What is marketing?

To start with a dictionary definition, marketing is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising. While marketing used to strictly be the realm of press releases and physical advertisements, the evolution of technology has revolutionized how businesses devise their marketing strategies. “What is marketing?” used to be a simple question with a simple dictionary definition for an answer, but has now become a nigh-all-encompassing sprawl of traditional methods, web presences, social media strategies, email campaigns, attempts to go viral, and so, so much more. Marketing is all of these things and more. It is not enough to merely take the scattershot approach of posting across all channels and buying up as much ad space, digital and physical, as possible, but cleverly coordinating all of these cross-channel efforts into a unified message and brand identity. Good marketing means that a potential customer has a wealth of knowledge and associations upon seeing the name of your business, and acquiring this customer mindshare is no small feat. To know what marketing is and to be a good marketer in this day and age requires more breadth and depth of knowledge than it ever has at any other time in history. Your reach as a marketer has grown exponentially, but harnessing that potential can be a monumental challenge. It is why we at Marketing.com have partnered with several well-known and successful businesses to help them through the constantly changing landscape of marketing in the digital age.