Learning More About Marketing

Marketing is as common in the business world as in the regular world. It is an effective method for promoting business and gains in both the short and long term. But what’s even more important than marketing is knowing its ins and outs, and in this article, we will be going over such and how to learn more about it.

The official definition of marketing, as told by the American Marketing Association, would be “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” But to make it easier and much more basic to understand, it is defined as the methods and activities a company uses to promote the buying and/or selling of a product or service (see more here). The marketing method encompasses advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers and businesses.

The overall goal of marketing is to draw in customers, retain relationships with said customers, and increase profit. It seeks to match a company’s product or service to a potential customer who wants access to it. When this is done, it all but ensures profitability.

Any successful endeavor in this field will involve four steps in its formation. These are commonly referred to as the 4 Ps of Marketing, and they include the following: product, price, place, and promotion.

• Product- refers to the item, item, service, or service that a business plans to offer to the consumer’s market. When marketing a product, one should remember that the product should endeavor to fill a need or necessity in the market and fulfill consumer demand for a product already available to the public. Before listing its product, the company should be all too aware of its functions, purpose, and overall value to the market it will be released.
• Price- refers to the amount of money the company will sell the product for. The price is one of the more intricate details as it involves considering the unit cost: how much it takes to make the product on hand, marketing costs: how much to put it on the market, and distribution costs: how much to deliver it to the customer. Determining the price can and will also include considering other products on the market, mainly if said products lie in the same competitive market as the company’s.
• Place- refers to the distribution of the product, specifically where the product will be available from. Place determines where and how the product should be sold, whether in physical locations, online stores, or a mix of the two.
• Promotion- refers to the advertisement and listing of the product to the consumer base. Promotion can come in different forms: advertising, sponsors, sales promotions, guerilla marketing, and more.

To learn more about the 4 Ps of Marketing, click on the website below: https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/the-four-ps-of-marketing/.

The subject of marketing is broad and encompasses no shortage of other topics and strategies that help formulate its success. To put it into perspective, there are two main marketing strategies: traditional and digital.

• Traditional Marketing– as the name implies, traditional marketing involves the more nuanced and basic methods of advertising, the ones that came before the digital age. The several types of this strategy include:
• Outdoor– public advertising displayed throughout the world. This includes billboards on the local highway, sticker wraps on vehicles, ads on public transport areas like the subway or bus station, and others.
• Print– as the name suggests, printed content that can be easily replicated and mass-produced.
• Direct– advertising content that can be delivered directly to potential customers. This can come in the form of coupons or vouchers, mail that can be delivered such as pamphlets, etc.
• Electronic- this can be described as the step below digital advertising. It involves advertising through the use of TV broadcasts or radio. This short burst of digital content conveys information through electronic media that can grab viewers’ attention from what they see or hear, even a mix of both.
• Event- involves gathering potential customers at a location such as a seminar or fundraiser to speak about their product and answer any questions or concerns.
• Digital Marketing- the most common method in today’s world. Digital marketing involves online advertising to convey product information to the consumer. The several types of this strategy include:
• SEM (search engine marketing)- companies’ attempts to increase search traffic to their product. Usually, it involves methods such as SEO (search engine optimization) to create organic search results about their sites.
• Social Media Marketing- one of the most popular and successful methods in this field, involving building an online presence on different social media platforms. This involves posting content online about their product, interacting with followers, and uploading videos and images that pertain to their product.
• Content Marketing- creating content in downloadable formats, usually in forms such as infographics, eBooks, video seminars, etc. This helps to share information about a product, get customer information, and encourage customers to learn more about it and maybe even buy it.

Other examples of digital media include lightbox ads, which come as banners over the GDN (Google Display Network). These gain lots of search engine traffic and reach over 90% of internet users.

Though admittedly, there is a lot of information, what has been described and listed above only scratches the surface of digital marketing. There is plenty more to learn about, and by learning the aspects of such, you can be more informed about digital marketing and even succeed with your own product or business.