Marketing isn’t about taglines, logos, fancy design, or the 4 P’s. Well actually it is but I wanted to make a point. It is about much more than that. One piece of marketing that is very rarely discussed by college professors or in marketing books are the numbers.

That’s right, the ugly numbers. Many new marketing grads enter the world of marketing thinking marketing only involves the subjects listed in the first sentence of this blog. Little do they know the real world of marketing also includes KPI (Key Performance Indicators), response rates, cost per lead, cost per thousand impressions (CPM) and many more metrics. It is not uncommon for the head of marketing to be in charge of a multi-million dollar budget, have P and L responsibilities, and need to run cluster analysis on their customer database. Any marketing professional who truly understands marketing in the current environment talks about the numbers just as much as they discuss design.

Key marketing takeaway for small businesses: If you are dealing with a marketing firm that only talks about taglines, logos, fancy design, and the 4 P’s, keep looking.

Image Credit: Vereeken