The 4 P's of marketing
Date: 13/07/2006
What is Marketing?
A big part of marketing is building relationships with your clients. It is all about letting people know what you offer and how it can benefit them in a certain way. Afterall, how can you sell your goods or services if nobody knows that they exist? Marketing is where your company makes its money.
So, briefly put, you let your clients know that you have a product that they require, you tell them how it benefits them and they pay you. Simple.
The Marketing Mix
To make marketing more simple, marketing professionals refer to the four P's of marketing or the marketing mix. They are product, place, price and promotion. Let's examine each one individually.Product
These are the products or services that you sell. There is not much more to say on this topic except that you need to know that a particular client requires your product or service.Place
This refers to how you get your products or services to your customer. Some people actually produce goods whereas some never see the product and simply 'drop ship' their goods. This is often the case with internet companies who sell goods online and get a third party to ship the goods out to the customer. The place becomes important if you know that a client will prefer to touch and feel a product before they buy or whether the end customer will now really mind but just want the goods. For example, if somebody knows they want a certain television which they have found in a high street shop and they are just looking for the same make and model online to get a better price.
Price
Pricing is very important. Under charge for a product and people will perceive your goods or services as 'cheap' and maybe lacking in quality. Over charge for your goods or services and people will go elsewhere. There are certain industries where low profit margins are necessary such as electrical goods where the business model is based around getting high numbers of goods shipped out.
Promotion
This is a major area of marketing. How do you let people know about the services or goods you sell? You can achieve this through various means such as leaflets and business print, personal sales calls or through internet search engines. The latter by far is the most effective for a business as it does not cost anything and produces a great deal of business sales.
The whole purpose of promotion is to get people to know what you offer, how it benefits them and that you can supply this demand.
Also, you need to let them know why they should use you and not your competitors. Our personal approach at EyePlot Web Design is through personal recommendation. Many people see a fast return on investment from their website as we understand not only web design but also online marketing. This is our Unique Selling Point.
What Now?
Anyway, we hope this introduction into marketing is helpful and you use some of the points above to further your business.
Remember, if you need any help we are always available on 0870 99 05 188 or simply contact us using our online form.
