The phrase “social marketing mix” has been developed since the mid-’90s, originally to define the marketing mix for small to medium size businesses. The original definition of the marketing mix was focused on product, price, location, and organization. Today, the marketing mix is usually defined as the “base package” that a company uses to reach its marketing goals in the target demographic. This package may not include other elements depending on the type of business and target market.
In this article, we’ll discuss these four Ps of the marketing mix, how they interact and how to use each one to leverage your dollars and position you as an expert in your market. Note that you should be using the four Ps regardless of the size of our marketing strategy – even if it is as simple as businesses that buy YouTube subscribers to boost their online presence.
4 Ps of the marketing mix
These four Ps are marketing strategies, personal selling, prospecting, and advertising.
Let’s break each of them down individually. Marketing strategy is a general concept that takes into account who your target customers are, what they want, when they need it, where they are, what their needs are, etc. This includes direct marketing but also includes non-traditional methods like TV, newspaper ads, fliers, etc.
Personal selling relates to what you do or who you are. This includes your values, personality, appearance, attitude, voice, etc. You can easily brand yourself by what you say, share, or write about. We call this the competitive response. By positioning yourself as an expert in a certain area or discipline, you position yourself to be in a position of expertise; hence, selling your services or products.
Prospecting is the process of finding the right people and getting them to take action. Getting the right people to take action means getting them through your sales funnel (aka marketing mix) which consists of the four Ps mentioned above. When prospects enter your business efforts, you have to capture them so that you can follow up with them and make sure that they will respond to your marketing mix. The way to do this is to set expectations, explain your offer and process, and leave them feeling as if they have been given something valuable.
This is called the customer attraction marketing mix. Here, you will be able to convert prospects to loyal customers, business partners, customers, or whatever the case may be. This way, you get the best of both worlds: you will be able to make the sale and build your relationship while gaining loyal customers and business partners.
Next, you have to identify your four Ps and identify your marketing mix. For example, let’s say that you are offering free shipping on certain purchases. So you will have to advertise your offer using a radio commercial, print media, fliers, etc. However, you will only be targeting three of the seven Ps that comprise your marketing mix. You must realize that these three elements will work together because it is only by focusing on one element that you will not be able to reach the other elements.
When you go over each of the seven elements, you should start thinking about how each of the elements works together. What is the common theme between all of your other marketing mixes? Are there any commonalities between your brand and your competitors? By answering these questions, you will be able to put your branding in a box and know that you are already aligned with the marketing mix of your competitors.
Conclusion
Finally, you will need to determine which of the elements of your marketing mix you will use to capture your consumers. There are many different ways to target your consumers, but the one that works the best is identifying your target market and finding out what they want. There are many great things like consumer surveys that you can use to find out what consumers think about your products or services and then use those things to create your marketing strategy.