Article last updated on May 3, 2022
Business without marketing is a myth. It is almost impossible to have a business without marketing, yet some businesses just seem to run themselves.
They make money without having to do anything. But how does that happen?
It happens because these businesses have built a strong reputation over time.
People trust them, and they get repeat customers.
But how do you build a reputation? And how do you keep it going? In this article, I’ll share with you what it takes for your business to become a trusted brand.
I have already written an article on marketing without spending any money on advertising, but in this article I’ll talk about why is not possible to have a business without marketing and what you can do about it.
Business Without Marketing: The Real and Raw Truth
For over 99% of businesses, the truth is that having a business without marketing is impossible.
But if you’re serious about growing your business, then you must invest in marketing. In fact, most businesses fail because they lack marketing skills.
Marketing is absolutely necessary for any type of business. Whether you’re selling products online or offline, you need to get the word out about yourself and your product so that people will want to buy from you.
There are many different ways to market your business. However, one of the best ways to market your business is through content marketing.
Content marketing is when you create valuable information for people who want to learn more about your industry. This will help you gain more exposure and increase sales.
When you write articles, videos, podcasts, etc., you’re creating content. Content marketing is all about providing value to your audience.
You should always be thinking about how you can provide value to your audience. If you don’t know much about your industry, then you can simply search Google for related topics.
When you find something interesting, you can use it to write an article. Then you can publish it on your website, YouTube channel, Facebook page, etc.
This way, you’re giving your visitors valuable information while helping them learn more about your niche.
Is advertising necessary for business?
Not at all. As you can see from the example above, there’s no reason to spend money on advertising when you can attract customers by creating content and educating them.
However, some businesses must rely on advertising to survive. Those are usually the ones that have something generic to sell.
It is unnecessary to intentionally put yourself in complex situations where you have to compete with other brands. Instead, focus on building a solid reputation first.
Why Do Businesses Need Marketing
Businesses need marketing because they provide value to customers.
It doesn’t matter if you’re selling widgets or puppies; you still need to market yourself and your products or services to potential clients.
To make this point across, here are five reasons why businesses need marketing:
Marketing helps build brand awareness
When you first open a business, you probably don’t have a brand name yet. That means that you need to build awareness for your company.
If you don’t have a strong brand name, then you won’t get enough traffic to your site. And even if you do, you may not convert those visitors into paying customers.
That’s why you need to build brand awareness before you start generating revenue.
The only way to do this is through marketing. When you market yourself and your products, you’re telling people what you offer and why they should buy from you.
Marketing makes customers feel important
Your potential customers and people in general are usually very busy.
They may have jobs, families, and hobbies. So when they come across content or even an ad for your product or service, they may feel overwhelmed.
That’s why marketing is important; it needs to make them feel important.
It gives them a chance to connect with you and your business. It lets them know that you care about their needs and wants.
So when they finally decide to purchase from you, they’ll feel like they’ve been heard and understood.
Marketing creates trust
Trust is one of the most important aspects of any relationship. In fact, trust is so important that we often overlook its importance.
But trust is actually one of the hardest things to create. It takes time and effort to earn someone’s trust.
And once you gain their trust, you need to keep it. Otherwise, you lose out on a lot of sales.
One of the best ways to gain trust is through marketing.
By providing useful content and helpful ads, you show that you’re trustworthy.
And as long as you continue doing these things, you’ll be able to maintain that trust.
Marketing gives you a competitive advantage
The biggest advantage that marketing has over traditional advertising is that it allows you to target specific groups of people.
For example, if you run a restaurant, you could advertise on Facebook to reach people who live within a certain distance of your location.
Or if you have an online business, you could create content that would appeal to your ideal customers.
This can help you stand out from other companies. If you’re competing against another company, then you need to find a way to differentiate yourself.
Marketing provides value to your clients
Clients want to work with businesses that give them value. People are naturally inclined to reciprocate good deeds.
In return for something valuable, they’ll give back by buying from you.
And that’s exactly what marketing does. It provides value to your clients.
You can use marketing to educate your audience about your industry. This will allow them to understand more about how your products and services work.
You can also provide educational materials such as whitepapers and eBooks. These materials will help your audience learn new skills and improve their knowledge.
And lastly, you can provide testimonials and case studies. These types of articles will let your audience see how your product or service helps others solve problems.
Marketing increases sales
If you do market in the right way, you’ll notice that sales increase. And after a while, you won’t need to spend much money to get the same amount of sales.
As long as you continue to invest in marketing, you’ll eventually start seeing results.
When you first start marketing, you might not see many sales. But as you continue to build up your brand, you’ll start getting more leads.
Then you can focus all of your efforts on converting those leads into sales. The real point here is that you don’t need to spend all your money on marketing.
You can allocate 10 to 30% of your budget towards marketing. Once you get more sales, you can reinvest the profit back into the marketing again.
Basically, you’re creating a snowball effect where each sale generates multiple future sales.
Marketing increases customer retention
By doing marketing, you’ll be able to retain your existing customers. They’ll come back to you to buy from you again because they know that you’ll always deliver quality goods and services.
Effective marketing comes down to staying at the top of your audience’s minds.
So instead of spending time trying to sell to everyone, you should focus on selling to your most profitable customers, which leads to customer retention and higher customer lifetime value.
Don’t be like other business owners who often make the mistake of focusing too much on acquiring new customers.
Marketing helps current customers become the best marketers for your business
Successful businesses understand this concept. They know that loyal customers lead to repeat buyers who will recommend your business to friends and family.
They also know that happy customers make great ambassadors.
So, when you have a potential customer, online reviews from your existing customers play a significant role in determining whether or not this new customer purchases from you.
All marketing efforts are easier to implement when you already have some success. Your revenue growth is likely to be faster, and any return on investment (ROI) will be higher.
And it is not that complicated at all. It is actually common sense.
Provide bespoke customer service and give an exceptional product to your current customers. Then they will share these experiences with their friends and family.
What Happens To Business Without Marketing
Businesses without marketing are like cars without an engine. They’re just not very useful.
If you don’t market your business, no one knows who you are, where you’re located, or what you offer.
And without knowing these things, there’s nothing anyone can do to help you grow your business.
That’s why marketing is essential to any business. I’ll now cover a couple of examples of what happens to businesses without any marketing.
People won’t know you exist
How would people know about your business if you didn’t market it?
They wouldn’t be able to find you. And even if they did, they’d have no idea what you were offering.
So if you’re looking to make some sales, you need to put some effort into marketing. Otherwise, you’ll never succeed.
A business model where you build something and expect someone to medically know about it is doomed to fail.
It doesn’t matter how good your product is; you still need to spread the word about it.
Zero marketing leads to zero reputation
The second thing that happens when you don’t market your company is that nobody hears about you. So you’ve got no reputation at all.
There’s no way for potential customers to find out anything about you. There’s no online presence at all.
Reputation is built through word-of-mouth and overtime. If you don’t market, then you won’t have any reputation.
No one will trust you
This is probably the most important reason why you should always try to market your business.
Without marketing, you’ll lose credibility with your audience. People won’t believe you because you haven’t told them anything about yourself.
It’s like having a friend who doesn’t tell you anything about themselves. How could you possibly trust this person?
In fact, you’d probably think twice before doing business with them. That’s exactly what happens when people don’t market their businesses.
People will assume that you’re full of crap. They’ll think that you’re trying to rip them off. Or maybe you’re selling something that’s already been invented.
And if they don’t hear from you, how can they ever know whether or not you’re trustworthy?
So if you want to be sure that your business succeeds, you need to market it. Because without marketing, you’ll fail.
You end up suppressing your potential
The only way to express your potential is by telling others about it. And the best way to do this is by marketing.
By telling people about your expertise, you give them permission to hire you.
Because once you tell someone that you can solve their problem, they’ll feel comfortable asking you to help them.
But if you don’t market, you’ll suppress your potential. You’ll keep it to yourself. And you won’t share it with anyone else.
As a result, you’ll never realize your true potential.
So if you really want to see your business thrive, you need to start marketing.
You end up giving a poor customer experience
Customer satisfaction is everything, and marketing is how you can amplify the impact of what you offer.
It would be great to think of this as a customer journey because it’s so much more than just making money.
When you create an amazing customer experience, you’re creating customer loyalty.
And customer experiences are valuable assets.
Your customers will remember those moments forever.
They’ll talk about it with their friends. They’ll post pictures on social media.
They’ll even write reviews. All of these things add value to your brand.
And they also increase your chances of getting repeat clients.
Conclusion
It is very rare to have a successful business without marketing.
It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to build a brand from scratch. But that’s the truth.
There are plenty of companies out there who have built their brands through word of mouth alone, but before that, they had no choice but to market.
If you want to succeed, you need to market too.
A solid marketing strategy is critical for any business.
I have worked 1-on-1 with founders for the past six years, and I can attest to the fact that most business owners need a reality check.
Most of them don’t understand why they should bother spending time and resources on marketing.
And more importantly, how to allocate their time and money effectively.
It is vital to tap into consumer behavior trends and learn how to position your products and services to maximize sales and revenue. To realistically achieve that, we need a market.
