Recently a client asked me this question. Or, more correctly, passed on the question from one of his associates who – you might guess – was involved in the company’s sales. I’ve heard this question many times and usually there’s an agenda behind it that goes something like…

 ”Why are we wasting time and money on this ‘marketing’…stuff…when we should put our all our effort and available resources into sales which gets results and that we can track?”

Now I don’t mean to put words into this other fellow’s mouth. He may have been asking for a simple definition of the two concepts. If so, I’m going to turn to Peter Drucker for his answer – or at least my paraphrase of his answer:

“The purpose of business is to create a customer and meet his needs. In consequence every business enterprise has just two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

For those who have asked the question cited in the title and fail to grasp the answer implied in the previous quote, he goes on to say:

“The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.”

Thank you Peter.

If you still think I’ve dodged the question by citing a revered pundit I’ll give my definition… Marketing is indentifying the wants and needs of your target customer(s) and then satisfying those needs in a better way than your competitors.

Sales – if by that you mean individuals working the phones, making calls, taking meetings and (hopefully) writing orders – can be part of that, but the other definition of sales – transactions – can happen without any human involvement if you’ve done a good job of marketing.

One example comes to mind. In the freezer section of my local grocery store, shelved between Ben & Jerry and Haagen Dazs, I see Starbucks coffee ice cream. At the time I was serial visitor of Starbucks so I bought the ice cream. Prior to the “sale” I had seen no ads, encountered no promotions, nor been persuaded by no individuals of the merits of the product. My positive associations with the Starbucks brand gave me the confidence to plunk down my four bucks for the pint.

“Duuhh!” I hear someone in the back of the room snicker. “That’s the power of brand extensions!” I’ll deal with you later, and anyway, this topic wasn’t written for anyone who understands how brands work.

Back to Marketing 101…and the difference between marketing and sales. Hopefully, I’ve communicated that Sales is part of Marketing, like kicking your feet is part of swimming. And, as with swimming where you can swim without ever kicking your feet, you can market successfully without “selling” – if you’re really good and really lucky.

In truth and in reality, sales is key for most businesses because they don’t pay sufficient attention to marketing. For those benighted folks here is a brief tutorial that I’ve cobbled together from long-forgotten sources. I mention this by way of saying that I claim no authorship for the following…merely respect of its value.

The four ”P’s” of marketing…

Product: The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services, and how it relates to the end-user’s needs and wants. The scope of a product generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and support.

Pricing: This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price need not be monetary – it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services, e.g. time, energy, psychology or attention.

Promotion: This includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling, and refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.

Placement (or distribution): refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point of sale placement or retailing.

And for extra credit, here’s three more that apply to marketing a business that delivers services instead of products…

People: Any person coming into contact with customers can have an impact on overall satisfaction because, in the customer’s eyes, they are generally inseparable from the total service. As a result of this, they must be appropriately trained, well motivated and the right type of person.

Process: This is the process involved in providing a service and the behavior of people, which can be crucial to customer satisfaction.

Proof: Unlike a product, a service cannot be experienced before it is delivered, which makes it intangible. This, therefore, means that potential customers could perceive greater risk when deciding whether to use a service. To reduce the feeling of risk, thus improving the chance for success, it is often vital to offer potential customers the chance to see what a service would be like. This is done by providing physical evidence, such as case studies, testimonials or demonstrations.

In the first two posts, I covered why you need an up-to-date, professionally done website and a couple of tips on creating content that will encourage a web surfing visitor to hang around your site and learn more about your wonderfulness. Now let’s consider ways we can use the Internet’s weird and complex DNA to drive traffic to your site.

I’m talking about Search Engine Marketing.

A business with a substantial marketing budget can promote their website any number of ways from putting the “www” on business cards and fleet vehicles to TV spots. But I began these articles with the suggestion that the first, best, place to put limited marketing dollars was the Internet, which presumes that you have no budget to promote your website using other vehicles, so to speak.

Fortunately, the Internet makes this pretty easy thanks to the technology behind the “search engine.” By the way, if you think you know how it works, guess again. The brainiest folks Google can find pull all-nighters to keep you, me and everyone else in the dark. No matter, the important concept here is that the Internet is designed such that words and phrases are easy to find, and you can use this “search-ability” to your advantage.

Type a word or a phrase into that horizontal box on Google and faster than you can say, “I wonder how I found anything before the web was invented…” the first of a seemingly endless number of pages appear with links to websites, articles and such all of which include the word you searched. Leaving aside exactly how Google decided to pick these links, or rank them from first to last, the important thing is that Google presented them to you in large part because they contained the word or phrase you searched.

So, to make your website more “searchable,” make sure to use words that reflect your product or service. And be sure these words are coded in HTML. Words that appear in graphics, such as JPEG files, can’t currently be “read” by Internet search tools. However their titles (Alt tags) can be read so these should also feature descriptive, searchable words.

Search-ability is a good start but because the Web is both an incredibility huge and mind-bogglingly crowded universe, but it’s only a start. Depending on the number on other sites that feature or promote content similar to yours, and the amount of time your site has been “live,” it might take years – if ever – for your site to show up on the first page of someone’s search results, that is, in the left-hand column of the page (on Google).

But, look to the right side of the page under the heading “Sponsored Links.” Over here the rules are different. Google, in its infinite wisdom “sells” the right to buy position in this column (Yahoo and MSN provide similar services.) through an auction process they call “pay-per-click.” And it’s pretty simple. It’s also been around long enough that you may well have some idea how it works so I won’t go into the details. My point here is that it does work.

Choosing a list of “keywords,” and testing them against a budget will bring traffic to your website. Of course, you’ll want to track leads so you’ll have on-line form and some sort of bribe…I mean motivation…to get the visitor’s e-mail address  – so you can learn which keywords are bringing what kind of response. The bidding process for keywords – namely, how much you pay for a “click” – is much like day-trading so I advise that you get some experienced help.

In the end, like everything else associated with the Internet, the amount of money needed to drive traffic to your site is a pittance when compared to the cost of any other form of advertising, which makes the Internet, for those of us with limited marketing funds, the first…best…place to put your money.

In my previous post I proposed that the Internet is the cheapest, most immediate and most pervasive way to project your company’s message over the widest possible audience, but to take full advantage you need a site that’s up-to-date. Like ties and fish, websites do not age well. And unless you run an amateur business you need a website that’s designed and built by folks who do it for a living. If fact, for best results, even folks who build sites should have someone else do their site. Remember the adage about the lawyer who defends himself in court…

What you can do for your site is prepare a statement for your website’s home page that will capture the visitor’s attention and keep them from moving on. It should be a short phrase that describes – in as few words as possible – what beneficial difference using your product or service will make in someone’s life. Does it make the user smarter, healthier, stronger, sexier, prettier, or my favorite…richer? The short statement on your Home Page must present an important difference or change that buying from you will make in someone’s life.

Let me put it another way. You meet a stranger and you have maybe five seconds to say something that will capture that person’s attention in a way that will give you another precious few minutes to begin forming some kind of connection. I’ll use my business for example. I can say, “I come up with ideas.” “That’s nice,” the other person thinks and perhaps adds, “…and that means what to me?” I’ve failed to make the connection. They’re busy. I’m history.

Or I can say, “I come up with ideas that can help you increase your sales, profits and the value of your business.” No question now about the implications of my statement. There are other factors that effect whether or not we connect, but at least I’ve been clear about the difference I think I can make in this person’s life…and experience has taught me that most business people have more than a passing interest in sales, profits and business value.

“Gosh,” you may be thinking, “I know what I’d like to say but I’m no marketing copy writer…” Excellent, you’re on the path to wisdom. Hire a professional writer. If you don’t know one, I’m guessing that the professional graphic designer and/or website builder you’ve hired know some good writers. And the statement written for the Home Page of your website will work as an ice breaker at your next business mixer, or on the back of your business card.

Now, thanks to a professional look and a persuasive introductory statement your Home Page meets the five second threshold and the visitor is intrigued enough to look around at the rest of the page…better give them a reason to stay longer. How about a testimonial from one of your happy customers? Nothing fancy. ”Steve gave me the recipe for ice…” Short and sweet. And under the testimonial have a “click through” or a link that leads to a secondary page of testimonials.

Finally, your Home Page will no doubt include a short directory of website Sub Pages detailing your products and services the last of which is commonly the Contact Us page. Be sure that page includes several ways to get in touch with you – e-mail as well as phone and fax numbers. And one more thing….a reason for someone to call or write you…today. I know, I know, your quality, service and value should be reason enough to forge a lifelong relationship but what if the visitor is researching for some future need. Include a sign-up form to capture at very least an e-mail, and some sort of persuasion to get them to fill out the form, such as a newsletter, white paper, coupon for a latte at Starbucks.