Marketing is the process of engaging with the target customers to communicate the value of a product or service in order to sell them. Marketing is used to attract new customers, nurture prospects, up-sell, and cross-sell to the existing customers. Companies spend at least five percent of their revenue on marketing efforts to maintain the market share. Any company that wants to grow its market share will spend more than 10 percent of its revenue on marketing. In competitive sectors, such as consumer products and services, the marketing expenditure can go up to 50 percent of the revenue, especially with new products and service offerings.

Marketing happens over various channels such as print media, radio, television, and the Internet. Successful marketing strategies target specific audience with targeted messages at high frequency, which is very effective. Before the era of the Internet and social networks, buyers were less informed and the seller had better control over the sales pipeline by exploiting this ignorance. However, in this digital age, buyers are able to research beforehand to get enough information about the products they want and, ultimately, they control the process of buying. Social media has turned out to be a great marketing platform for companies, and it hugely impacts a company's reputation with respect to its products and customer services. Marketing with social media is about creating quality content that attracts the attention of the social platform users, who then share the content with their connections creating the same effect as word of mouth marketing. The target customers learn about the company and its products from their trusted connections. The promotional message is received from user's social circle and not the company itself. Social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are constantly working towards delivering targeted ads to the users based on their interests and behaviors. Business Insider reports that Facebook generates 1 billion in revenue each quarter from advertisements, and Twitter is estimated to have generated more than 500 million in advertisement revenue in the year 2013, which clearly shows the impact of social media on marketing today. Buyers are able to make well-informed decisions and often choose to engage with a salesperson after due diligence. For example, when buying a new mobile phone, most of us know which model to buy, what the specifications are, and what the best price is in the market before we even go to the retailer.

Marketing is now a revenue process that is not about broadcasting the product information to all, it's about targeting and nurturing relationships with the prospects from an early stage until they become ready to buy. Marketing is not just throwing bait and expecting people to buy it. The prospects in today's information age learn at their own pace and want to be reached only when they need more information or are ready to buy. Let's now explore some of the challenges of present day marketing.