How to apply 4ps of marketing to your business.
4ps of marketing is all in one strategy to boost your e-commerce profit.Marketing a business goes beyond advertising. It needs convincing powers to show your prospects that your goods or services are exactly what they need.
The 4ps of marketing also known as the business mix, is a popular marketing concept that is meant to ensure business success.
It was conceived by Neil Borden in the 1940s and Jerome McCarthy, in his book, developed the concept of the 4Ps of marketing. He summarized it as follows:
-Product-a good or service
-Price-the amount a customer or consumer pays for a product.
-Place-the location where you market a good or service.
-Promotion-how you advertise your product.
Many marketers still rely on his approach to grow their business and train their teams.
How to apply the 4 Ps of marketing.
1.Product.
A product is one of the 4ps of marketing that your company creates and what people are willing to pay for you. It can be tangible, like goods, or intangible, like consulting services. Competition is so high nowadays that your product has to be notified to make sales.
You need to create a unique product to stand out and make customers trust you.
What does it take to build an amazing product?
You need to make something people love. That makes you stand a better chance of competing. How do you build a better product? Former Evernote CEO Phil Libin highlighted two characteristics of a good product;
-Great products have a point of view-they are not neutral so the creators have a specific perspective of how the products are to be viewed.
-Great products don’t rely on the user to do anything-they should reduce or eliminate the amount of work a user needs to get things done.
Apple, the first publicly traded company to reach $1 trillion is an example of a great product. One of the things that made the product stand out is that the company’s founders; Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak set out to make computer users user-friendly.
This vision was and is still at the core of the company. It has distinguished it despite the competition that is stiff in the technology industry.
How to know if the market wants your product?
A product that the market wants is the ultimate goal. Simply put, if no one is interested in your product or service, it won’t stand the test of time no matter how great it is.
This is why performing real in-depth market or user research before embarking on building any product is important. You can identify what people want or don’t want.
You need to go to a specific market, create an online survey, and see if your target audience is interested in your product. You can establish the pain points and see if the product you have can help solve the problems they face.
Let’s say you want to build a team collaboration for Business to Business software, instead of directly building the Minimum Viable Product {MVP}, you can create a survey targeting your audience by asking them if you should proceed with the specific area you want.
You can also look at the way similar products are trending online to be in the know about how they are in demand. If searches for the type of product you want to create have grown tremendously, then you’re probably on the right track.
2.Price.
The price is one of the 4ps of marketing defined your product’s value. This is what the amount your product or service is worth and what the market is willing to pay for it. It might seem simple but it’s difficult to estimate.
As a marketer, you need to choose a price that generates sales and still makes your business profitable. Here, you still need to conduct an audience analysis. The audience’s perception of your product affects your pricing.
How to determine the right pricing for your product?
When proving your product, you need to ensure you don’t underprice and run at a loss or price overly and risk chasing away customers. You need to consider the following when in the process of pricing:
-You need to know and understand your niche.
-Before setting a price, you need to learn more about your industry. You need to check your competitors’ prices and see how changes occur over time in their prices. You should also understand how your target audience thinks about your product.
-Set the goal for your pricing-You need to know if you are looking to penetrate a competitive market or if you’re looking to establish yourself as an industry leader.
If you happen to be new to the industry, you need to begin with a low pricing strategy. However, if you are selling a premium product, higher pricing can be advisable.
-Conduct in-depth audience research-It’s good to understand that some products serve one single audience whereas others serve different audiences. You, therefore, need to create different segments to create pricing that resonates with each segment.
-Calculate costs-when creating a product, you incur direct and indirect costs. Make sure that your pricing covers all the costs to avoid running at a loss.
-Think about other factors-Aside from direct and indirect costs, some factors like value added tax should also be considered when pricing
Pricing strategies that work for different products?
Skimming pricing.
-You start with an initial price and then reduce it over time.
-This happens when entering a market that has many competitors.
Competitor-based pricing.
-Fixing a price based on what your competitors are charging.
-When customers have several options in the competitive market.
Product line pricing.
-Setting different prices for products in the same range.
-This happens when similar products have different features.
Bundle pricing.
-Here you bundle a group of products and sell them at a reduced price.
-This happens when you are offering a discount or a promotion for your audience.
Psychological pricing.
-Making a small change to the pricing that makes customers think it’s a real offer.
-When you want customers to think that they’re getting a bargain.
Premium pricing.
-Setting a high price for your product or service.
-This makes you establish your product as exclusive and of high quality.
Optimal pricing.
-You add optional extra tens and bonuses for the customer.
-This makes a product attractive to the targeted audience.
Cost-based pricing.
-You determine the cost of production before you set the price.
-When you are in an unpredictable industry or market.
Cost-plus pricing.
-You add a percentage of the profit to the product’s cost.
-Here you are focused on the profit the company can make.
3.Place
The third P of marketing comes in when people use or recommend our product. Among the 4ps of marketing is the location(Place) where you deliver value to your target audience. It’s the place where your target audience hangs out. The best place to find your target audience is the internet, nowadays.
How to identify the right place to sell your product or service?
You need to first determine your target audience. You need to reach out to your new and existing customers to know the information from them. These are some of the questions you ask them:
-Where do you go for advice and information concerning this product?
-What are some of the top industry blogs you read?
-Which publication newsletters do you read weekly or monthly?
-What online communities are you a member of?
Which channels used to convey your product?
Social media accounts– with about 4.55 social media users in the world, it’s a great location to reach your target audience. What you need to put in mind is the demographics of your target audience.
Targeting C-level B2B executives functions best with LinkedIn but for Gen Z who are probably still in college, Instagram works better.
Online communities and forums-some online communities like Reddit function for location. Subreddit gaming has 33 million members while the technology subreddit has more than 11 million members.
So in case you have a technology-based product you can involve members of such a group. They are always interested in learning from others and discussing related topics. You can also maximize on other online communities like LinkedIn groups or Slack communities.
Review websites -other peoples’ experiences matter a lot. Review websites are therefore an integral part of conveying your products’ value to your target audience. Review websites make your product discoverable, aside from helping you collect reviews and testimonials.
4.Promotion.
This happens to be the most popular form of the among 4ps of marketing. This is simply how you communicate the value of your product to your target audience. Your target audience’s perception determines whether or not they want your product.
For instance, if you are in a software company competing in a crowded niche, you can use a pain point marketing strategy to show your target group why your product is better than others. You can do this by creating a comparison post, alternative post, or best products page of your product.
You will be able to convert people who stumble across these pages into user sign-ups. In essence, you need to be people about your product and why it’s better than your other competitors’ product.
How to approach promotion for any business?
You need to understand your audience’s pain points and create content that helps solve the problems.
When you help people and add value to their lives, they tend to pay more attention to you, and they are likely to pay you to solve their problems.
Promotion strategies that work
–Search Engine Optimization {SEO}.
SEO determines how your page or website appears when someone searches for keywords relevant to your product. Here, you optimize certain web pages to rank in search pages. The downside of SEO is that it takes a long time to deliver results that amplify over time.
Hosting webinars is effective to promote your business online because it involves interacting with prospects and customers.76% of businesses believe that hosting webinars help them reach more leads whereas 69% believe that it has helped them scale their marketing efforts.
But its downside is that it takes a lot of resources and time and it might not work for you if you aren’t good with videos. But it has a good advantage in that it leads to conversions. Research shows that if you attend a webinar for around 50 minutes, you can be convinced to buy the product they are selling.
This was formerly known as Google My business. It’s another effective promotional strategy for business owners. In this strategy, you need a Gmail account and thereafter create a Google listing.
Once you create and optimize the account, your business shows up when someone searches near where you are located. It’s easy to create but when you are located in a location where there is competition, it becomes difficult to establish this promotional strategy.
-Paid advertising
Advertising makes you reach your audience right where they are and it becomes easy to convince them to use your product.
Types of paid advertising.
-Paid search; this involves bidding on keywords that your audience is searching for on Google. In this case, your website shows up in the search engines when someone searches for the keyword you bid on.
-Paid social-this involves running ads on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest. Paid media helps your ads reach your target audience based on your targeting options when creating the ad, which depends on the demographics of your target audience.
-Podcast sponsorship-when you sponsor a podcast, the podcast host will mention you before, during, or after the episode depending on your agreement.
-Newsletter sponsorship or advertising-sponsoring a newsletter in your niche makes the newsletter mention your product either before or after the body.
With paid advertising, you reach your target audience quickly and experience returns on investment immediately.
Other promotional channels include:
-Virtual events
-Podcasting
-Medium publications
-Community marketing
To sum up.
Building a business requires the 4ps of marketing to prosper. In this case.you need to create a great product that can successfully compete in the Market, set a price that resonates with your target audience, identify places where your target audience hangs out then deliver the expected value.
When the 4ps of marketing work together, it becomes easier to deliver predictable results because you have a clear idea of what you are selling and why it’s a unique product or service.
Second, you need to set a price that matches the type of product you are selling and thereafter determine where to find your target audience. You can now convey your message and value proposition through the channels that your target audience is available.
You need to establish the content marketing strategy and know the channels you need to use to get them.
