The Marketing Key: Unlocking answers to today’s business challenges

We all know there are tremendous competitive pressures in today's business environment, and a lot of questions that can nag us in the middle of the night. Do we have enough feet-on-the-street to connect with the customers we need? Does the customer really understand what makes us special or more valuable? Will we have enough horsepower to run a marathon that seems to keep getting longer?

To unlock the right answers to these questions, I'm convinced that marketing is more important than ever. Why? Because on every issue, we need all our audiences to conclude that their futures will turn out better if they work with us than with someone else. But what we don't know is how to reach them.

The truth is:

I believe that, as marketers, we haven't done a good enough job of helping business leaders understand how marketing - if it's done right - can solve these business problems.

Too often, we wrap ourselves up in the tactics. We talk about social networking platforms, search engine optimization, content marketing or even QR codes. But what we don't do is tie these tactics to what keeps business leaders up at night - the goals and objectives of the business, the problems that are crucial to solve. And as long as we look at marketing as tactics versus business strategies, we won't see real results.  

So this five-part series on marketing isn't going to talk about social media, SEO or even content marketing, for that
matter. What we're going to talk about is simply this: how you can use marketing to unlock answers to your business challenges. And in the context of that discussion, we hope you'll learn more about why social media, SEO and content marketing matter.

In the end, you need marketing. Perhaps more than you know.  To broaden your reach. To touch people anywhere in the world, at any time of the day. To showcase the amazing creativity and people that are behind your company's success. To challenge your thinking.

That's what this series is designed to do. Stay tuned.

Mary Scheibel is principal of Trefoil Group, a Milwaukee-based firm that helps manufacturers address complex issues through digital, PR and other strategic communications programs. She can be reached at [email protected] or 414-270-3513.