At its core, marketing is a process. Through marketing, consumers are taught about a product or service and why they need it or want it, so they therefore purchase it. This process is also known as the 4 Ps: Product, Price, Promotion and Place.
- Product: Once a company deems their product ready to go to market, it is usually tested in order to discover desire and interest within various audiences. Through testing, the details of the product and its presentation are fine-tuned.
- Price: Testing can help determine what customers are willing to pay, which will then dictate all that will go into creating the final product or service.
- Promotion: Everything from brochures, social media postings, direct mail pieces, advertisements and more fall under promotion.
- Place: Customers are then made aware of when, how and where the product will be/is available.
Marketing should pique the interest of the target market, then inform that market why they should purchase it, and then make it easy for them to do so via a Call to Action – “Click Here,” “Sign Up Today,” “Get Yours Now!”
Marketing is not sales. That said, marketing should be focused on selling. The role of marketing is to create a fertile ground from which sales can bloom. Marketing creates visuals and messaging that effectively communicate information about the product or service, and does so in a way that raises the desire for the product/service. As well, marketing needs to place all this in front of the right audience.
Sales should definitely work with marketing on practical issues. For example, if sales people are involved, they are on the front lines of learning from the people they sell to; what they learn is very valuable information to share with marketing.
If sales are not happening, it may be time to go back to the drawing board. This is especially true for companies unable to afford marketing research, strategy and plan. Often, smaller companies must be willing to put in the time necessary to test, test, and test some more in order to gain any stride in the market place. Testing often takes the place of a big budget, and it can take a lot of trial and error before finding the most effective way to get attention and sales for your product or service.
In our next blog, we’ll provide a list of tough-to-ask-yourself questions that may reveal why you are not getting the results you want.
