Running an online business is much cheaper and relatively easier than running a conventional brick and mortar business. However, you still need run it properly if you want to be successful at it. Thankfully, a few smart folks have made it much easier for the rest of us by narrowing everything down to just 7 elements. These elements are known as the Marketing Mix.
What is the Marketing Mix?
The Marketing Mix is a business tool which incorporates certain elements deemed essential when marketing products. It started out with just 4 P’s – Product/Consumer, Price/Cost, Place/Convenience and Promotion/Communication. However, 3 more P’s have since been added – Process, Physical Evidence and People.
The Low Down
The Marketing Mix is a simple way to fine-tune your business so that you have a better chance of success.
Below is a simple matrix to help you apply the Marketing Mix to your site.
Price/Cost – Conduct market research and try to offer competitive pricing for most, if not all, of your products. Let visitors know their cost savings if they were to shop at your store and take advantage of a current promotion or sale.
Product/Consumer – Highlight the features of the product but also highlight how they will benefit the consumer. Bringing the consumer into the picture makes for a stronger argument than just pitching the product alone.
Place/Convenience – Just how shopper friendly is your store? You must always keep in mind that people shop online because it is relatively convenient to do so. Is your store pleasing to the eye? Is your store ‘sticky’ enough? Is there enough useful information available on-site? Do you offer a one-page checkout alternative? Can they track their orders?
Promotion/Communication – How are you getting traffic to your site? Have you fully optimized your site with proper SEO techniques? Are the keywords you are targeting in your PPC campaigns accurate? Are you leveraging the existence of your Facebook store and other social applications? Are you using on-site tools like the Content Slider to promote promote products?
Process – Is your whole store geared towards helping shoppers come to a conclusion that they should purchase at your store (more than once)? This process starts from the time they read your HTML Title and Description when your link appears on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and continues when you send them follow-up email. It should never end.
Physical Evidence – The issue with online stores is that shoppers can’t actually see and touch the products in real-time. The next best thing is to use the product zoom tool so that shoppers can have a closer look at the product. Also, put up videos of the product, preferably with someone using it. Never discount the importance of the human factor.
People – As mentioned earlier, the human factor should never be discounted. No one likes calling a bank and ending up listening to a recording. Try to include a few images of people on your site, if possible. If you run your site by yourself and are on a tight budget, communicate with shoppers via our free chat software or Skype during the times when you are online.
End Say
The examples provided above are by no means complete. They are just to point you in the right direction towards a successful store. Always remember to emphasize the user experience instead of only focusing all your efforts on marketing your store and its products. That’s like getting the most feature-packed fishing rod and reel but forgetting to bring the bait.
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