You can have the greatest product in the world, but if you can’t promote it and place it in front of the people who need it most, it might as well not exist. Promotion, in the marketing mix, examines ways marketers can disseminate useful and relevant information to consumers. Promotion includes public relations, social media marketing, advertising, search engine marketing, and email marketing.
Inspiring People to Buy Your Product
In order for people to purchase a product, companies need to explain their product’s benefits. People want to know its purpose, how they can use it effectively, and how it will benefit them. Promotion is the art of helping consumers to feel that you can satisfy their needs with your product mix.
Successful promotional efforts offer clear messages that target the right audience at the right time. The message meets buyers wherever they are when contemplating a buying decision. The advertising image that you project should be in sync with what the product can deliver.
Your mission is to attract the customer’s attention. From that point, the goal is to encourage them to buy or give feedback about the product. The promotional method you choose can enable a powerful or weak message. To convey an effective message, you may have to use multiple marketing channels. One thing to keep in mind is that your message should be consistent across multiple channels. This is another term for effective branding.
What Advertising Offers
Advertising methods include radio, television, print, electronic, word of mouth, and public relations.
1. Radio can reach people in a relatively, inexpensive way. It works great for informing local customers about your products or services. Check with your radio station to determine the best time to run ads.
2. Television may be a bit more expensive than radio, but you can never tell what types of bargains you may find for advertising slots. Television has an effective regional and national reach.
3. Print works for those marketers looking to advertise through printed materials or direct mail. Print can also include flyers, newspapers, written material, and trade magazines etc. You can also consider information from fact sheets, contests, letters, and coupons that let people know when and where they can buy products and services.
4. Electronic advertising is here to stay. Your website fits into this category. Of course, there is an entire economy of information available (especially on this site, of course!) to optimize your website to capture new memberships and grow your business.
5. Word of mouth, in today’s digital universe, goes a long way in helping enable consumers to communicate through social media venues. It always stands to reason that some of the best advertisers for your business are satisfied customers who are willing to tell others about their good experiences with your products or services. Those same customers, if unhappy, are twice as willing to pass on their negative opinions about your company to others.
6. Then there’s generic advertising, which may or may not apply to your product or service. You’ll find generic advertising, as an example, prevalent where products like beef or milk are promoted.
7. You can’t rule out the power of personal selling. Persona selling can be a part of your overall marketing mix. It can be one way of tailoring your communications on the spot when speaking with present and potential customers. You may also have to hire professional sales people to make the push for you.
Stay informed on how competitors are surviving in your industry. Attend trade shows, read everything you can get your hands on, whether the source is offline or online. Experiment, and learn from any mistakes. Promotion, as a major pillar of the 4Ps of marketing, is an ongoing endeavor. You can never let up promoting your product or service.
This is part 2 in the Marketing Mix series. Make sure to read Selling Your Product, and How the 4 P’s of Marketing Translate to Today’s Online Business.