.

Marketing is all about ascertaining human needs and satisfying them, by providing the products they require, or say, it is about meeting needs profitably. On the other hand, sales is simply, inducing the customers to make purchase of goods or services offered by the company.

Sales is a part of marketing, and it is so closely intertwined, that it is hard for people to recognize their differences, but there is wide gap between the two. So, check out the following hand out, which will explain the difference between sales and marketing.

Comparison Chart

Key Differences Between Sales and Marketing

1. Sales are the transfer of ownership of a product from one person to another for some value, whereas Marketing is the act of analyzing the market and understanding the needs of the customers in such a way that whenever a new product is launched, it sells itself.
2. Sales are one to one relationship while marketing is one-to-many relationships.
3. Sales have a fragmented approach, which stresses on selling all that is produced. In contrast, marketing has an integrated approach which stresses on ascertaining the customer requirements and providing them with the same.
4. Sales is a short term process while marketing is a long term process.
5. The selling process involves an exchange of goods for monetary consideration. On the flip side, marketing involves identifying the needs of customers and satisfying them.
6. Sales is a people-driven activity on the other hand; marketing is a media driven activity.
7. In sales, caveat emptor rule applies, i.e. let the buyer beware. Unlike, marketing wherein caveat vendor rule is applicable, which states let the seller beware.
8. Marketing stresses on the needs of the market. On the contrary, sales focus on the company needs.
9. In sales, the customer is viewed as the last link, i.e. the product is created first and then sold to customers. On the other hand, in marketing, the customer is given priority, as first of all the needs are identified and after that sold to customers.
10. Sales focus on the individual, i.e. direct interaction with the customer and persuading him to purchase the product, but marketing concentrates on the general public, i.e. creating the value of a product to increase sales.
11. Sales use push strategy (where the product is forced onto a customer) while marketing uses the pull strategy (where the customer comes to a product by himself).

Similarities

For running any business, both marketing and selling are the prerequisite for any business to survive in the long term. These two terms are converging at some points as the primary purpose of each is to increase the revenues and improve the brand image.

In one hand, Sales focuses on selling the products and services to the individual customers who require a sales personnel and on the contrary, the marketing creates a proper market for a product to achieve the required sales volume. Or we can say that the last step of marketing is sales which require a good marketing team. In this way, both the terms are closely interlinked with each other.

Conclusion

Despite many differences between the sales and marketing, these are not contradictory in nature. Both these terms are closely interlinked to each other and play a very important role in the survival of business in the long run.

The sale is a human-oriented function, so the personnel involved in the sales activity should be given a proper training and incentives to boost his morale and earn higher revenues in return. On the other hand, Marketing is a media oriented, so the best channels of advertisement and promotion should be adopted to have an increased sales along with the enhanced brand image.

Everyone needs marketing, even professionals, and we all need to understand and know: who is our target market, and how can we develop our marketing mix to appeal to their needs and wants

What is Marketing

Dictionary.com defines marketing as, “the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.”

If you work in a marketing role like I do, it’s probably difficult for you to define marketing even though you see and use it every day — the term marketing is a bit all-encompassing and variable for a straightforward definition.

Marketing is the process of getting people interested in your company’s product or service. This happens through market research, analysis, and understanding your ideal customer’s interests. Marketing pertains to all aspects of a business, including product development, distribution methods, sales, and advertising.

Modern marketing began in the 1950s when people started to use more than just print media to endorse a product. As TV — and soon, the internet — entered households, marketers could conduct entire campaigns across multiple platforms. And as you might expect, over the last 70 years, marketers have become increasingly important to fine-tuning how a business sells a product to consumers to optimize success.

Today, there are literally dozens of places one can carry out a marketing campaign — where does one do it in the 21st century?

“Another key component of digital marketing is mobile marketing. In fact, smartphone usage as a whole accounts for 69% of time spent consuming digital media in the U.S., while desktop-based digital media consumption makes up less than half — and the U.S. still isn’t mobile’s biggest fan compared to other countries.This means it’s essential to optimize your digital ads, web pages, social media images, and other digital assets for mobile devices. If your company has a mobile app that enables users to engage with your brand or shop your products, your app falls under the digital marketing umbrella, too.Those engaging with your company online via mobile devices need to have the same positive experience as they would on desktop. This means implementing a mobile-friendly or responsive website design to make browsing user-friendly for those on mobile devices. It might also mean reducing the length of your lead generation forms to create a hassle-free experience for people downloading your content on-the-go. As for your social media images, it’s important to always have a mobile user in mind when creating them as image dimensions are smaller on mobile devices, meaning text can be cut-off.There are lots of ways you can optimize your digital marketing assets for mobile users, and when implementing any digital marketing strategy, it’s hugely important to consider how the experience will translate on mobile devices. By ensuring this is always front-of-mind, you’ll be creating digital experiences that work for your audience, and consequently achieve the results you’re hoping for.” https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-digital-marketing

As with anything, it really depends on what elements of digital marketing you’re looking to add to your strategy.

If you’re focusing on inbound techniques like SEO, social media, and content creation for a preexisting website, the good news is you don’t need very much budget at all. With inbound marketing, the main focus is on creating high quality content that your audience will want to consume, which unless you’re planning to outsource the work, the only investment you’ll need is your time.

You can get started by hosting a website and creating content. For those on a tight budget, you can get started using WordPress hosted on WP Engine and using a simple theme from StudioPress.

With outbound techniques like online advertising and purchasing email lists, there is undoubtedly some expense. What it costs comes down to what kind of visibility you want to receive as a result of the advertising.

For example, to implement PPC using Google AdWords, you’ll bid against other companies in your industry to appear at the top of Google’s search results for keywords associated with your business. Depending on the competitiveness of the keyword, this can be reasonably affordable, or extremely expensive, which is why it’s a good idea to focus building your organic reach, too.

Digital marketing can work for any business in any industry. Regardless of what your company sells, digital marketing still involves building out buyer personas to identify your audience’s needs, and creating valuable online content. However, that’s not to say all businesses should implement a digital marketing strategy in the same way.

B2B Digital Marketing

If your company is business-to-business (B2B), your digital marketing efforts are likely to be centered around online lead generation, with the end goal being for someone to speak to a salesperson. For that reason, the role of your marketing strategy is to attract and convert the highest quality leads for your salespeople via your website and supporting digital channels.

Beyond your website, you’ll probably choose to focus your efforts on business-focused channels like LinkedIn where your demographic is spending their time online.

B2C Digital Marketing

If your company is business-to-consumer (B2C), depending on the price point of your products, it’s likely that the goal of your digital marketing efforts is to attract people to your website and have them become customers without ever needing to speak to a salesperson.

For that reason, you’re probably less likely to focus on ‘leads’ in their traditional sense, and more likely to focus on building an accelerated buyer’s journey, from the moment someone lands on your website, to the moment that they make a purchase. This will often mean your product features in your content higher up in the marketing funnel than it might for a B2B business, and you might need to use stronger calls-to-action (CTAs).

For B2C companies, channels like Instagram and Pinterest can often be more valuable than business-focused platforms LinkedIn.