The Fundamentals of a Great Marketing Strategy

The Fundamentals of a Great Marketing Strategy

Having a good marketing strategy is vital for any business – big or small, it doesn’t matter. There are different ways to create a great marketing strategy for your business and products. The basis of them all is finding the right marketing mix. We will guide you through a few key factors to consider when creating your marketing strategy.

 

What is a Marketing Strategy? 

First of all, what is a marketing strategy?  A marketing strategy is like a game plan on how to reach the right people, communicate with them and convert them into customers. It makes your business competitive. It not only encompasses different components of marketing, such as your value propositions, partners, creatives, media relations and so on, but it also determines how much you will emphasize each component.  Every good marketing strategy takes the components of the marketing mix into account.  This means the marketing mix should be one of the fundamentals of your marketing strategy.

 

The Marketing Mix

Let’s start at the beginning, namely with the marketing mix. “What is that?” you may ask.  The marketing mix is a tool marketers and business owners use to create a good marketing strategy. It consists of four items – the 4 Ps – that should be balanced in your marketing strategy to successfully sell your product. Notre Dame professor Jerome McCarthy created the term. He defined the 4 Ps in his book, “Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach,” published in 1960.  Booms & Bitner later developed the concept into 7 Ps, but we will focus on four for now, since this may already be new information for you.  The 4 Ps, the most important components to consider in your marketing strategy, are Product, Placement, Price, and Promotion.

 

What is the Importance of the Marketing Mix?

As mentioned before, the marketing mix is considered the foundation of a good marketing strategy.  The four elements influence each other as part of a company’s business plan. To create a great marketing mix, you have to do extensive research on your business, your product, the market, and more. It’s crucial to have deep knowledge of many aspects of your business and it’s environment. The marketing mix can bring great success to your business if you pay attention to it.

 

Definition of the 4 Ps

1. Product

Your product is the core of your business, tangible or intangible. Your product is what you’re offering to people. Keep in mind that you are not the only one offering this product. Because of that, it is important to ask yourself the following questions: 

• What makes my product unique? How does my product stand out?
• Why should someone choose my product over others? 
• What are my customers’ needs, and how does my product meet those needs? 

To answer these questions, you will have to compare your product to your competitors’, just like a potential buyer might do.  Take Nanos, for instance. We offer a tool with which you can create optimized ad campaigns on Google, Facebook, and Instagram all in one place. Maybe you’ve come across similar tools, like Facebook Ads or Google Ads. So, how do we differ from those options? What makes our product unique?

At Nanos, you can easily place your campaign without any marketing knowledge. Our AI Technology will optimize everything for you in real-time. Your campaign is seen by the right audience and you don’t spend money on unsuccessful ads. On Facebook and Google, you have to do the optimization yourself.  Make sure you take your time in answering these questions. If you can’t answer them properly, you need to take more time to work on your product.

 

2. Placement

Placement refers to where you will be selling and distributing your product. Don’t expect your customers to come to you. Sell your product where your customers are. It seems easy, but this is crucial to a good marketing strategy. Sometimes you have a great product or service, but you decide to distribute it somewhere where there is no audience.  Nowadays, the digital world plays a huge role in product sales, even if you have a concrete business. Did you know that around 75% of people search for a product or a service online before they go out to buy it? That’s how important it is to place your product correctly.

Questions you should ask yourself: 

• Where are my customers physically located? 
• Where are my customers online? Which platform do they use? 
• What can I do so that my customers can find my product more easily? 

Keep your budget in mind as well when deciding on how to distribute your product. Take Umi & Chao, for instance. They are an Asian fusion restaurant in Sweden. Even Though they are a concrete business, they chose to place a digital ad campaign that focused specifically on their neighborhood. They found that digital marketing was the best way to promote their business and get new customers.

3. Price

Again, the better you know your audience, the better your marketing strategy will be. This is especially important when you are defining your product’s price. It might sound easy, but finding a balance between sales and revenue is difficult. Price can influence the perception of your product and brand, but a high price does not always equal high quality and a low price does not equal low quality! 

Questions you should ask yourself: 

• What are my actual costs for production? 
• How much are my competitors charging? 
• What about supply and demand? 

You also need to define your relationship with price. Here at Nanos, we value transparency. We want to make digital marketing affordable for everyone. We need to earn revenue, of course, but our goal is to help small businesses shine in the digital world. Because of these values, we established a transparent price policy.  If you want to know more about how to determine your prices, check out the Price Intelligently Blog.

4. Promotion

Time to shine! Promotion includes all the strategies to advertise your business. You can get really creative here. There are so many different ways to advertise your product or service: PR, social media marketing, online advertising, e-mail Marketing, flashmobs, jingles, sponsorships, and many more. Think of promotion as communicating with your audience.

Ask yourself: 

• Which channels do my customers use? 
• What message do I want to transmit? 
• What is the best communication style? 
• What are the costs? 

It’s important to know which channel works the best for you. We made a list of the Top 10 Marketing Mistakes you should avoid, which you should check out before promoting your business online. Keep in mind that finding the right marketing strategy takes patience and time. You have to look at your business from different angles and always keep your customers in mind. 

 

One Last Thing

Remember, in marketing, you have to experiment. We don’t mean go and spend all your money mindlessly. Just try out different things and see what works for you and your target audience. Our Nanos technology, for instance, optimizes digital campaigns daily. If one ad is not performing well on a certain platform, but it is on another, it reshuffles the budget to the platform that is bringing the desired success. 

 

Are you interested in advertising your business online? Start your first campaign now! You can also book a free consultation with us. We will guide you through the process of running an ad campaign.

See how Nanos works to make your campaign a success!