A marketing mix is similar to a recipe for basic bread. For bread, you need yeast, sugar, flour, salt and water. The bread will be okay if you make some minor substitutions, say honey for the sugar, but if you leave an ingredient out, you will no longer have bread. Without yeast, you have something resembling a tortilla; without flour, you will have a sweet, bubbly, watery mixture that in no way resembles traditional bread.
There are also essential ingredients in a marketing mix, and if one or more is missing, you could find yourself with a useless concoction.
The successful marketing mix includes four ingredients, referred to as the Four Ps.
- Product
- Price
- Place
- Promotion
Each of the Four Ps is vital to a establishing a successful marketing mix. However, even the best-designed and thought-out mix will not equal a successful marketing endeavor if potential customers are not able to find your product, price, place or promotion. Keywords are the essential ingredients in your marketing mix — think of keywords as the flour in your basic bread recipe.
Keywords are the words and phrases customers will use to search for your product or service. It is essential to thoroughly research, determine and utilize the best keywords that will increase your ranking on search engines. Your marketing mix may be offering the world’s best “inclement precipitation protection outer garment,” but if your potential customers are searching for “rain coat,” they will not find your product.
Include keywords and phrases within the Four Ps of your marketing mix for better search engine results.
Product:
- The actual product or service you have to offer.
- It must meet an established and identified need.
- How does your product/service meet these needs?
- Identify where, when and why people would need or want what you have to offer.
- What makes your product/services different from your competitors? What makes it better?
- Identify keywords and phrases that are specific to the details of your specific product to include in your marketing mix.
Price:
- What is the value of your product?
- What does it cost you to produce or offer this product?
- Does the desire for this product depend on price?
- What are your competitors charging?
- If you increase or decrease your price, will you gain sufficient increases to offset the price differences?
- What price-related keywords can you include in your marketing mix that your potential customers will use when searching for your product/service?
Place:
- Where do potential customers expect to find your product?
- Where do your competitions place their products?
- What other products or services are logically connected to your item, and where are they found?
- Are there opportunities to cross-market with related products either within or outside your own company?
- Is there a logical progression of steps that will lead consumers to your product?
- Brainstorm keywords for your marketing mix that will direct potential customers to a logical place to find, and purchase, your product.
Promotion:
- When and where is the best place to present your product to the highest number of potential customers?
- Is your product seasonal? Is it regional?
- When or where is the best time to promote?
- What are the demographics of your target market? How is the best way to reach this specific market?
- How is your competition promoting similar products? Pinpoint ways you can improve on their efforts.
- Do you have other products you can combine in your marketing mix for increased awareness?
An extension of the Four Ps marketing model is what is known as the Seven Ps — adding processes, physical layout and people. Regardless of how many Ps are in your marketing mix, always add a K for Keyword. Your recipe for successful marketing requires all the essential ingredients. Are you missing any of these Ps or have you got all your Ps lined up in a row? Please tell us in the comment box below.
Jaco Grobbelaar is the owner of BroadVision Marketing. BroadVision Marketing works with business owners to put in place inbound and outbound marketing strategies that consistently secure new clients. The BroadVision Marketing Training Center is located in Petaluma, CA and primarily serves companies in the San Francisco Bay area.
Jaco can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.766.9778 or connect with Jaco on Facebook - www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing - and LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.