4 Core Marketing Responsibilities

For many of our clients, Volcanic plays the role of marketing director and sometimes the entire marketing department. This role usually entails activities that fall into four core responsibilities: Leadership, Sales Support, Promotions & Client/Market Relations. To explore what each of these encompass, checkout the mind map below. 

Marketing Responsibilities Mindmap

Here’s more details on each marketing responsibility:

1. Provide leadership on serving the client better

The first area of responsibility for marketing is to contribute to the leadership of the company. From product development to making invoices easier to read, marketing should provide leadership on how to better serve the customer.

Activities under this area include:

• Developing pricing.
• Conducting customer satisfaction surveys.
• Contributing to product development.
• Monitoring competitors.
• Website usability testing.

2. Support sales team & distribution partners

Sales support is a critical responsibility of marketing. The old proverb goes “a team is only as strong as it’s weakest link.” Sales support is part of the sales team and often it is the weakest link when it comes to closing the deal. Without sales, no one gets paid. So what does sales support include? Generating enough leads/foot-traffic, collateral material that helps persuade prospects,

Activities under this area include:

• Lead generation.
• Building brand recognition.
• Nurturing leads until they are sales-ready.
• Creating collateral that helps persuade prospects such as websites, brochures, multimedia presentations, product sheets, etc.
• Gathering customer testimonials and writing case studies.
• Making it easy to differentiate from competitors.

3. Manage advertising & promotions

Possibly the most recognized component of marketing is advertising. Advertising is the promotion of a product/service/company. Usually it’s done through magazines, TV, classifieds, search engines, email, newspaper, billboards, etc. This is one of the most trickiest areas of marketing as you can waste a lot of money very quickly.

Activities under this area include:

• Creative Development
• Testing
• Media Buying

4. Manage client relationships

According to sales guru Jeffery Gitomer, “Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.” Most marketing executives agree with this perspective. Building and maintaining strong customer relationships is seen as a core function of marketing. Why? Selling to a customer who loves you & trusts you is 100x easier.

Activities under this area include:

• Conducting customer satisfaction surveys
• Events & sponsorships
• Setting up loyalty cards
• Loyalty building programs
• Monitoring competitors
• Implementing a referral program
• Re-marketing to customers.
• Ensuring each client-contact point builds a favorable impression.