The marketing mix is different for every company. However, no matter what the nature of your organisation, you can usually make the assumption that to create a business with a healthy and secure base, it makes sense to look at the possible types of marketing that will work best for your company in terms of a return on investment.
Don’t worry if you haven’t tried the activities listed before. Instead try to think about if they would potentially work for you and if so, how you could go about implementing them. Is it possible to find out if your competitors are engaged in these marketing activities and if so, could they also work for you?
The right marketing mix for you
To begin, think carefully about the locations, age, interests and job titles of your prospects. All of these factors and more including your budget and the nature of your business will influence the marketing mix you ultimately decide on.
Here is my list of the top 15 marketing materials and activities that form the promotional marketing mix:
- Direct mail – Letters, brochures, flyers and other printed material posted to targeted and named individuals.
- Newsletters– A newsletter is a message that is sent out to subscribers typically at regular intervals. This can be done digitally via email or by print. Many companies use this as a way to stay engaged with customers and build brand awareness.
- Branding – Creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates your company from your competitors.
- Website – As well as designing and creating a website, you need to maintain it with news and blogs as well as any products for sale.
- Search engine optimisation – Improving traffic to your website by increasing the site’s visibility in search engine results with the use of keywords you would like to be found for in search engines.
- Social media – Producing content that users will share with their social network to help increase brand exposure and broaden customer reach on platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
- Email shots – Dispatching mail, mostly promotional, to your subscribed list of contacts often through email marketing software such as Mailchimp.
- Digital advertising– Promoting brands via one or more forms of electronic media including online, TV and radio.
- Print advertising – Use of physically printed media such as magazines and newspapers to reach consumers, business customers and prospects.
- Telesales/Telemarketing – Generating interest, providing information and producing leads by telephone.
- Sampling – Offering a product to consumers at little or no cost in order to attract attention and convert to future sales.
- Exhibitions & trade shows – Providing hands-on demonstrations of your products to consumers who are specifically interested in your area of expertise.
- Promotional goods – Giving current or prospective customers item such as a bag, calendar, notepad or pen, again to increase brand awareness. These items usually carry the name and address of the firm.
- Networking – Creating a group of acquaintances and associates then keeping it active through regular communication and meet-ups for mutual benefit.
- Seminars – Showcasing your knowledge of an area in a presentation.
You may well be able to think of other examples which you currently use that could be a sub set of any of the above. You could also be engaged in additional activities that you feel fall outside of these marketing activities. Some of these terms are fairly broad and cover a lot of areas. For example ‘brochures’ would also cover folders with inserts.
Have you worked out the right marketing mix?
The point is that very few companies would feel the need to engage in every one of these activities and those they do choose Creating the right marketing mix for you involves selecting the most appropriate activities and then creating a set of sustained actions attributed to each one.
If you would like help is either selecting activities to form the right marketing mix for your business or help in implementing them contact The Ideal Marketing Company on 01858 374 170 or email info@idealmarketingcompany.com
