The Basics Behind any Marketing Strategy

Developing a marketing strategy is a complicated process, made even more difficult if you don’t have sufficient experience. Increasing your profits depends upon devising an effective campaign strategy that connects with your target audience in a way that spurs them into action. Whether you are new to marketing or a seasoned professional, you can follow some basic guidelines for an effective campaign. Here, we’ll review the foundational basics behind any marketing strategy. 

The Basics Of Marketing  

A strategic marketing process is essentially a roadmap that includes the goals, opportunities, target audience, distribution channels, and metrics for measuring your campaign. The process starts with getting a clear understanding of your target customer and their needs. Once you have a product idea, it is researched and developed before being handed off to marketers to build their own research. Only then do you start creating the advertising.  

Marketing is based upon four fundamental pillars: 

• Product 
• Price 
• Promotion 
• Place 

Any marketing campaign has to consider these aspects when developing a strategy. Using them to determine how they will advertise, as well as to whom.  

Product  

Once you have conducted your market and SWOT analysis, defined your goals, and identified what you want to sell, it is time to determine your product offering. The product mix will depend on your company’s target customer and branding strategy. It requires an understanding of what it takes to stand apart from competitors and entice customers to choose your brand. Your marketing mix could be physical goods or services combined with any or all of the following:  

• Coupons and memberships 
• Design elements 
• Packaging and labeling 
• Product lines, sizes, colors, and price range 
• Warranties and return policies 

Price  

The next pillar is price, or more specifically, what the customer will pay for your goods or services. It is surprisingly complicated and requires a delicate balance between setting the cost and how the customer will interact with your brand. A market analysis is critical, as it allows you to set a competitive price that encourages sales while achieving your company’s profit goals. Any discounts and financing options should be considered based on the product type, such as discounting older models to move inventory. 

You can also think of your pricing in terms of market availability. If you are new to a saturated market, to be competitive, you’ll have to be at the low end of the price range to gain an advantage. However, if you are in a niche or the first to the market, you may be able to charge a premium. Keep in mind that you must be aware of consumer cost sensitivity when setting your prices. 

Promotion  

In this pillar, you want to tell people about your business and promote your product offering. Radio endorsements are an excellent way to bring awareness to your brand, goods, or services. They involve coming up with the proper messaging to reach your target audience and deliver it on the right platforms, whether online, in stores, or at events. Local radio ads help consumers make smarter buying decisions as they move through the buyer’s journey. 

The main objectives of a promotional mix are to: 

• Increase interest, awareness, and demand for a product or service 
• Make information available to target customers 
• Spotlight brand or product features 

Promotion can be executed in a variety of ways, including advertising, sales promotion, and public relations. Advertising can include print ads, social media, television, radio, and many other methods, like using radio influencers. Radio is effective at getting people to take action, like visiting your website or calling a specific number. However, encouraging web traffic is a better use of effort unless you have a catchy number that’s easily remembered. You can use a combination of tactics to reach your customers to both increase reach and encourage action simultaneously so that one strategy strengthens the other.  

This category also includes sales promotions, which induce customer action by temporarily adjusting the price through discounts, coupons, buy-one-get-one deals, and vouchers or referral incentives. These can encourage very specific actions but are often costly to enact. Furthermore, public relations promotions include reviews, publications, and some paid sources promote your business by capitalizing on buzz or word of mouth around your business. It’s often very effective but difficult to specifically plan for. Your business will need to watch out for opportunities and act swiftly to catch the momentum. 

Place  

If you want your products to sell, they must be accessible to your customers. Depending on where you plan to sell them, you could face different hurdles to your marketing plans. You should weigh the considerations for in-store and offline sales, as well as geographic areas. Local radio ads are highly effective for driving Chicago customers into brick-and-mortar stores.  

One of the rookie mistakes new marketers make is thinking that online sales mean they don’t have to worry about the location. That couldn’t be further from the truth, as the location, in this case, translates to the platform. For example, if your target audience is male consumers between the ages of 45-65, TikTok would not be a successful marketing platform, as their demographics reflect that 80% of users are between the ages of 16-34 and 60% are female.  

Putting Your Marketing Into Action  

With a newfound awareness of the 4 Ps, you can proceed to identify your target audience, deciding which action you want them to take, how you’ll get them to do so, and how you will measure the effectiveness of your ads. However, it takes developing a plan to put these goals into effect. By conducting competitive research, you can determine who your audience is and how they purchase your products, so you can persuade them to take the desired action.  

At this point, you and your team can proceed with: 

• Obtaining subject-matter experts and financial resources. 
• Developing campaign schedules.  
• Executing your strategy.  

Keep the Pillars in Mind While Planning Your Marketing Strategy 

No matter the size of the company or the experience with planning marketing campaigns, all successful marketing comes down to the same basic guidelines. However, even with carefully following the four pillars of product, price, promotion, and place, it isn’t a one-and-done exercise. Marketing is complicated to execute, which is why it’s so crucial to track your marketing effectiveness and adjust accordingly. By following the core basics of marketing, you should be able to put together a strong strategy.