As a marketer, you are probably used to the four Ps of the traditional internet marketing mix: Product, Price, Place & Promotion and how they shape the foundation of a thorough marketing strategy. However, something you possibly will not know is that the 4 Ps have evolved with Inbound firmly placed at the heart of this transformation.
In the event that it's been some time now since you last opened your marketing text books, below is a brief summary of the marketing mix 4 Ps:
I'm sure you would agree, that when considering the 4 Ps in simple terms, it is not difficult to understand how each of the 4 Ps represents a significant function in marketing initiatives. However it is clearly evident to all that the internet marketing industry has evolved.
The original marketing mix 4 Ps include the underlying facets of marketing as we knew them, but stops short of the contemporary internet marketing characteristics of deep personalisation and convergent target customer emphasis.
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Let's take a look at how Inbound addresses these significant improvements in the internet marketing mix.
Product
It was once sufficient to produce a product, place it on a shelf in your shop, then sit back and wait for the sales to pour in. During the industrial revolution marketing as it's known was not even a requirement. The sole unique element of the pre inbound revolution marketing mix was the product, which influenced everything else.
Nowadays, buyers posses greater requirements from brand engagement and subsequent relationships, and consequently the product element of the internet marketing mix is simply no longer the lone differentiating factor. Even though producing a first-class product/service is the initial crucial stage in marketing, it certainly is not automatically the most important.
Inbound marketing methodology is a proven strategy, that successes lay in the equal balance between the product/service and the user experiences born out of the utilisation of the product/service. As Inbound marketers, it's our role to personalise integrated marketing communications so that they provide answers, solutions and customer experience to a multitude of prospective customer contexts in addition to the product attributes.
Price
As rivalry increases and fewer products/solutions maintain their unique status for very long, a common tactic is to resort to best price as the USP. Despite the fact that this might be a possible method to augment competitiveness, constantly reducing prices of your products/services simply is no way to demonstrate and sustain enduring value.
Consequently, many companies preserve higher charges while concealing them during the sales procedure, merely to unveil the price towards the closing stage hoping that prospects are going to be so persuaded, that the surprise will be overshadowed by their engagement and desire for the solution offered.
Both these methods can ultimately turn out to be more detrimental then effective in the long run, given that they classify the cost as the eventual determining aspect in purchase criteria. A comprehensive evaluation of buyer motives demonstrate that price is not necessarily the sole factor considered when purchasing products/services.
Inbound methodology has exposed price as a subordinate factor of your brands thought leadership, service, customer reviews and effectiveness in promotion.
Place
As a result of online marketing growth and the continued escalation of mobile device usage, conventional practises of purchasing are becoming impeded. Whilst "Place" was once a method of product distribution or in store availability, nowadays consumers utilise virtually hundreds of alternate ways to evaluate, select and purchase goods/services.
Effective inbound marketing executives undertake comprehensive analysis, interact and engage with target audience on appropriate social media, and exploit accessible data to make enlightened choices about the possible methods their prospects will actually employ to search for and acquire products/services.
Promotion
Far above and beyond all other internet marketing mix 4 Ps, inbound marketing has completely reinvented how creative brands consider promotion.
Instead of concentrating on conventional techniques like wide-ranging paid advertising, rather like throwing mud and seeing how much sticks, inbound marketing strategies produces customer centric information and user experiences.
Successful inbound methodology naturally switches the emphasis from getting seen, to becoming found. Instead of developing marketing established on the idea of interrupting and pushing communications in front of prospective customers, inbound strategy is centred on generating educational information that allows your brand to be more accessible and beneficial to purchasers at the appropriate point of the buyers journey.
"Promotion" has evolved, consumers no longer digest information and content as they did in the past. Born out by the effective execution of premium audience specific content creation, SEO, social media engagement and targeted email marketing.
The revolution of the internet marketing mix 4 Ps driven by inbound marketing is founded on developing and maintaining an improved customer focussed experience.