This is the third article on a series about critical mistakes that are commonly made in marketing. The first article can be viewed by clicking here and the second article by clicking here.

One of my favorite places on planet earth is the Grand Canyon. I have visited this massive natural wonder at times throughout my life. The thing that is so awesome is its size and majesty. It simply seems to go on forever. I have found that no photo or video of the Canyon does it justice. You just cannot know how big it is until you experience it for yourself.

This is a series about common mistakes businesses make in their marketing. Here is a big one: misunderstanding the breadth of marketing. I often get calls from potential clients who want us to do something creative for them. They want us to design a website, an ad, a brochure, etc. In talking to them about their marketing needs, they tend to think it begins and ends with something creatively produced. To be fair, creative design is used primarily in advertising to gain the attention of consumers, but that is a sliver of marketing. It is akin to buying a painting of the Grand Canyon and thinking you had seen it all. Marketing is much broader than advertising and creative design.

So what is marketing all about? Let’s begin with a sense of what you are selling and who needs it. It is important to define your product or service so that you highlight the most important aspect of it when it comes to consumers (not you!) What does it fix for them? How does it make them feel? Build a brand around this aspect of marketing. Next, make your brand memorable. Make your brand stick in the minds of your customers. Keep it short and catchy. The shorter the name, the easier it is to remember. Use the brand name often. Repetition sticks.

Once you have the brand established, you can pass into another aspect of marketing: strategy. Where is the best place to reach consumers with your brand marketing? When is the best time to do so? What advertising mediums will you use to get them to become aware of your brand? What will you do to get them to try your brand for the first time? How will you keep them coming back to buy more after the first sale? On the flip side is the consideration of your competition and what they are doing that you are not. How can you compete effectively with them? What can you offer the consumer they cannot? All of these are marketing strategy questions. Before you do anything creative, you have to have your marketing strategy planned out.

Marketing is also concerned with the measurement of success and failure in marketing. Measurement tools are essential to determining your effectiveness. If the goal of marketing is to produce sales for your business, the cash register becomes the biggest analytic you should monitor. Marketing has to pay off eventually or you are doing something wrong.

Creativity has its place in marketing. No one is attracted to bad designs. But don’t be fooled that creativity is all there is to marketing. A good marketer is so much more than an art critic. Don’t get tunnel vision! Understand that marketing is a very broad business discipline. It covers all that I have described and much more.