For any business operating in a competitive field, the primary objective is to fulfil the needs of its customers. This is the key to profit, development and scaling.

Regardless of the sphere, size, specifics of the given business for successful realisation of a complex of these purposes it is necessary to build a working marketing system.

Unfortunately, the experience of communication with many owners shows that today in the head of a generalised conditional owner marketing is: “how much money should I give for advertising to increase sales”.

In this quasi-real world picture, the amount of money invested in advertising channels is in linear dependence on the number of sales and, by and large, marketing ends there.

That is, in the eyes of a certain mainstream business owner, if we simplify: a marketer, an agency, any other structure responsible for marketing is “how to spend less, or better still not to spend at all, and to make the number of customers and the average check grow continuously”.

In general, the idea is clear and in order for such an average owner to be satisfied in the end, there is no other way but to build a working marketing system in the company. Depending on the size of the business, this system can be based on the owner himself, a dedicated marketer, an agency, or a marketing department. The size of the department, the number of people, delegation, in this case is not important, we talk about the marketing system as a function.

What is a marketing system?

It is a set of tools providing continuous realisation of all functions of marketing. What marketing functions exist:

  • Analytical — who is my customer? Who are my competitors? Where is my market?
  • Production — what to produce so that my client would buy it and it would be different from my competitors?
  • Communicative — how do I make my customers know about it and want to buy it?
  • Sales — where and through which channels should I sell my products?
  • Managerial — what data-driven decisions will enable me to meet my customers’ needs in the best possible way at the best possible cost?

To build this system we need a certain check-list or a sequence of steps (actions) aimed at building a marketing system.

Let’s single out groups of questions, answers to which will allow to form a vision of building a marketing system of the company:

  1. Determine who your customer is? What criteria can be used to segment them? Do these segments have different needs, different ways of communicating to them?
  2. Who are our competitors? How are they better/worse than us? What can we borrow from the best? How can we stop doing the same as the worst? What product/service can replace us without being a direct competitor?
  3. What metrics will we use to evaluate the effectiveness of each channel? How will we understand if the adverts are working?
  4. Where is our market? Can we stay in it? Who is chasing us? How do we enter a new market? Do we need to?
  5. What is our main advantage? How important is it to our customers? Can we say that it qualitatively differentiates our products from the bulk of similar products on the market?
  6. Through which channels will we tell our customers about our products with their distinctive features? Do these channels differ depending on the customer segment (see Point 1)
  7. What are the key messages and messaging we will use to engage customers through the selected channels?

Are we well positioned to do so?

  1. Is there an understanding of the company’s growth plan? What long-term goals are in place? Is marketing working to realise them?
  2. Is there a marketing strategy and marketing plan for six months, for a year?
  3. Who is responsible in the company for marketing? Is authority delegated to subject matter experts (in-house, freelancers, agency)? Are deadline control tasks set?

Regardless of whether your business is in operation or just planning to the answers to these questions will be in a document called a marketing strategy. The marketing plan of the company for the short and medium term will help you to form a permanent system of promotion in your company.

As a rule, we start cooperation with our clients with the development of marketing strategy containing answers to the above questions. Simplifying it can be formulated that it is a certain document, when reading which it is clear:

  • who is our client?
  • who are our competitors?
  • what is our uniqueness?
  • what and how do we tell the client?
  • how to attract clients? how to measure the success of our marketing?
  • our marketing plan for the year?

Marketing is the health of your company. And health is something you should always be doing, not just when you’re sick. Because sometimes it’s too late.