This is ConvertX Radio, with episodes on actionable marketing tips and explanations. To get you closer to your client.
This episode goes back to the basics: the 4Ps of the marketing mix.
– I hear business owners worry about which social media channels to use before even having a clear offer.
– I often see that pricing is ad hoc.
– In the lockdowns, many companies struggled with switching their distribution channels to get their services and products to the customer.
With the right marketing mix, none of the above should be a problem.
Please, listen to the episode by clicking the below banner and get closer to your client.
Business owners like you often come to me with questions like:
Where should I advertise my product or service?
How often should I post on Instagram, Facebook?
Should I use LinkedIn?
These are excellent questions but not necessarily at the right time. Marketing is not only about communication. That’s a very important part of it but it doesn’t start there. First, you have to have something to advertise. Today I’d love you to go back to the basics and have a look at the marketing mix. The marketing mix consists of the four Ps.
The first P is the product. The core of your marketing. What do I sell? Do people know exactly how it’s different from everybody else’s? Are they able to spot immediately they need it? Do you have something for all customers on the journey? Even if they don’t know you, will they immediately buy something from you? Are you ready to satisfy those who are already customers and would love to buy more from you? This is where you have to build a product staircase, have to be ready to offer people what they are ready to buy at that stage and this is the product part of marketing.
Then the second P is the price. It’s a very important part of marketing. If I just put a price on it out of the blue or just because I looked at a few competitors or somebody told me. Or I’m worried they won’t buy at a higher price, then it’s a very important thing to look at. Much more important than writing a blog post at this stage right? Because if you’re not offering your products at the right price then your customers will say: Oh my god it’s too expensive. So pricing is a very important part of marketing.
The third thing that many people forget is placement. How does my product or service go to my client? Is it fully online? If I just have a consultation then what are the steps? Do I meet them or do I have an online consultation first and then meet them? And then send them a report?
Even if it’s just a consultation you have to see the whole channel off the product reaching your client. Obviously when it’s a product then you can think of combining online and offline. If it’s online: How do I send this to the client? How to reach them? How many days does it need to get there then? What will happen? Will I have a pop-up store? Do I have events online or offline?
So placement is really really important. How my product gets to the client.
The final one, you must be the most familiar with, is promotion. How do I communicate about it? And I really don’t have to go to a lot of details on it but it’s all your channels. All the ways, offline and online. It’s not only online you also have offline. It’s offline networking or brochure, or an exhibition or event or it can also be a Billboard.
But obviously, you have a lot of online: Social media, email, webinars. And a lot of online tools that you can use. And this is promotion.
But as you can see there are four Ps and it never starts with promotion.