by Karli Feldhake

Sometimes just the word “marketing” sends business owners into a tailspin as visions of intricate newsletters, television commercials and celebrity spokespersons come to mind. While yes, these techniques are some of the many faces of marketing available to use, they are not the end all, be all. That brings us to the question, what is marketing?

Ask any number of people and you’ll probably get just as wide a variety of answers about what constitutes as marketing. Recently the American Marketing Association updated its definition of marketing to read:

Wow! Even as a marketing professional that definition can make my head spin. Let’s unpack what it really means in layman’s terms. At the most basic level, marketing sends a message out to an audience in order to gain their attention and hopefully, their business. The activities that fall under the umbrella of marketing can vary greatly, ranging from marketing research to product development or even just having coffee with a client. It’s really all about figuring out the end goal and then creating a plan to reach that goal using marketing techniques that work for you.

So, you might ask yourself, “Are we doing any marketing?” The answer is probably yes, but a better question might be, “Are we doing the right marketing?” Have you given any thought about who your prospective clients are? What are you doing to specifically reach them? And, once you do reach them, how do you keep them? Over the next few issues of Extra Ink we’ll look into different marketing techniques. If you can’t wait that long, know that you can always reach out to us at Splattered Ink to help define marketing for you and your business.

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For more information, she can be reached at: 618-559-4275