How to Use the 4 P’s of Marketing Online

Long before social media strategists, blog experts, and e-commerce consultants, traditional marketing campaigns were developed around the fundamental principles of product, place, promotion, and price, also known as the 4 P’s of marketing. Before one piece of marketing material was developed, it was stressed that the 4 P’s of marketing had to be clearly defined in order to have a successful business launch. In a time, where a small postal mailing could mean wiping out your life savings, there wasn’t much room for error in marketing the wrong product to the wrong audience.

Today, with all of its capabilities and come, the Internet has leveled the business playing field creating a lower entry barrier to becoming a Small Business owner. While the entry barrier has been lowered, there has been an increase in the lack of basic market research. So we’re left with a crowded marketplace full of sellers and buyers who are not connecting. By taking the time to map out an online marketing thought using the 4 P’s of marketing, you’ll see a greater return for your advertising dollars and efforts, and connect easier with online buyers who want your product.

Product
Your product is what you’re offering, even if it’s free. In Web 2.0, it’s easy for business owners to get drawn into every topic that’s hot for the moment especially on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. As a business owner become clear on what your product is whether it’s a physical product, a service, information or an extinguish result. Strategically interact and contribute online with this in mind. An easy contrivance to identify and develop your product is to ask yourself “What predicament am I here to solve? “.

Place
Place is probably the one principle of the 4 P’s of marketing that’s been most expanded through the Internet. A click can put you in contact with a global market instantly. For the greatest return, your product should be placed where your customers are already gathering. Many of us fall in love with creating the newest place to be. However it’s much easier to do some research, find out where your customers say the places to be are, and place your products in those places. Online this would mean finding out do your customers prefer Twitter to Facebook? Do they like to search YouTube or forums for how to information? Also expand the “region” of your business by creating products, services and input that fit into the places where your customers already reside online.

Promotion
Customers will not know if you can meet a need if you can’t clearly communicate what your business offers. Promotion (aka selling) is communication. Advertising, sales promotions, Special offers are ways that you promote and “communicate’ with potential buyers. A good rule of thumb when creating online promotions is to sell the “click”. In most cases, it’s not effective to try to sell the product from the ad. The goal is get the potential buyer to click on your advertisement that leads to another marketing piece that provides more information and does the selling.

Price
In a digital media like the Internet, it’s challenging for some business owners to account for pricing products that don’t require a ample monetary investment. Determine prices according to the value of expected returns from using your product not by production costs. For someone desperately seeking to understand confusing “medical speak” about their condition, an ebook that only cost a couple of dollars to get is priceless.

There are countless strategies, tactics, and tools a business owner can use to market online. However, the simple framework of the 4 P’s of Marketing can be just as effective in developing Internet marketing campaigns to build your business online.