Digital Marketing is all about the promotion/advertising of products and services through the digital media platforms. Digital marketing is completely different from traditional marketing.
Digital Marketing uses multiple platforms and methods which enable an organization to analyze marketing campaigns and understand what is working and what’s not in real time.
From businesses to run their campaigns hiring a digital marketing specialist to startups taking help of influencers to promote their brands, Digital marketing is everywhere.
Most of the business owners and company managers have heard about the marketing mix or the 4Ps of marketing.
In the evolution of the digital world, consumer buying patterns have changed and shifted to a different level. The 4P’s of marketing have been a benchmark for businesses or marketers in order to bring a product successfully to market for decades.
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The 4 Ps of Marketing
The 4Ps of marketing Product, Price, Place, and Promotion are involved in the factors that are associated with the marketing of a good service or a bad service. These 4Ps are often referred to as the marketing mix, they are constrained by internal and external factors in the business environment, and they are interrelated with each other significantly.
Traditionally the 4Ps were used by companies to identify and make key business decisions, including the customer need, projecting the targets and expectations, how the product or service will perceive in the market, competitors analysis, and customer interactions.
For any businesses focusing on product, price, place and promotion still makes perfect sense, even as consumers’ online behaviors change the ways in which we deliver our messages and communicate with our audience.
Let’s have a look at each four key areas:
Product
A product refers to any item that satisfies the needs and wants of a target customer. It can be anything tangible good, such as a clothing item or piece of software, or a service or experience.
No matter what you sell, your product must provide value to your customer, solve a problem and/or make the buyer feel the need to have it.
In traditional marketing products and services were sold as either physical packages or services like cosmetics products or accountancy and cleaning services. All these exist today but are more commonly sold online along with other new digital products like software tools and other media services.
You have to build the best strategy and communication mix on the planet but without a decent product, there’s no chance of it being successful in this digital world, it just won’t sell! As mentioned your product must satisfy a need or an emotion of customers.
Some key questions that marketers need to focus on:
- What do customers want from your product/service?
- Does your product satisfy their needs?
- What features of your product/service work to meet the customer’s needs? Have you missed out on any features?
- How and where will the customer use it?
- How will the customers experience it?
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Price
Price is the cost which affects the consumer most. It is the element which influences the consumer to make the purchase decision of the product.
Therefore it is the responsibility of the businesses to keep balance in the price according to your product. If you keep your cost too high, you cannot sell your product and if you keep the price too low then your profit margin will suffer.
Brands need to understand that customers are smart and they want to purchase quality products at affordable prices. Therefore, brands need to maintain a balance between price and product. That balance will depend upon marketplace and lead generation strategies.
Some key questions that marketers need to focus on:
- What is the price of the product/service to the consumer?
- How will your price compare to competitors?
- Are there any possible established price points for the product or service in this area?
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Place
In this digital world, the product is quickly and globally available or accessible with full information on the Internet. You don’t need to visit a store physically to check the price of a product/service. You may get full information while clicking on your laptop, desktop and mobile phone.
Like traditional marketing methods, the product information is set with only a difference of platform to promote the product. The only change we have from the traditional to digital marketing is the change of platform to educate customers about the product.
Today, everything is available on the Internet.
People prefer to compare and buy products digitally rather than going with the traditional purchase.
With Digital Marketing, you promote your product or service online in an easy to understand manner by creating interactive content which has the power to reach a wider audience.
In short, digital marketing tends to make your product globally accessible to everyone.
Some key questions that marketers need to focus on:
- Where are target customers shopping?
- Are they using desktops or mobile devices?
- Are they shopping for similar products online?
- Where are they engaging on social media?
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Promotion
Promotion refers to methods and ways used for advertising and marketing your products. Due to developing technology the promotion tactics have changed completely. Now digital marketing has surpassed traditional marketing tactics by a big margin.
Generally in the traditional marketing the products have been promoted by using T.V, print, radio, outdoor advertising which appears to be costly and large investment prone small business owners cannot afford them.
Digital marketing provides opportunity to all small or big. It is the form of marketing that is measured and driven by analytics behavior tracking and other ROI(Return on investment) measures.
Digital marketing involves various marketing tactics like E-mail marketing, Search marketing, Content marketing, Social Media Marketing etc. Best thing about digital marketing is that it is cost effective and time saving marketing.
Some key questions that marketers need to focus on:
- How will you reach your target audience?
- Where will you send your messages to your target audience?
- How does your competitor promote their product?
- Does that influence your own promotional activity?
- When is the best time to promote the product?
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Final Words
We can say that the 4 P’s of Digital marketing have revolutionized the business/marketing sector. By continuing to focus on the 4 Ps and how to use them within the framework of the digital age, marketers can be successful no matter what the circumstance is.
The 4 Ps of marketing may seem boring to many, but they are essential to create a successful marketing plan. Without them, you can’t differentiate yourself from the competition you have.