There is a big difference between marketing and advertising. Marketing is how customers perceive your business. This perception is influenced by the advertising materials you send out, but it’s much more than that. How customers perceive you is also influenced by how courteous your customer support staff are, how well your website is designed (Does it look outdated? Does it look clean or cluttered?), how quickly you respond to customers’ concerns, the quality of the work you do for your customers… Everything that affects the customers’ perception of you is marketing.
As you can see, advertising is only one component of marketing. Successful online advertising brings customers to your website, but whether customers stay with you is another matter. You can make big claims in your advertising and bring lots of customers to your landing page, but if you cannot service them well, your marketing is not successful.
In order for your marketing to be successful, your customers must perceive your website as a place worth coming back to. So what is a place worth coming back to? What kind of perception should you strive for? There are several possibilities:
- Cheapest prices around
- Widest selection
- Best value
- Highest quality work
- Experts in this type of work
- Most comprehensive guarantee
- Best customer service
The list can go on and on. All of the above perceptions have worked for different companies. For your marketing to be successful, your customers need to perceive your business as the place that offers the best customer service.
[Via Visual Scope]
