What is marketing?  To me, marketing is communication.  We communicate the existence, benefits and attributes of whatever it is we want to sell, whether it’s a product, service, a cause or ourselves.

When you think about it, communication can encompass quite a bit in the context of what a company does.  We normally think of marketing as the messaging a company blasts out to build brand awareness and induce purchases.  But what about the way a company communicates through the quality of products it builds, or how helpful its customer service is at solving customer problems, or how it treats its employees or its respect for the environment. If marketing is communication, then everything the company does, both internally and externally, is communicating in some way with a stakeholder to the company. This means that marketing in any company is a big job.

So, how can a company make this big job of marketing manageable, especially if it’s a startup or small growing company with limited resources?  My answer is a 3-step process that I developed based on past learnings in growing companies.  While this 3-step plan won’t guarantee success, it will help companies understand what they need to do to create their marketing and where they need to focus their limited resources.

Here’s my process for developing and executing on effective marketing:

1.  Start from the ground and work up by developing the company brand pillars on which to build the entire marketing foundation. Click here to learn about brand pillars and access tools for developing them.

2. Once brand pillars are set, focus on building strong marketing from the core of the company (its product or service), out.  Click here to access this tool for building strong marketing.

3.  Once strong marketing is built, it needs to be communicated through available channels.  Click here to access my guide that helps me in  selecting the appropriate marketing channels to use for growing a company.

Disclosure: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to brands, products or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.