Why marketing and your corporate finances belong together

3 reasons why marketing and your company figures belong together

1. Both pursue the same overarching goal

Now I lean a little out of the window and say: You founded your business not only to increase your profitability but also to make a difference in the world and make it that little bit better.

Your company figures help you to grow your company healthily so that you can achieve this goal better and better and expand your influence.

Good marketing helps you to get your message out in a clear and understandable way, which is another pillar on which your success rests in addition to the healthy foundation. Because only if you can make it clear to the right people (= your target group) what advantages you get from your products and services will anyone be interested in them at all.

2. Good marketing is not possible without numbers

It can be difficult to objectively evaluate the success of individual marketing measures, as the results often cannot be directly assigned to the activities. As a result, the topic quickly becomes vague and uncertainty increases.

However, especially in times of the Internet and various online marketing strategies, it has become much easier to collect and analyze data such as playouts, visitor sources and number of clicks.

This means that you can also use the cycle in marketing that is standard in controlling: measure – analyze – improve.

The principles of controlling can therefore also be used for modern and successful marketing.

3. Both areas ensure that you always have enough cash in your account

To put it simply: Controlling primarily ensures that you always have enough cash in your account. And you should invest part of it in clever marketing campaigns.

Because only in this way does the world know what advantages you have to offer. And if this is done correctly, this will lead to new customers and an increase in market share, which of course means that you will always have enough cash in your account in the future.

In the end, marketing and controlling are two cogs on the same machine. But how can you ensure that your “marketing gear” runs particularly smoothly?

What is good marketing? 3 impulses that give your company a pull

1. Spread a unified and clear message with character

In a way, companies can be compared to people: the more character it has, the more likely it is to be remembered.

But what does this mean in concrete terms and how do you create “character” in the corporate context?

The most important thing in this context is to first make it clear to yourself what the company actually stands for. The company’s goals and values ​​are particularly important here. Often these are written down in the form of a mission or vision, but only because the marketing consultant said it was important. And then they disappear into the drawer.

That’s a shame because I like to compare the company’s values ​​and goals with a playing field on which you can develop all kinds of products and start marketing campaigns. If the playing field is not clearly defined, it is easy to get bogged down and there is no customer attraction.

So it’s best to get the dusty documents out again and ask yourself how you can use the defined values ​​to create integrity in the public image. Which very specific activities in everyday business fit your values, what kind of customer interaction would you expect from a company with these values, which cooperation partners fit in?

It is ideal if you can formulate your message in the form of a short claim that makes it clear in one sentence what your company stands for. This claim defines “the playing field”, which is why you should use it everywhere and all the time.

2. Present yourself professionally and confidently

So that your target group can perceive your company as serious and personable, it is important that you always convey the same impression, no matter where the customer meets you or your business. This can be a networking event or a trade fair, but at the moment the first contact is mostly made via the website.

The website is much more than “just” a digital business card. So it should definitely be up to date. Because subconsciously you convey the image with an outdated or not well-maintained website that many things are left behind in the company.

The same applies to your appearance on social media. You don’t have to be represented on all channels here, but if you are not represented at least on the one or two platforms on which your target group is mainly, you are wasting unnecessarily large opportunities. Does the message that you convey to the outside also fit in with the “character” of your company?

Even with video calls, of course, you convey more than what you say: What does your background look like? Is high-quality picture and sound ensured? Are you confident in using the most important video conferencing tools?

All of this is part of your marketing and in the end, as I said, it’s always about character and credibility. If you want to get into the topic of credibility more intensively, you will like the brilliant podcast episode by Torsten Koerting: The 7 Dimensions of Credibility.

3. Know and use your marketing numbers

In addition to your clear message and self-confident appearance, the various possibilities of online advertising campaigns play an outstanding role in modern marketing. Regardless of whether you advertise your products and services on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn or Amazon, all advertising measures have one thing in common: You will make them more successful with the 5-step plan from Controlling:

1. It is extremely important to define a concrete goal of the advertising measure in advance: Should, for example, the external perception and reach be increased or real business deals be achieved directly?
2. Then certain key figures should be determined, on the basis of which the target achievement and thus the success of the campaign can be assessed. These can be “impressions”, click numbers, newly won leads, deals or much more.
3. While the promotion is in progress, collect as much data about it as possible.
4. Analyze the results: How far does the actual result deviate from the target result and why is that?
5. Use the results to improve the parameters of your advertising measures and start again at point 1.

This is how you can make your marketing more successful

Since the possibilities are so diverse, it can be advisable to bring experts on board for online advertising campaigns. You can recognize a good marketing agency by the fact that it works according to the cycle of these 5 steps.

And even if the topic of marketing is a broad field and there are countless, sometimes very complex theoretical models, it is always important to realize that it is not a rocket science either. Models that are too complex are not necessary, especially at the beginning.

It is best to concentrate on easily collectable and comprehensible data that is relevant to your company and your goals.

We are very happy to find out together which these are for your company. In my free conversation with figures, I have already shown many entrepreneurs how they can set up their marketing simply, quickly and successfully and always use the support of their own company figures.

Infographic created by Clover, a POS system company