Day: October 18, 2024

In honor of Local’s eighth anniversary and the recent release of Local v9.1.0, I’d like to reflect on how the tool has grown and changed alongside the WordPress community throughout the years. I can honestly say that I love and believe in Local more than ever. I’ve seen it change so much over the years,…

The post Reflecting on Eight Years of Local appeared first on WP Engine.

I totally get the goal here: make CSS more modular and scalable in WordPress. Put all your global WordPress theme styles in a single file, including variations. JSON offers a nicely structured syntax that’s easily consumable by JavaScript, thereby allowing the sweet affordance of loading exactly what we want when we want it.

The problem, to me, is that writing “CSS” in a theme.json file is a complete mental model switcher-oo. Rather than selectors, we have a whole set of objects we have to know about just to select something. We have JSON properties that look and feel like CSS properties, only they have to be camelCased being JavaScript and all. And we’re configuring features in the middle of the styles, meaning we’ve lost a clear separation of concerns.

I’m playing devil’s advocate, of course. There’s a lot of upside to abstracting CSS with JSON for the very niche purpose of theming CMS templates and components. But after a decade of “CSS-in-JS is the Way^™” I’m less inclined to buy into it. CSS is the bee’s knees just the way it is and I’m OK relying on it solely, whether it’s in the required style.css file or some other plain ol’ CSS file I generate. But that also means I’m losing out on the WordPress features that require you to write styles in a theme.json file, like style variations that can be toggled directly in the WordPress admin.

Regardless of all that, I’m linking this up because Justin does bang-up work (no surprise, really) explaining and illustrating the ways of CSS-in-WordPress. We have a complete guide that Ganesh rocked a couple of years ago. You might check that to get familiar with some terminology, jump into a nerdy deep dive on how WordPress generates classes from JSON, or just use the reference tables as a cheat sheet.

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Mastering theme.json: You might not need CSS originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.

The year I turned 30, I started a new job. The role was a management position and carried strategic responsibility for marketing, communications and PR — all things I was excited about.

Also tucked in the job description? Event planning for a festival and various smaller events. I didn’t know it yet, but I was about to take a crash course in event marketing.

Event marketing is planning and executing an event with the goal of promoting a brand and its products and services. Events are opportunities for building brand awareness, engaging target audiences including new and existing customers, and generating leads.

Because the goals fall under marketing, the responsibility typically falls to the marketing team. Planning an event that attracts prospects and makes an impact starts with your event marketing budget.

I’ll walk you through how to create an event marketing budget with what to include and share tips from event planning experts along the way.

Deal? Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• How much of your marketing budget should be for events?
• What does an event marketing budget go toward?
• How to Create an Event Marketing Budget
• Tips for Creating the Right Event Marketing Budget

How much of your marketing budget should be for events?

First, how much of your marketing budget should you dedicate to events? Experts say that companies spend around 10-20% of their marketing budgets on events on average.

Gartner found companies spend an average of 17.1% of marketing budgets on event marketing, while Amex found the number to be closer to 14%. This is on the rise, especially in the past two years. A Zuddl survey found that over 50% of marketers expect budget increases.

Of course, this number depends on many factors. What’s your industry? What is the goal and ROI of each event? Is the budget offset by ticket or sponsor revenue? Is your event in-person, virtual, or hybrid? Take all of these questions into consideration as you plan.

Event Marketing Budget Formula

Let’s take a ballpark percentage of 16% and calculate your event marketing budget from it.

Annual marketing budget X 0.16 = Event marketing budget

So if your marketing budget is $1 million, calculate 1M X 0.16 = $160,000 to estimate a good event budget.

What does an event marketing budget go toward?

Calculating a budget based on an industry average only gets you so far. To propose a realistic budget, you also need to research the estimated expenses to pull off your vision.

According to Knowland’s 2023 State of the Meetings Industry, increasing event expenses is one of the biggest concerns for event organizers. Almost half (46.3%) of event professionals said rising costs are their biggest obstacle when planning events.

Here’s how Zuddl found B2B companies broke down their event budgets.

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Here’s what to consider as you plan your event.

1. Venue and Food/Beverage Cost

Venue and food/beverage is typically the largest budget item for events, eating up 15-35% of your overall budget. This goes far beyond room rental fees. Don’t forget to look for any hidden costs that might pop up.

Here are some factors to keep in mind:

• Event location. Venues in major markets have a price tag to match. While some event organizers save on costs by moving their events to secondary markets, this can impact attendance. Conference attendees rate venue location and travel/accommodation costs as two of their top three priorities when deciding whether to attend an in-person event.
• Food/beverage. Will you provide coffee, snacks, and meals, or expect attendees to purchase them on their own? Your choice impacts the event experience, especially if attendees need to leave the event to buy food. A Bizzabo survey found that catering alone accounted for 20% of event budgets.
• A/V (Audiovisual) needs. For each room you rent, you likely need a lighting or IT technician to make sure everything’s running smoothly. 55.4% of event planners expect A/V costs to rise by over 20% in the near future. Bizzabo reports that event planners spend nearly 8% of event budgets on AV alone.
• Set design. If you have a keynote stage, consider the set design and what it will cost to get the look you want.

2. Entertainment/Speaker Fees

Marketers spend 15% of an event budget on average on speakers and entertainment. Be sure to budget an honorarium and possibly accommodations for your keynote speakers and consider whether you’ll book a band or other entertainment to set the mood.

3. Technology

Technology has grown to become a huge part of the event experience. If you run a hybrid or virtual event, technology will make or break the experience and should make up a larger percentage of the budget.

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Consider these event statistics:

• 65% of events post-pandemic are primarily in-person, followed by 20% virtual and 15% hybrid
• Almost 9 in 10 events offer some kind of virtual component or recording afterward
• 63% of attendees expect in-person conferences to use modern technology
• 69% of organizers say event software has a major impact on the success of their events
• 68% of attendees say it’s vital to have a mobile event app, and 56% say the app can make or break their event experience.

Technology budget items to consider include registration and event management software, live or after-event streaming, and a mobile app.

4. Marketing

Your event can’t drive brand awareness or deals if your target audience isn’t there. So, marketing is key to making sure the right audience is there to hear your message. Consider these costs and channels to attract attendees.

• Digital ad campaigns. Digital ads are one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to market an event. For B2C events, consider location or interests when targeting your demographics for digital ads. For B2B, use social media retargeting or keyword search to connect with relevant audiences.

• Direct mail campaign. Direct mail is more expensive but can be highly effective if you’re inviting members or current customers to your event. Printed invitations stand out from the digital noise and add gravitas to your event.
• Print and out-of-home advertising. If you’re running a consumer event like a food festival, consider local ad placement on billboards, buses, or in local magazines to reach interested parties.
• Sponsorships and cross-marketing. Work with industry groups or local partners to cross-market your event to similar audiences. This can be free (the best!) or can incur a sponsorship cost, like placing an event ad in a relevant email newsletter.
• Agencies and consultants. Almost half of event planners work with a marketing agency for their events, according to the Amex 2024 Global Meetings and Events Forecast. An event marketing agency can market your event through creative design, advertising strategy in markets you don’t know well, or PR for media coverage.
• Owned and organic channels. Remember that some of the best tactics like email marketing, organic social media marketing, and word-of-mouth carry little-to-no cost.

Keep in mind that new events will need a larger marketing effort than established ones since they don’t yet have brand recognition and returning attendees.

Consider allocating 10-15% of your event budget to marketing a recurring event and 15-20% of your budget to marketing a new one.

5. Signage and Swag

Don’t forget about the little things! Printed signage helps attendees navigate your event smoothly and can bring in more street traffic for unticketed events.

Name badges, branded pop-up banners, and other little touches serve both a functional and aesthetic purpose.

Swag and giveaways help to drive excitement about your event and give attendees a reason to remember the event after the fact.

6. Accessibility and Sustainability

Nearly 60% of event marketers have a plan for addressing accessibility and inclusivity, Zuddl found. Extra may include closed captioning and interpretation for sign language and multiple languages. Other costs may be wrapped into technology or venue choice to reach your inclusivity goals.

While sustainability is still a lower priority (prioritized by 34% of event organizers), it is growing. B2B event attendees rank sustainable practices as the fifth most important factor in attending an event, beating out registration cost, exhibitors, and speakers/content.

Strategies may include selecting green venues, local sourcing, or hosting virtual events. Another strategy could be investing in a refillable water station and branded water bottles instead of plastic ones. Like accessibility, sustainability can touch multiple budget categories like venue, food and drink, and swag.

7. Contingency and Insurance Fund

It happens. Snowstorms, venue damage, speaker cancellations, or higher costs than expected mean you could go over budget or even need to cancel without recouping costs. Allocate at least 5% of your budget to a contingency fund and insure your event in case you need to cancel and issue refunds.

How to Create an Event Marketing Budget

Now that you understand the main categories, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work. If you’re creating an event marketing budget for the first time, follow these steps.

1. Define your event goals and objectives.

First, discuss your goals and objectives for the event (or events). Saying your goals out loud will help you cast a vision and get approval from higher-ups for the budget you need.

2. Research and estimate costs.

Next, put on your research hat and research how much it will cost to pull off this vision. It might be that you’ve already been given a budget from above, so you want to see if that budget is enough to reach your goals.

Go through the budget items listed above and reach out to vendors to estimate your costs. Some of this research can be informal, while others may need a formal RFP process.

While you can do some of this research online, Googling only gets you so far. I’ve found that a phone call with a vendor or a venue visit can be much more effective than online research. Call other marketing professionals in your network and ask them about venues and tips for creating a good experience.

3. Determine fixed and variable costs.

In event planning, some costs are fixed while others are variable.

A venue rental is fixed, for example, while per-person catering fluctuates depending on registration numbers. Identifying these variations helps you understand how much money you need

This is also a good time to distinguish between must-have and wish-list budget items. For instance, you may determine that a mobile app is non-negotiable, but a floral budget may be a wish-list item to add only if you reach a certain revenue threshold.

4. Identify potential revenue sources.

When creating your budget, estimate how much you plan to bring in to offset your costs. The most common sources are ticket revenue, sponsorships, and merchandise. Estimate your target revenue and a minimum number you’ll need to bring in to break even.

5. Write a budget proposal and finalize your budget.

After all of the above steps, write a formal budget proposal outlining your event goals, budget breakdown, expected revenue, and fixed and variable costs.

If you have already received a budget number from leadership, you will need to make a compelling argument to increase that amount. Meet with leadership, answer any questions about the proposed budget, and consider creative adjustments until all parties are satisfied.

6. Track your budget.

Once you have the stamp of approval on your budget, get cracking on execution! Event planning takes months or even years, so tracking your spend is critical for success. There are a few different ways to track your budget.

Use a spreadsheet for budget tracking.

The simplest method is sometimes the best. Create a detailed budget spreadsheet with all of your projected expenses and revenues, and add in your revenue and spend as it comes in.

Get started by downloading HubSpot’s eight free budget tracking templates here.

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Use budgeting software.

A dedicated budget and financial management software can help you track your budget plan, expenses, and receipts all in one place.

While common accounting software like QuickBooks can meet your needs, a dedicated events tool like Planning Pod, EventPro, or Cvent can manage budgeting in addition to registrations, project management, and other event functions.

Integrate with your marketing tracking.

Since event marketing is part of your overall marketing strategy, there’s a good argument for wrapping the spend tracking and ROI into your larger marketing tracking.

For instance, if you use HubSpot to manage your marketing campaigns, you can manage a campaign budget in Marketing Hub to promote your event. The tool will track your budget total, spend total, and remaining budget in real-time — and how many conversions resulted from the campaign.

7. Track and measure ROI.

Event ROI can be really tricky to measure. Registration numbers, attendee satisfaction surveys, session/booth engagement, and social media mentions are all good metrics to gauge success.

But here’s what’s even more valuable than reporting event registration numbers or budget totals — tracking the effectiveness of events on your KPIs, like leads and sales.

If your goal is marketing your brand and driving growth, you have to look deeper. When you track ROI, the results can be powerful. Zuddl survey participants reported that 44% see a 1-2X ROI, while 56% experience greater than 3X ROI.

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When it’s time for next year’s event budget cycle, you’ll need to prove that the event had some impact to justify the expense. Here’s one way that marketer Ryan Gunn used HubSpot to track the impact of in-person events on his pipeline.

“Measurement is always tough because events don't typically see results right away,” shared Drew Bush, senior events marketing manager at Propel.

“The influenced pipeline and positive feedback from customers and attendees will help drive future events and budgets, but it’s tough to define. I typically measure ROI by attendance and pipeline, deals, and upselling that are influenced by individuals who attended our event.”

Tips for Creating the Right Event Marketing Budget

I know I needed inspiration and mentorship to become a successful event planner. I asked experts for their best tips for event planning and budgeting. Here are the nuggets they shared.

1. Align stakeholders.

Creating an event marketing budget is often a collaborative, cross-departmental effort. It requires working with stakeholders in the initial budgeting process and continuing throughout the event lifecycle.

“Some of the toughest challenges are aligning with key stakeholders on the priorities for an event,” shared Bush.

“A great way to align on top priorities is to have kickoff meetings with stakeholders. In some cases, our teams have followed the RACI model and in others we've had weekly syncs with the executives to keep track of progress.”

2. Narrow down your ICP.

Understanding your audience is key to creating a successful event.

For instance, knowing that your audience values networking hours may lead you to prioritize food and beverage budgets for networking.

Conduct surveys year after year so you have the data to build the event your audience wants — and drive engagement and results.

Knowing your ideal customer profile (ICP) can also help you market your event more effectively and affordably.

“Our product team has worked really hard in determining our ICP so we know who to target,” shared Bush. “I’m a huge fan of social media, especially LinkedIn. This works well for our current team as we’ve determined our ICP.”

3. Consolidate vendors.

“If you're looking for a venue, you might want to go for a venue that will have all other vendors in-house,” recommended Lady Jane Acquah, Special Events Manager for Integral Care.

“From my experience, if you have a venue and you have to bring in people to bring in furniture, to do the floral arrangement, to provide AV or even catering — all of that is costly. But if you have one venue that can provide all of these services, it definitely cuts down on the price.”

The same goes for technology. The more you can consolidate tech platforms for registrations, event management, budgeting, advertising, and analytics, the more time and money you can save.

4. Leverage relationships.

While some costs are fixed, never underestimate the power of relationships in creating an effective event marketing budget. Work with good vendors again and again and don’t be afraid to negotiate to add services or cut costs.

Relationships and partnerships are also a free or low-cost way to market your event. Consider cross-marketing and strategic endorsements or event promotion from partners and longtime contacts to drive event interest.

Drive impact with a well-planned, well-executed event.

In my years planning events, the number-one thing I learned was to stay flexible.

No matter how well you plan, there will always be roadblocks and unexpected expenses that pop up.

Being detail-oriented is important, but the event planner who’s scrappy, creative, and negotiates well will succeed in event budget management.

From understanding how much to allocate to tracking expenses and measuring ROI, building a comprehensive event marketing budget sets you up for a seamless and impactful experience.

Remember to be flexible, consult experts when needed, and always keep your event goals and audience top of mind.

Graphic design has come a long way since I started in the arts nearly a decade and a half ago.

Improvements in tools like Photoshop or my personal favorite, Procreate, from then to now have helped remove creative roadblocks and speed up the design process. Then, user-friendly design tools like Canva have made design more accessible to non-specialists.

Now, it’s 2024, and we find ourselves in the throes of the “AI revolution.” We’re met with a ton of AI tools for graphic design that promise to streamline our creative workflows and more.

But is the juice really worth the squeeze with these tools? Today, we find out.

Table of Contents

• Why use AI for graphic design?
• How I Tested the Best AI Graphic Design Tools
• AI Tools for Graphic Design

Why use AI for graphic design?

From removing creative blocks to saving time, here are three reasons to consider adding AI to your graphic design process.

Remove Creative Blocks

One of the main benefits I’ve found by using AI is that it helps me remove creative blocks.

So, when I’m writing and hit a wall, rather than staring at a blank screen, I might ask ChatGPT to generate an example use case for something. Even if the text it generates is clunky and unusable, it at least gives me a starting point.

When it comes to design, specifically, the same goes for something like color pairing. Without AI assistance or pre-created palettes, I struggle to choose more than one color for a design. (As you’ll see later, a specific AI tool for graphic design can help remove that creative block.)

Creative Experimentation

As an Illustration graduate who specialized in printmaking, I can tell you first-hand that creative experimentation in real life gets messy.

Not only is the process often messy, but it can take up a lot of space. Before you know it, multiple physical versions of your experimentations are mounting up, and the next issue is where to store them.

Aside from that, non-digital creative experimentation is often riskier. Without the faithful “Ctrl Z” or equivalent at your disposal, you’re always one move away from ruining a design. The crux? It’s enough to put you off even trying, and that’s not good for business.

But I’m not just some random ex-art grad on a soap box lecturing you about creative expression without just cause. I’m also a business owner shouting from the rooftops about one key fact: Experimentation is the driving force behind innovation.

So, the more you can encourage it in yourself and, if relevant, your organization, the better.

Save Yourself Time

There’s a reason 95% of professionals using AI say it helps them spend less time on manual tasks. And a further 83% say it helps them focus on the creative aspects of their role.

Through automation, AI can help you simplify your creative workflow, be it through bulk edits or generating designs in a few prompts. Also, by removing creative blocks and providing a way to experiment at speed, you can get from a concept to a final design much quicker.

That said, there’s something magical about creating a physical piece that you can hold in your hands. And without all those years spent in the print room or experimenting with different mediums — from textiles to gloopy oil paints — I don’t think I’d understand how to use AI to achieve my desired outcome.

How I Tested the Best AI Graphic Design Tools

I tested each tool against the following criteria:

• Price. I wanted to know if you could get started with the tool for free. (As a side note, it’s worth exploring how much it will cost you to actually download and use the end product for commercial purposes.)
• Ease of use. I wanted to test how intuitive and user-friendly the design platform was.
• Design capabilities. I wanted to know how broad each tool’s design capabilities were. More specifically, I tried to understand whether the tools’ AI elements were overhyped or genuinely helpful.
• Licenses and copyright. I wanted to know if you could use the end products commercially. Bonus points if the companies behind the tools actively protect people from potential legal action after using designs created through the platform.
• Ethics. As a creative, I was curious about how each company trained the AI models. I personally would prefer not to use a tool that didn’t work with creatives fairly or didn’t openly state how it trained the models.

AI Tools for Graphic Design

I road-tested six tools for graphic design. Here’s what I found.

1. Adobe Express

Adobe Express is an all-in-one AI content creation app that allows users to make stunning social posts, marketing images, flyers, and more.

Its AI tools are powered by Adobe Firefly, a generative machine-learning model specifically for design. 

Though Adobe Express is available for everyone,  HubSpot's newest integration allows HubSpot users to use the AI content creation app to make aesthetically pleasing marketing materials without leaving HubSpot.

A popular use case for Adobe Express is to “create stunning, life-like images.” However, you can also use the tool for AI photo editing (i.e., changing backgrounds and removing unwanted elements from your images).

I decided to try Adobe Express for generating images from scratch. For context, remember what I said earlier about having an Illustration degree and spending a lot of time in a printmaking studio. So, I’d definitely say my bias is toward the more painterly/illustrative side of graphic design.

My prompt: “A simple black outline of a mountain drawn in the style of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings drawings colored with random splotches of drawing ink in magenta, blue, purple, and gold.”

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I was actually quite impressed with the output, especially considering I only prompted the tool and didn’t configure any of the settings initially.

But how does Adobe Express stack up when you get more specific with the settings? I chose Art as the content type to find out.

In my opinion, the setting change didn’t make that much difference to the output. But that could be because the original prompt was biased towards an “art” type of output anyway.

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As a further experiment, I also adjusted the prompt to bring more whitespace into the mountain portion of the design. Adobe Express interpreted that as more whitespace, in general, rather than in the mountain section itself. Long story short, that didn’t work out as I envisioned, so I ditched that portion of the prompt.

I will say that with something like this (personal work), it’s often about the journey as much as the destination. And even though it took mere seconds to produce, it wasn’t as fun to create this digitally as it would’ve been by using traditional printing or even with biro and drawing ink.

What I like: Adobe Firefly, which powers Adobe Express, first piqued my interest in 2023 when Sarah Rogers, a Contributing Artist at Cricut, posted about the tool on LinkedIn.

Best for: Adobe Express is best for individual graphic designers, design teams, students, students and teachers. And anyone looking to improve their design skills using a responsible AI tool.

Pricing: Get started for free.

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I’d followed Sarah’s thoughtful LinkedIn posts about AI for a while. And we both seemed to have a similar mindset regarding its use within creative endeavors. I don’t want to speak for Sarah, but as for me, here’s my mindset:

• Yes, you might be able to speed up your creative process with AI — if you know how to use it.
• No, you shouldn’t fire all of your creative team and replace them with AI.
• And yes, you should keep a healthy level of skepticism regarding the application of AI within your business. (A healthy level of skepticism, specifically about the output of the tools, legal issues like licensing, and how the models are trained.)

So, what caught my eye the most about Sarah’s endorsement of Adobe Firefly was that Adobe is, seemingly at least, acting responsibly in this space.

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They’re arguably the most responsible folks in the design tool world regarding AI. That makes me feel more confident about any potential licensing issues and that “no creatives were harmed” in training the models.

2. Canva

Canva is a free online graphic design tool. You can use it to create a range of designs, such as social media posts, logos, and presentations.

Canva has integrated AI into its platform in several different ways, including Magic Design, a text-to-image generator, and Magic Studio, which includes AI-driven photo editing features and text-to-video generation.

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These days, I mostly use Canva to make (some might say, hilarious) memes for my LinkedIn.

However, I used the tool a lot when I offered social media marketing services, so I wanted to use Magic Studio to create a social media image.

I started with a time-saving social media template — an Instagram post specifically.

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I chose Cream Minimalist New Collection Instagram Post by Kinley Creative.

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I wanted to customize the image, so I uploaded a picture of some of my own artwork.

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I also wanted to upload a font I’d recently downloaded from Type Colony. (This is TC Kuareen if you’re interested.)

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To upload the font, I clicked on the “new collection” templated text, selected the font drop-down menu, and clicked “Upload a font.”

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Once I’d come this far, I realized I’d not used any AI features. So my next task was to try to find some. But, try as I might, I could only find two noticeable AI features within the image editor.

One of them was “Magic Write.” I could see that being helpful for designers or business owners who need help writing copy. That said, if you don’t know how to use AI well, it’s no replacement for working with a trained copywriter. Of course, the same goes for design.

The other AI feature was “Translate.” Once again, I could see this being helpful. However, like copy and design, AI translation is no replacement for having an actual translator to safeguard against translation mishaps.

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This could be my misunderstanding of the tool, but I found it hard to see a specific AI use case for social media graphic creation.

But I think the tool could be really handy for AI image editing. For example, the “Magic Eraser” edit feature gets rid of unwanted design elements, and “Magic Edit” adds to, replaces, or edits an image in a few clicks.

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What I like: Canva is really user-friendly. I feel like people with varying levels of design knowledge, and even those with little experience using design tools could use it.

I also like that the platform has introduced an “industry-leading collection of robust trust, safety, and privacy tools” through Canva Shield.

It seems like Canva is also safeguarding against intellectual property claims for Enterprise customers. Plus, they’re compensating Canva creatives for their work through an AI royalty program.

Best for: Individual graphic designers, design teams, and small to enterprise businesses.

Pricing: Get started for free.

3. Designs.ai

Designs.ai is an integrated Agency-as-a-Service platform powered by AI technology. It’s a one-stop shop for everything from logo design to social media and image generation.

You can even convert text to speech for voice-over content.

I tried creating a social media image to see how Designs.ai compares to Canva, mainly because I wanted to know if the AI aspects of this tool were more prominent.

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My first thought was that if you’ve used Canva before, it won’t take you long to get to grips with the layout for this section of the tool. But even if you haven’t, the Designs.ai platform is straightforward and intuitive. I can see most people being able to pick up this tool and run with it to some degree.

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At first glance, the social media section is very similar to Canva in terms of picking templates to customize based on the channel (Facebook, Instagram, etc.). So, it’s pretty standard stuff, really. The “Wizard” option, however, caught my eye.

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The default format is “Business Card,” but you can choose from different options, such as “Quotes,” “Product Listings,” and “YouTube Thumbnail.” I picked “Instagram Post” to compare the results to Canva.

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In addition to the different design format options, you can also choose from predetermined categories like “Events & Celebrations,” “Business, Legal & Finance,” and “Animal & Pet.” I selected “Art, Design & Inspiration.”

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As a side note, I had to sign up/sign in to upload my own title image. But I did everything until that point via the website without signing up for the platform.

After inputting the design variables, I hit Generate. The options the tool spat out weren’t standout designs, but they were better than I expected — a pleasant surprise!

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Next, I selected one of the suggested designs to see what the image editor was like. As with much of Designs.ai, the layout is similar to Canva.

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For the sake of continuity, I could’ve missed something, but unlike Canva, as far as I’m aware, you can’t upload your own fonts to Designs.ai.

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Overall, I found the platform easy to navigate and use. That said, I don’t think this would serve your needs if you wanted to create complex designs.

I also couldn’t find any information about how Designs.ai trained its models, so I’m wary of that aspect.

There is information about licensing, though. Generally, “finished projects made with our creative AI tools can be distributed to promote and advertise your business.” Still, there are specific Do’s and Don’ts segmented by each aspect of the tool (Logo, Social Media, Video, etc.) that you might want to pay attention to.

What I like: In terms of AI, Designs.ai goes a step beyond Canva. I can also see the “Bulk Edit” function coming in handy if you want to automate mass edits.

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Best for: Small businesses at the start of their journey who don’t have the budget for a designer. Individual graphic designers or design teams specializing in holistic marketing.

Pricing: Get started for free.

4. AutoDraw

AutoDraw is an AI tool that combines machine learning and drawings from artists. You can use the tool to “draw stuff fast.” In terms of graphic design use cases, you could use AutoDraw to make learning materials and custom graphics.

And for any design that requires a quick outline, I can see Autodraw speeding up the process.

A warning: I don’t have my graphics tablet set up. So everything you’re about to witness — hilarious though it may be — was done with just a mouse. I’m guessing the tool’s capabilities are far greater with a tablet or a stylus at hand.

However, without giving too much away, it proves that you can input a terrible drawing into AutoDraw and get something better back.

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I decided to keep things simple with a good old smiley face. First, I used the “Shape” tool to create a circle outline, and then I used “AutoDraw” for the eyes and nose. As you can see, the AutoDraw elements inputted by me are … lacking finesse, shall we say.

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But that’s not a problem. The “Do you mean” section on the top toolbar gives various options to finesse your drawing. So even if your attempt to draw a smiley face with just a mouse didn’t turn out so well, one click on a smiley face up top, and you’re golden.

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As you can see the smiley face is now a little less unbearable to behold. Next I used Select to select and then delete the initial circle shape I added. (It turned out to be unnecessary.) Et voila! A shiny happy clipart style person laughing … or something.

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Regarding training the models, Google used“the same technology to guess what you’re trying to draw,” as Quick, Draw!, which relied upon “artists, designers, illustrators, and friends of Google” to add drawings to the doodling data set.

I doubt the artists were compensated for their work. Still, at least they shared designs willingly rather than having them scraped by AI without their consent.

What I like: I really like that the tool is simple to use, free, and, let’s be honest, fun! However, it wouldn’t be ideal for complex design work. That said, if you don’t have a lot of time and need to visualize an idea quickly, AutoDraw can help.

Best for: Anyone who needs to convey ideas and concepts at speed.

Pricing: Get started for free.

5. Khroma

Khroma is an AI graphic design tool that helps you match your favorite colors into a series of palettes. The tool also blocks the colors you don’t like, so they’ll never find their way into your palettes.

I love that this tool is so specialized for a specific purpose. And I can see this being a big time saver if you struggle with color pairing like me.

For context, I can pick a few colors that I like, no problem. But I’m not always confident they go together and can get lost in analysis paralysis. As a result, I tend to buy pre-made color palettes for my go-to illustrative tool, Procreate.

After I clicked Generate, I was prompted to choose 50 colors “to train a color generator algorithm” personalized to me. I dove right in and picked the colors that stood out to me at a glance.

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As I picked the colors, the “likes to go” section counted how many colors I still had to choose. The color bar also started filling up with the ones I’d selected so far.

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After picking my 50 colors, I hit Start Training.

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Then, the results came in. The layout for the color pairings is beautiful, and I see a lot of potential in this tool.

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Another interesting element of Khroma is that you can visualize your color pairings in different ways, including “Type” (the view above) and “Gradient” (the view below). You can also see how your color choices look as posters, images, and within broader color palettes.

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Since Khroma helps you pair colors already in existence, I can’t see it being exploitative to creators or needing specific licenses for commercial use. But I can’t say that for certain, so do your due diligence.

What I like: When you click the information icon against each color pairing, Khroma provides you with the color codes. That will be such a time saver if you want to color match in another design tool.

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Best for: Individual designers and design teams looking to save time on color selection and pairing.

Pricing: Get started for free.

6. Looka

Looka is a platform specifically for logo and brand design. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to create designs based on your input.

I started my test by entering an example company name and clicking Get started. From then on, Looka took me through a series of steps to help me create a logo.

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The first step was to pick my industry. As you can see, there is a range of sectors to choose from.

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I was then prompted to select some logos I liked, followed by some colors.

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The following steps were to add a company name (again, for some reason?) accompanied by a slogan and then to choose some symbol types.

An observation: I liked that Looka gave me notes about my company name and slogan choices as I inputted them. This could be handy advice for beginners. Plus, you can also pick your own symbols if you want to be more hands-on with the design.

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After that, Looka generated a few different logos for me. While they were competent logos, they were too “out of the box” for me and lacked the creative flair needed for brand differentiation. That said, I didn’t go too deep into customizing the logo.

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This tool shines more in the presentation of the designs than in the designs themselves. For example, I like that Looka provides design mock-ups so you can see how your logo will look on a business card, website, social media, and more.

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I couldn’t find any specifics about how Looka trained its AI models, but they at least address the potential negative impact on human designers here:

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In terms of licensing and copyright, Looka says:

“You may not use any of Looka’s End Products outside of the Site, whether for commercial or personal use, without paying all applicable and respective Fees in advance. This includes both digital and physical use of the End Products.”

What I like: Overall, the platform is intuitive and easy to use. I like that Looka doesn’t use templates; rather, it generates each design based on your specific input. There is also a wide range of font, layout, and color options.

Best for: New businesses without the budget to work with a designer. Individual designers and design teams working specifically in branding.

Pricing: Get started for free.

Looking to pair your designs with AI-powered text? Get started with HubSpot AI today.

7. Kittl

Kittl is a free, easy-to-use online design platform that lets you create high-quality designs without the steep learning curve of traditional graphic design software.

Because it's web-based, Kittl is perfect for designers on the go or those seeking a simple design solution without the hassle of installations, updates, and storage space.

One of Kittl's most notable qualities is its emphasis on "quick and easy creation of professional designs," which makes it especially well-liked by users who need to quickly and easily create visually appealing social media images, typography, and logos.

But don't be fooled by its simplicity — Kittl provides sophisticated customization options that allow you to adjust every layout element with precision.

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Kittl offers several AI-based tools such as an AI logo generator, AI vectorizer, AI product background generator, and more. To have a better sense of the platform, I decided to specifically investigate their AI Image Generator.

While choosing what to create, I discovered tons of free templates for specific projects such as T-shirt designs, business cards, POD products, and more. I settled on designing a logo and aimed to create a modern yet natural look using a pre-made template, an AI image, and Kittl's extensive collection of fonts.

After logging in to Kittl, I started a New Project, navigated to templates, and selected a pre-made logo design from a pretty hefty template library. This added a new artboard to my project with a customizable design.

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With my template selected, I needed to create my AI image. The Image Generator was very straightforward and even if you don’t have much experience using AI design tools, you should be able to navigate the features with ease. 

The concept for my logo design was, "a sleek, nature-inspired logo in muted earth tones, with elegant typography." The prompt I entered into the image generator was “a dreamy desert oasis.”

I was pleasantly surprised that I could choose from a variety of styles such as “cartoon,” and even “synthwave.” I settled on the “watercolor” style. 

Using the AI Background Remover, I got rid of the resulting image's white background with a click - and viola! I was left with the image below…which is pretty awesome.

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I didn’t think the bright image matched the natural look I wanted so I tried another AI tool: the AI Vectorizer. This was surprisingly easy to use and I was able to choose how many colors would remain in the vector image.

From here I tweaked some things, like the artboard color, text color, and font. The amount of unique fonts Kittl has made it difficult to choose! I even duplicated the artboard to experiment with other brand colors.

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After I finished the graphic I went to the mockup section and chose the sticker mockup how real does that look? The text wraps around the contours of the image!

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All in all, creating a custom logo on Kittl was super straightforward. What stood out with Kittl was just the ease of navigation and use. It was incredibly easy to adjust each aspect with precision in just a few clicks.

What I like: If we’re thinking of AI tools, then I like how Kittl strikes a mix between ease of use and advanced capabilities. Because the design tools are simple to use, I could explore and make adjustments without any hassle.

Best for: Beginner or expert-level graphic designers, design teams, and POD creators. Kitt’s particularly good for individuals wanting professional quality designs without the steep learning curve of other design software. 

Pricing: Get started for free.

The Bottom Line on AI Tools for Graphic Design

Let’s be honest: A tool is only as good as the person wielding it. So, if you don’t know much about graphic design concepts to begin with, it’s unlikely you’ll create a brand-differentiating end product.

However, if you know your way around your colors, typography, alignment, visual hierarchy, balance, and the rest, AI can speed up your creative process.

Personally, I loved testing out Adobe Firefly. The end output exceeded that sterile “out of the box” template, which feels common with other tools. I also liked that you could create something painterly in style.

Plus, I love Adobe’s ethical approach to using AI. They are working with creatives to train their models responsibly and protecting product users against potential licensing and legal issues.

If you’d asked me early in my career to define what marketing is, I would have no doubts. “Marketing is about promoting products,” I’d say. But today, it’s one of the toughest questions to answer. 

The term is so broad and flexible that it’s hard to pin down.

Marketing is present in all stages of the business, beginning to end. Without marketing, you can’t truly understand your audience, create a product that fits their needs, or successfully bring it to market.

Marketers have the firmest finger on the pulse of your consumer persona.

In this guide, I’ll show you in practice what marketing is, its different types, the 4 P's, and how it differs from advertising.

Plus, I’ll spice things up with some expert tips. Whether you’re a pro looking for a refresher or a newbie trying to get the hang of things, I’ve got you covered.

Table of Contents

• What is marketing?
• What is the purpose of marketing?
• 3 Pillar Types of Marketing
• Why is marketing important?
• Marketing vs. Advertising: What’s the difference?
• The 4 Ps of Marketing

Modern marketing began in the 1950s when people started to use more than just print media to endorse a product. As TV — and soon, the internet — entered households, marketers could conduct entire campaigns across multiple platforms.

And as you might expect, over the last 70 years, marketers have become increasingly important in fine-tuning how a business sells a product to consumers to optimize success.

In fact, the fundamental purpose of marketing is to attract consumers to your brand through messaging. Ideally, that messaging will be helpful and educational to your target audience so you can convert consumers into leads.

Today, there are literally dozens of places to carry out a marketing campaign — where does one even start?

3 Pillar Types of Marketing

Where your marketing campaigns live depends entirely on where your customers spend their time. It's up to you to conduct market research that determines which types of marketing — and which mix of tools within each type — is best for building your brand.

We have two main categories of marketing: digital and traditional. The third one, which isn’t so popular but extremely effective, also deserves a standalone place: neuromarketing. Let’s find out what comes with each.

1. Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is the use of online channels and platforms, like social media, email, and search engines, to promote and sell products or services.

The main parts of it are:

Search Engine Optimization

Abbreviated as “SEO,” this is the process of optimizing content on a website so that it appears in search engine results.

It‘s used by marketers to attract people who perform searches that imply they’re interested in learning about a particular industry.

29% of marketers consider SEO one of the leading trends they use. And just like in other areas, AI has made significant strides here too, greatly aiding in SEO.

Actually, 54% of marketers use AI tools for automating SEO tasks such as meta tags, link descriptions, and alt text.

Also, 45% of marketers believe AI/automation tools are best for optimizing websites, 40% say they improve the user experience, and 37% value them for saving time.

Blog Marketing

Blogs are no longer exclusive to the individual writer. Brands now publish blogs to write about their industry and nurture the interest of potential customers who browse the internet for information.

Today, most marketers use AI to assist with content creation. Nearly half (46%) rely on it for writing marketing copy, and over 40% use it to create outlines.

Personally, I love using it for proofreading — a time-saver for writers.

Social Media Marketing

Businesses can use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and similar social networks to create impressions on their audience over time.

Social media is the top place where Gen Z and Millennials discover products, with 31% of people using it to find answers.

Additionally, 17% of users buy products on social media, and most sellers find it effective, with 59% seeing more sales in 2023 than in 2022.

It’s clear that investing time and energy in social media is worth it, and one of the best ways to speed things up is by, you guessed it — incorporating AI. In fact, 46% of marketers use AI to write social media posts.

Download our free step-by-step guide and create your digital strategy.

Search Engine Marketing

This type of marketing is a bit different than SEO, which is described above. Businesses can now pay a search engine to place links on pages of its index that get high exposure to their audience. (It‘s a concept called "pay-per-click." I’ll show you an example of this in the next section.

Recent data shows that spending on SEM is expected to reach $306.7 billion in 2024 as businesses recognize its potential for targeting and converting high-intent customers.

SEM can deliver a strong ROI, especially with well-targeted strategies. On average, businesses get $2 back for every $1 spent on Google Ads, showing how powerful SEM can be when done right.

Video Marketing

While there were once just commercials, marketers now put money into creating and publishing all kinds of videos that entertain and educate their core customers.

Marketers are turning to TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to connect with younger audiences who favor social video over search engines.

Short-form video is delivering the best ROI and is expected to grow the most in 2024, with a quarter of marketers planning to invest heavily in it.

“Use social listening tools to identify key questions from prospects and customers, and then create content to answer them, or let brand advocates do it,” suggests Aja Frost, Senior Director of Global Growth at HubSpot.

P.S. If you’re interested in blending human and AI content for your social media, I recommend this podcast where Nathan Lands and Matt Wolfe dive into the latest AI video generators, like Gen 2 and Leonardo Motion, and how they’re changing the game for all of us:

2. Traditional Marketing

Compared to digital marketing, which is all online, traditional marketing focuses on offline connections with people.

Let’s break it down.

Print Marketing

As newspapers and magazines get better at understanding who subscribes to their print material, businesses continue to sponsor articles, photography, and similar content in the publications their customers are reading.

However, we must admit that print marketing is nowhere near what it used to be.

Digital marketing has totally shaken its dominance. According to Statista, global newspaper advertising spending was forecast to reach around $28.3 billion in 2022 — a major drop from its height in 2007 at $113 billion.

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Broadcast Marketing

38% of consumers discovered new products through TV ads, suggesting that broadcast marketing is still alive and way more popular than print ads.

TV spots hit the right audience during popular shows at peak times, while radio ads catch people in their daily groove, especially on the road.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing uses phone calls to reach potential or existing customers directly. It involves two main types:

1. Outbound telemarketing: Businesses initiate cold calls to promote products, services, or gather feedback from customers.

However, based on Cognism research, the average success rate for cold calling is only 4.8%. This figure is significantly lower compared to other sales methods.

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2. Inbound telemarketing: Customers call businesses in response to ads or promotions for inquiries, orders, or support.

Honestly, I don’t like telemarketing, especially cold calling. It often feels too pushy and irrelevant. However, it’s still a part of marketing, so we simply can’t ignore its existence. 🙂

3. Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing blends neuroscience with digital and traditional marketing to understand how people make choices and react to ads. It’s one of the most fascinating things I’ve been into lately, so let me show you how it works:

• Brain Scans. Track brain activity with fMRI and PET to see reactions to marketing.
• Electrical Brain Activity. Use EEG and ERP to measure real-time responses to ads.
• Body Reactions. Measure stress and emotional responses with tools like skin conductance and heart rate monitors.
• Eye Tracking. Follow where people look and for how long to gauge ad impact.
• Behavior Tracking. Analyze decision speed and choices to understand preferences.
• Neuroeconomics: Study decision-making by combining brain science, psychology, and economics.

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Neuromarketing improves various sectors by enhancing customer experiences in retail, shaping perceptions in consumer electronics, boosting patient engagement in healthcare, understanding trust in BFSI, and tailoring content in media and entertainment, according to Business Research Insights,

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Click here to get your free introductory ebook on marketing psychology.

Why is marketing important?

I could write a book on this because marketing is important for so many reasons. But here are the top six, according to the experts I’ve talked to.

1. Marketing builds brand loyalty and customer relationships.

“Focusing solely on short-term sales shouldn’t come at the expense of long-term customer relationships,” highlights Rosario Maccarrone, director and head of student services at OPIT.

Instead, focus on a strong marketing strategy that supports ongoing growth and builds brand loyalty. Rosario points out:

"One of the successful campaigns I led at OPIT involved the revision and promotion of our course offerings. Having noted a decline in subscribing to our advanced tech courses, we launched a campaign focused on showcasing real-life applications and success stories of past students."

He continues, "This drove immediate course registrations (short-term goal) while also building a strong alumni-student network, fostering huge potential for long-term engagement and brand loyalty."

Free Download: How Best In Class Companies Build Customer Loyalty

Marta Romaniak, VP of global branding at Avenga, agrees with Rosario, explaining that the commitment should not end once the service is delivered:

“We continue providing insights that could benefit them, which helps build long-term trust. On the same note, if a customer purchases a short-term service or solution, we send them personalized recommendations regarding services they might need in the future. So, a short-term cooperation turns into a long-term relationship.”

2. Marketing guides smart pricing decisions.

Marketing reveals what customers want and how much they’ll pay. It helps you get a read on customer behavior, keep tabs on competitors, and spot trends so you can set prices that attract customers.

“We once re-priced our master's degree in Data Science based on market feedback and competitor benchmarking. We reduced the cost by 15%, which resulted in a 25% increase in enrollment for the subsequent batch,” shares Greta Maiocchi, head of marketing & admissions at OPIT.

Debbie Moran, marketing manager at RecurPost, also shared one successful story from her company:

“One of the most impactful examples of re-pricing was with our ‘Enterprise Plan.’ Initially, it was priced too high for the features offered, leading to slow adoption. After restructuring based on user feedback, we saw a 50% increase in enterprise sign-ups within three months.”

3. Marketing builds brand recognition.

Marketing helps companies connect with new audiences and enter new markets. Through targeted advertising, social media campaigns, and partnerships, it can attract potential customers who might not have heard of the business before.

Ally Moisse from Pearl Lemon Group illustrates this through a recent multi-channel campaign — emails, cold calling, cold email outreach, and marketing activity on X:

“We engaged in industry conversations and shared insights, which helped us connect with leads in a more organic, non-intrusive way.”

The best thing about marketing is that it's not strictly tied to just one channel and opens up the possibility to spread the word about a business far and wide. Moise backs this up:

“The success of our campaign came from how these channels worked together. Each approach reinforced the other, creating a consistent presence that resulted in higher engagement and better conversions overall.”

4. Marketing helps you understand customer behavior.

Marketing often reveals why your customers might hesitate to buy. What concerns or objections do people have? Worries about price or fit? Through surveys, feedback, and watching their behavior, you can learn a lot.

By identifying these issues, you can improve products and make changes that help turn hesitations into sales.

Here’s what Elisa Montanari, head of organic growth at Wrike has to say about it:

“If customers are holding back because they can’t afford your products, that’s a whole different issue than them not seeing the value in your product. Dig deep into your marketing data to understand why people are hesitating — if it’s an issue with perceived value, you can change that with the right messaging.”

5. Marketing sells the experience and JTBDs.

We use marketing to sell, but marketing isn’t about selling products or services.

It’s about selling experiences and emotions. It helps shape how customers perceive and interact with a brand. Through storytelling, visuals, and messaging, marketing creates an emotional connection that encourages repeat business and builds a strong brand identity.

Moreover, smart marketing gives potential customers a feel for the jobs to be done (JTBDs). With that, consumers will find themselves easily signing up for your services or products.

When I promoted my freelance writing services on LinkedIn, I didn’t post something like “Look at my articles, work with me.” Nobody cares about it.

Instead, my posts were tailored to the JTBDs of content marketers, my target persona. For example, I shared how one of my articles went viral and ended up in dozens of high-quality links. Or my approach to editing or spicing up content with expert tips, and so on.

This type of marketing is all about sales and improving my personal brand, but the influence is indirect. I just show my potential clients that I’ll take a great deal of burden off their shoulders by providing content that ranks and is picked up by their target persona.

6. Marketing gives a competitive edge.

Marketing helps businesses shine in a super-crowded marketplace. But this won’t happen with one good ad going viral. Sure, people will notice your brand at that moment, but a lasting impression won’t happen.

I chatted about this with the amazing Marta Romaniak, who says, “Business owners sometimes mix up advertising with marketing.” She emphasizes that advertising is just a piece of the bigger marketing puzzle.

A solid marketing strategy is what really sets your brand apart from the competition.

But getting a competitive edge through marketing doesn’t happen overnight. You can’t expect instant results from a single campaign.

It’s about consistently pushing your message, connecting with your audience, and adjusting your strategy as you go. Real, lasting success comes from sticking with it and putting in the work over time.

Let’s now dive a bit deeper into marketing and advertising differences.

Marketing vs. Advertising: What’s the Difference?

If marketing is a wheel, advertising is one spoke of that wheel.

Marketing entails product development, market research, product distribution, sales strategy, public relations, and customer support.

Marketing is necessary in all stages of a business's selling journey, and it can use numerous platforms, social media channels, and teams within the organization to identify its audience, communicate with it, amplify its voice, and build brand loyalty over time.

On the other hand, advertising is just one component of marketing. It‘s a strategic effort, usually paid for, to spread awareness of a product or service as a part of the more holistic goals outlined above.

Put simply, it’s not the only method used by marketers to sell a product.

"If you just want to create ads when you hire a marketing specialist or set goals for your marketing team, that‘s fine, you are making their job easier. But don’t be surprised when the results turn out to be not what you expected," insists Romaniak.

"Advertisements are good for short-term solutions as part of your marketing strategy. Marketing, though, is a key to the long-term success of your brand."

Here‘s an example (keep reading — there’s a quiz at the end of it):

Let‘s say a business is rolling out a brand-new product and wants to create a campaign promoting that product to its customer base.

This company’s channels of choice are Facebook, Instagram, Google, and its company website. It uses all of these spaces to support its various campaigns every quarter and generate leads through those campaigns.

To broadcast its new product launch, it publishes a downloadable product guide to its website, posts a video to Instagram demonstrating its new product, and invests in a series of sponsored search results on Google directing traffic to a new product page on its website.

Now, which of the above decisions was marketing, and which was advertising?

The advertising took place on Instagram and Google. Instagram generally isn‘t an advertising channel, but when used for branding, you can develop a base of followers that’s primed for a gentle product announcement every now and again.

Google was definitely used for advertising in this example; the company paid for space on Google — a program known as pay-per-click (PPC) — on which to drive traffic to a specific page focused on its product. A classic online ad.

Where did the marketing take place? This was a bit of a trick question, as the marketing was the entire process.

By aligning Instagram, Google, and its own website around a customer-focused initiative, the company ran a three-part marketing campaign that identified its audience, created a message for that audience, and delivered it across the industry to maximize its impact.

It’s important to know that this type of marketing campaign requires proper coordination and monitoring of multiple channels. You need to adapt your approach to each specific channel yet get them to yield the same results: to generate revenue.

This is where a unified marketing software solution can come in handy. It includes the tools necessary to monitor and manage campaigns across multiple channels — from websites to emails and online advertisements.

The 4 Ps of Marketing

In the 1960s, E Jerome McCarthy came up with the 4 Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

Essentially, these 4 Ps explain how marketing interacts with each stage of the business.

Download Now: Free Marketing Mix Templates

Product

Let‘s say you come up with an idea for a product you want your business to sell. What’s next? You probably won't be successful if you just start selling it.

Instead, you need your marketing team to do market research, interpret marketing analytics data into actionable insights, and answer some critical questions: Who's your target audience? Is there a market fit for this product?

What messaging will increase product sales, and on which platforms? How should your product developers modify the product to increase likelihood of success? What do focus groups think of the product, and what questions or hesitations do they have?

Marketers use the answers to these questions to help businesses understand the demand for the product and increase product quality by mentioning concerns stemming from focus groups or survey participants.

Price

Your marketing team will check out competitors‘ product prices, or use focus groups and surveys, to estimate how much your ideal customer is willing to pay.

Price it too high, and you’ll lose out on a solid customer base. If you price it too low, you might lose more money than you gain. Fortunately, marketers can use industry research and consumer analysis to gauge a good price range.

Place

It‘s critical that your marketing department uses their understanding and analysis of your business’s consumers to offer suggestions for how and where to sell your product.

Perhaps they believe an ecommerce site works better than a retail location, or vice versa. Or, maybe they can offer insights into which locations would be most viable to sell your product, either nationally and internationally.

Promotion

This P is likely the one you expected from the get-go: promotion entails any online or print advertisement, event, or discount your marketing team creates to increase awareness and interest in your product and, ultimately, lead to more sales.

During this stage, you'll likely see methods like public relations campaigns, advertisements, or social media promotions.

Hopefully, our definition and the four Ps help you understand marketing‘s purpose and how to define it. Marketing intersects with all areas of a business, so it’s important you understand how to use marketing to increase your business's efficiency and success.

Marketing is your eyes and ears.

While we can sum up the definition of marketing in one sentence, it will always feel incomplete. That’s because marketing is a mix of everything and the core of every business.

Without marketing, you don’t exist. No one will see you. No one will hear you. No one will recognize you. Without marketing, you won’t understand your audience's needs. You won’t create the products or services they are looking for.

That’s why you need a smart marketing strategy that targets where your audience is, what they need, and shapes everything around that.

If they’re on LinkedIn, spend most of your time and effort there. If they’re on TikTok, make videos. Entertain them. Educate them. Give them what they want, and chances are, they’ll give you what you want in return.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in May 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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