Have you been looking for new ways to market your business, but aren’t sure where to start? It might be time to get back to basics. In this series, we’ve been looking at all of the different theories and strategies that make up the wider world of marketing, and today we have another one to look into. The promotion mix! What is a promotion mix, how does it work, and how do you use it in your business to improve your marketing? Let’s get into it.
What Is The Marketing Promotion Mix?
The marketing promotion mix is the name for the unique blend of promotional tools used by your business to build awareness and increase demand for your services or products. It’s actually what the fourth P in the 4 Ps of marketing stands for – ‘promotion’! And there is no real set ‘template’ for this, as each business will have a different set of promotional activities and markets. However, there are some common elements you should aim to include.
The promotion mix approach is all about optimising your promotional efforts so that your marketing can reach as wide an audience as possible. By going through the process of creating a promotion mix for your business you can also improve the quality and performance of your campaigns, get a deeper understanding of your audience and even communicate better with your clients.
What Makes Up The Promotional Mix?
Each and every business promotional mix is unique, so we can’t tell you exactly what should be in yours down to a granular level. But we can tell you that a good promotional mix should cover 4 things:
Advertising
A completely non-personal way of promoting your products and services to a wider audience. This tends to focus on specific products or services and targets the mass market. Think radio and TV ads, cold emails or product placement.
Public Relations
PR is all about building and controlling the perception of your brand in the public eye. The aim is to create a positive impression, and if often done by spreading interesting stories about the business and your activities to the media. This one is tricky, because you don’t always have full control of your own PR, but you can influence it in a number of ways.
Personal Selling
Now it gets personal! This is where your one-to-one communication with customers comes in, whether it’s via direct selling, networking or discovery meetings. This is one of the more effective ways of promoting your business since you are able to explore the individual needs of the customer and offer tailored solutions and benefits to persuade them to buy.
Sales Promotion
These are the activities you carry out to encourage people to buy from you pretty quickly. You’ve probably seen dozens of sales promotions from companies just today. Sales, discount vouchers, time-sensitive offers and more – all of it is designed to take prospects who were on the fence across into purchasing with a little incentive.
These 4 elements have been well established, tried and tested over the years, and have been successful for hundreds of companies. But the world of business has changed a lot with modern technology, and so a 5th element comes in:
Direct Marketing
It’s never been easier to reach out directly to customers yourself, without having to pay a middle man and worry that they won’t actually get the message. Email marketing campaigns, text messages and calls are all effective ways of direct marketing to prospects, and are often more popular alternatives to some of the other methods.
Why Is the Marketing Promotion Mix Beneficial?
Promoting your business can be one of the toughest parts of running things, but it’s vital. Without promoting your business no one will know you exist, and you will find it incredibly hard to gain customers and grow. The promotional mix gives you a structured way to approach promotion and ensures you have every angle covered. By using it, your marketing is sure to be much more effective in both the short and the long term. It also ensures you are not only visible in the market, but you stand out from your competitors with a solid and cohesive approach to marketing promotion. And standing out is what Lion Spirit is all about!
How Do I Use It In My Business?
Creating your own promotional mix is relatively straightforward, and includes a lot of legwork you should have done during your business planning stages. We have helped customers pull together a rough promotional mix in just a few days, so there really is no excuse not to get one in place. To get started, all you need to do is know who your target market is, what you want to sell to them, your overall marketing goals and how much money you have to spend. This will allow you to find the most effective method of reaching them. For example, if they don’t read print media and prefer online content, then you should avoid putting time and money into print promotion and focus on digital instead. If you have sales quotas to reach by a certain point, that might influence the method you choose to promote that specific service. And if your budget is tight, you know you need to really home in on what your customer will respond to so that you can maximise your return.
Ultimately, a promotional mix is there to help you create a balanced marketing strategy that promotes your business effectively across the board. It’s a fantastic tool to help you understand your target market a little better, improve your communication with them and make sure you aren’t missing any opportunities. At Lion Spirit Media, promotion mixes are just one of the services we offer when creating marketing plans, and we can work with you to build your own, unique mix that delivers real results. To find out more, just get in touch with the team today.
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