The 7 P’s Of Marketing And How To Incorporate Them Into Your Strategy

Marketing isn’t as straightforward as it used to be, and thanks to technology and innovation, there are at your fingertips when it comes to marketing for small businesses.

And while it might seem daunting or overwhelming, breaking it down and knowing what you need to know, where to focus, and what results you want can help you move in the right direction. 

Understanding the 7 Ps of marketing is crucial for small business owners. These include price, product, promotion, people, place, process, and physical evidence. This post will delve into each of these, providing you with a comprehensive framework to enhance your marketing strategies and ensure you implement the right measures.

Product

The product or service you offer is the foundation of your marketing strategy. Whether it’s a tangible product, a service, or a physical item like a cleaning tool, auto parts, insurance premium, or legal service, it’s what customers can purchase from you. Understanding your offering and its promotional needs is essential.

Price

Price is a relative measure, and what is considered expensive for some isn’t too much of a stretch for another budget. You need to price your product accordingly. What are others charging, and what do you get for the price? What are the industry standards, and what quality are you offering at that price point?

Pricing your product or service appropriately is a delicate balance. You don’t want to be the cheapest on the market, but you also don’t want to price yourself out. Understanding your product or service’s value and being confident it’s worth what you’re asking is critical. If it falls above the standard, you need to be able to justify it. Remember, you also need to make a profit, which should be factored into your overall pricing schedule.

Place

The ‘place’ element in marketing is crucial. To maximize your marketing impact, you need to be available at the right time and in the right place with the right quantities for your customers. This could be your website, a shop window, or even a third-party retailer placing your products in their store on your behalf. The key is to make your product easily accessible and convenient for your customers.

When it comes to marketing, you need to be in the right place. This means you need to target mobile users, as people predominantly use mobile devices to search online. You need to position yourself as a retailer that is easy to access, for example, offering home deliveries. Or you need to position yourself in the market at the right time to capitalize on trends and demand at that exact moment.’

Promotion

Your marketing success depends on your chosen methods of promotion. You need to utilize your industries common marketing tactics as well, and jumping on marketing tends to help you with promotion. All the while, you need to remember that marketing is not the only type of promotion you need to be considering. It is how you communicate with your customers and those around you. It is your company branding, image, and reputation; it is your PR, marketing, sales tactics, offers, social media outreach, and so much more.

So, while focusing on marketing techniques such as animated video production to create short-form engaging content is a great avenue to invest in, you need to take a more holistic view of your marketing approach to ensure that all your bases are covered.

People

The people on your team are the ones who will make a massive impact on the consumer and form part of the brand image and impression they get of you. This can be anyone and everyone who represents or works with your brand, from yourself to your employees, the service providers you use, your marketing team, call handlers, support teams, and everyone in between, even if you are all of those things yourself.

Team alignment is crucial. Everyone needs to be on the same page and give out the same message and level of service to help you market your company the way you need to. The more constant you are with your people and your approach to dealing with your customers and peers within the industry, the easier it will be to create an effective advertising campaign that reflects who you are and what you’re about.

Process

These days, it’s not just about buying a product or a service; it’s about the customer experience as a whole. People want to be treated to an experience that delivers on all of their expectations. How long do customers have to wait to be seen in store, how fast is your website, how quickly do you get orders processed and shipped, and how pretty are your staff dealing with customers’ processing transactions or queries? To help you improve your marketing, you need to be able to prove you can deliver on all parts of the process and experience with your company; you might have the best marketing campaign in the world, but if the reality falls below the expectations, then you aren’t delivering on the process, and this will hinder your ability it keep growing and moving forward.

Physical Evidence

Part of your targeting strategy needs to be focused on the physical evidence you can present. Is the location in which you have your business suitable for what you do? If you are selling an experience such as an insurance product, is this delivered in a professional setting? Is your retail outlet clean, tidy, and safe, and does it give the customer a good first impression when they come to your store? Can you provide evidence that backs up customers’ assumptions and collect feedback and testimonials to support this? The more physical evidence you have of what you do, how well you do, and how you can help the customer, the more of an impact your marketing will have and the more significant benefits it will bring you.

To be able to compile an effective marketing strategy and campaign, you need to make sure that you have the 7 P’s in place prior to building this campaign to ensure you have the backbone and structure in place to offer support to your marketing.