Marketing – Beyond the Consultancy

When many people hear the word ‘Marketing’, they immediately think of advertising and the concept of pushing material, whether written, audible, visual or physical, to the public for the purposes of attracting business.

But, have you ever considered its wider connotations and applications?

Marketing actually has relevance across a wide range of business functions, both internally and externally facing. From the largest of organisations’ legal departments to startups’ first hires, we market all the time without even knowing that’s what we’re doing.

That unawareness is by no means a bad thing, it is simply a sign of opportunity, growth and improvement. Did you ever think about the possibilities for marketing client success stories to your own personnel, so they can use them when selling to prospects? Or the potential benefits of raising awareness of your human resources department’s services and processes to reduce non-standard requests and queries being raised?

The chances are, you do these things today already, just perhaps not consistently or in a way which maximises the reach of your communications. That’s where applying some marketing expertise comes in handy.

Let’s look at a few examples:

Suppliers: Where your organisation relies upon other companies or individuals to deliver its purpose, you must find ways to show those third parties are valued as much as your own staff in the successful delivery of a programme. The best collaborations come from relationships that show mutual respect. Consider asking your teams to write case studies to document the highlights and lowlights of their experience, and getting these published. Give both you and your subcontractors the recognition they deserve.

Hiring: Every business wants to attract the best candidates for its upcoming project, next client or big expansion plans. Just like potential clients, you have to wow the competitive talent pool by showing your company rises above the others, and that your values are embodied in everything you do. Clear, concise and up-to-date marketing strategies, which clearly set out your brand vision, image and house style, are integral to ensuring you deliver a consistent message to your audience and can reach the people you need.

Sales: We include sales here not in the sense of advertising, but in terms of the improvement marketing can bring to proposal collateral. Imagine sending a proposal across to a prospective client with the basics missing or incorrect, or simply outdated images and styling, your first impression is weakened immediately. Graphic design can be a relatively inexpensive way of enhancing your documents so they not only read but look, the part. After all, you see how something looks before you even get a chance to read.

Employee Engagement: Whether you are in top management or an employee working in the field, you will be communicated to from your executives, and possibly chief executive. They may each have their own style of writing, some of which may be more conducive to attention and easy interpretation than others, so why not centralise these messages. Send them via your marketing team to ensure recipients receive consistent and clear words that deliver the meaning required. Visually and legibly improved, you can guarantee better engagement.

So, when you think you don’t need marketing support because your business is growing enough on its own. Think again. There are always opportunities to improve further, even if it might not result in more sales. As we have established, marketing’s sole goal is far from attracting sales. With this in mind, why not take a look at your business goals, and consider whether the likelihood of them being met could be improved by the support of marketing experts?

Every organisation has something to gain from marketing.