Marketing is part science, part art, and many parts technology, and is truly one of the most fulfilling roles you can play in business.

Science gives us data and analytics to understand and predict consumer behavior. Psychology sheds light on what really drives thoughts and choice. Art enables us to creatively engage and speak to consumers, and technology allows us to communicate personally and powerfully, and deliver on customers’ expectations for products, marketing, and purchasing options. The key to successful marketing for any brand, business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), is to skillfully blend all of those tools and more.

Given how fragmented consumers’ attention is from daily exposure to thousands of ads, all the social media channels on which we live, and the many shopping options consumers across industries now demand, it’s increasingly important to craft a marketing plan designed to deliver strong returns on marketing investments as well as sustainable sales.

On top of all that, the fundamentals of human behavior remain unchanged, yet the rules of marketing continue to change. This book contains the insights, tips, and tactics you need to build successful and sustainable brands, marketing programs, and campaigns. Whether you are a small business owner or operator, or a marketing executive of a large enterprise, Marketing For Dummies enlightens you on what really drives consumers to purchases and loyalty, and how to build and execute messaging, pricing, experiences, direct and mass marketing campaigns, and selling strategies to achieve lifetime value.

Reading this book gives you an actionable understanding of tactics, technologies, and channels that can help you succeed in a consumer-driven world. When you finish this book, you’ll know how to best get your products to market, engage consumers on profitable journeys, and compete in ever-changing markets and an increasingly consumer-driven world.

Marketing isn’t for the fainthearted, but it is for those who love fun, creative, and exciting challenges. You are limited only by the limitations you put on yourself. Get set. Go. And have fun!

About This Book

The main rule of marketing today is that you can’t blink. Few areas of business, if any, move as fast and change as often as marketing. This sixth edition of Marketing For Dummies serves as your guide for strategy and execution. It also helps you think about marketing at a higher level, and guides you in crafting successful marketing plans and campaigns that will help you build any brand and your own career in this exciting and ever-changing field.

Ultimately, every marketer, regardless of your business, size, or industry, can benefit from this book’s insights on how to engage complex and demanding consumers, efficiently deploy the tools, channels, and technologies you have at your fingertips, and measure the impact of all you do, down to the individual customer level. These pages hold the key to executing successful customer journeys and experiences as well as direct mail, email, digital, and print campaigns that drive sales and profitability and, of course, tell you how to do all this while reducing costs and increasing efficiencies.

This book caters to everyone who wants to influence behavior and attitudes, whether you manage a business, political campaign, public service department, or nonprofit, or are an independent consultant. It helps you lay the foundation for growing any business by securing lifetime sales and loyalty.

Foolish Assumptions

Even though I admonish you to avoid assumptions about your customers and markets throughout this book, I have made some about you while writing this edition.

• I assume you’re entrepreneurial and have the responsibility and desire to market a brand or product successfully in your current business environment. But I don’t assume that you have all the technical knowledge you need to execute successful campaigns today, so I explain each technique as clearly as possible. I also assume you’re willing to try new ideas, technologies, and processes to improve sales and grow your organization.
• Of course, I assume you’re willing and able to switch from being imaginative and creative one moment to being analytical and strategic the next, because being successful at marketing requires both approaches. As you read this book, you sometimes find formulas that help you run the numbers and make projections for lifetime value, return on investment (ROI), and cost per customer. Other times, you’re guided to use your imagination and think of fun activities to help you communicate with emotional relevance and appeal. But most important, you’re guided to think the way consumers think today and understand how to appeal to the psychology of choice.
• I certainly do not assume you have an unlimited budget. This book provides recommendations for creating programs that you can execute on any budget.

Icons Used in This Book

Look for these symbols to help you find valuable info throughout the text:

When I want to get you up to speed on essential or critical information you need to know to succeed, I mark it with this icon.

This icon flags specific advice you can try out in your marketing program right away. And because you sometimes need the right perspective on a problem to reach success, this icon also highlights suggestions for how to handle the task at hand in an easy manner.

The Technical Stuff icon marks information of a highly technical nature that you can normally skip over.

You can easily run into trouble in marketing because so many hidden mines are just waiting for you to step on them. I’ve marked them all with this symbol.

Beyond the Book

In addition to the great content in the book or e-book you’re reading right now, you can find more marketing tips and suggestions at www.dummies.com by using the search box to look for the “Marketing For Dummies Cheat Sheet.” These, plus the numerous narrow-topic books on marketing in the For Dummies line, give you lots of additional options for researching your marketing program.

Where to Go from Here

If you read only one chapter in one business book this year, make it Chapter 2 of this book, which explains the psychology of choice and how to trigger consumers’ unconscious minds for unthinkable ROI. Unless you know what really drives people’s emotions, joys, fears, expectations, aspirations, and other triggers of behavior, you can’t be effective in building a sustainable business founded on lifelong relationships with valuable customers.

Perhaps you have a pressing need in one of the many specific areas covered in this book. If elevating your SEO keeps you up at night, start with Chapter 13. If fixing your website is the top item on your to-do list, go to Chapter 12 first. If you need to increase the effectiveness of your sales strategies and approaches, try Chapter 16. Working on getting better open rates and conversions from email and direct mail? Chapter 11 outlines the elements of impactful campaigns and how to execute them successfully. Chapter 6 helps you build a workable and measureable marketing plan, and Chapter 9 guides you on using and managing many of the current digital tools and tactics proven to build sales and profitability.

Whatever your business and whatever your role, this book provides you with new ways of thinking and doing, all of which are proven to work for businesses both big and small, in the B2B and B2C sectors, and throughout all industries. So start reading, fire up your imagination, and let your marketing light shine.