Many people believe that marketing is just about advertising or sales. However, marketing is everything a company does to acquire customers and maintain a relationship with them. Even the small tasks like writing thank-you letters, playing golf with a prospective client, returning calls promptly and meeting with a past client for coffee can be thought of as marketing. The ultimate goal of marketing is to match a company's products and services to the people who need and want them, thereby ensure profitability.
(marketing. Dictionary.com. Investopedia.com. Investopedia Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/marketing (accessed: May 23, 2008).)
If we are going to have an edge in our marketing, we have to have the insight necessary to be able to match our products or services with the right people. We can't just toss our treasures out into the universe and expect people to purchase them.
The key is to build relationships. In fact, there's a whole new area called "Relationship Marketing," and that's what's going to gain us our edge. The fortune, as they say, is in the follow-up.
People do business with people they know, like and trust. And those things take time. Next time we'll look at being intentional.
