Right off the top, it’s good to clarify that marketing includes PR and advertising. Let’s say marketing is the umbrella that generally covers five areas, known as the 5 Ps:
- Product – definition and description of the product
- Price – setting the price
- People – the intended target, including the sales and customer service teams
- Place – sales network, distribution (where the product is sold)
- Promotion – methods: advertising, PR, social media, etc.
The 5 Ps are also called the marketing mix. Some SMEs focus on the 4 P mix, especially if they’re not selling directly to the consumer.
- Product – definition and description of the product
- Price – setting the price
- Place – where the product is sold
- Promotion – methods: advertising, PR, social media, etc.
As for the 7 P mix, this often involves companies that specialize in the quick sale, such as inventory liquidation.
Along with the 5 Ps come the following two concepts:
- Process: From setting up to customer prospecting to selling the product
- Physical Proof: using testimonials confirming a product’s effectiveness and quality
Of course, you can also classify Process under Place and Physical Proof under Promotion.
Are you familiar with inbound marketing?
For us, inbound marketingis very much a part of the marketing mix. This strategy is about creating content to attract visitors to your website. It could easily belong to the P of Promotion.
This strategy, offered by digital marketing agencies (online agencies), consists of preparing landing pages that tell potential customers about services or products. Each of these pages generally contains a call to action such as:
- signing up for a newsletter to get a free PDF;
- purchasing a product, sometimes within a limited time;
- or asking for a call back to try a solution.
The possibilities here are endless and, as you may have already seen, every digital agency has its own inbound strategy. I find this aspect of online marketing fascinating because you can test out this type of strategy with a very limited budget.
I’ll definitely be covering this in more detail in an upcoming podcast.