7Ps of Marketing: Promotion (Smart Monday/Promotion)

Hello there, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape. 

Today is Monday, so that means it is Smart Monday and we’re going to be talking about Promotion, one of my favorite topics.

Before we do, I want to thank all of you that are following my blogs.  I’m in New Mexico and I have fans throughout the state of New Mexico, but it’s exciting that I also have followers in California, Minnesota, Georgia.  My goal is to share my message with small businesses across the country.  So, again, be sure to share with your friends and thanks for tuning in.

Today’s topic is “7Ps of Marketing: Promotion.”

What is promotion?  Well, it’s telling your customers about your products and services, their benefits and where they can be found.  It’s not very complicated, at least in theory.  Of course there are a million ways to go about promoting your product.

But why are you promoting your product?  In today’s world customers have numerous choices when they buy.  The goal of your promotion is ensuring, at that time when they make a decision to buy a product or service, that potential customers are thinking about your product or service and they buy your product or service. 

If they have money in hand and they know your product, but they’re not thinking about your product at the time of purchase, you’ve missed out.  It’s very important that you promote your product so you achieve what is called mind-share, or top of mind.  

Now, where do you promote?  Advertising is absolutely everywhere.  I keep thinking that one day I’ll look up and there will be a large logo on the surface of the moon.  Now, that’s the ultimate billboard. 

There are so many places you can promote your product.  We talked about traditional and digital marketing.  Whether it is dasher boards at a hockey game, or a logo on a coffee cup, advertising is everywhere, that’s branding, marketing and promotion.  As a marketer, you have to effectively promote your product to your target customers.

What makes good promotion?  Let’s go back to our taco stand, the example we’ve used in the past.  The owner spends all of his time developing the most incredible recipe for tacos on the face of the earth.  Nobody has a better taco anywhere.  But he’s so involved in the development of his product he forgets to tell people to buy his product.  You’d be surprised how often that happens.  Hopefully, by tuning in to Once a Day Marketing, you are now beginning to share more about your product with your customers.

What makes effective promotion?  It starts with being compelling.  It needs to be something that when people hear it they’ll say “Oh, that kind of cool”, “That’s kind of interesting”.  Often marketing is so bland or generic it doesn’t capture any attention.  When consumers have numerous choices, you have to make sure people are hearing and seeing your message, that it cuts through the clutter out there . 

The message has to be consistent.  Frequently a company will do a little bit of marketing and think they’re done.  But, you need to be consistent with your efforts.  Your message should be visible because, again, when that customer decides to buy a product, you’ve got to make sure your product is sticking in their mind, so you’ll capture their dollars

The message has to be relevant and resonate.  It’s not only creating awareness, it has to target the right audience.  For instance, if I’m not excited about a car like a Ford Mustang, all the advertising in the world is not going to capture my attention. Ensure you are targeting the right people, at the right place, with the right message and then they will hear it.   And they have to hear it again and again and again.  That is why that consistent, compelling message is so important in your promotional efforts.

When it comes to developing your promotional plan, be creative, have fun, and also be smart about it.  You have finite resource and time, so it needs to be promotion that actually reaches your targeted customers.

Finally, keep track of results.  No matter how good your promotional plan is, your audience will eventually tire of it.  Continuously create new ways to push your message so that customers have the recognition and recall and top of mind for your product and they purchase your product when they are actually out there spending their hard earned dollars.

That concludes our Smart Monday, stop by tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing where business takes shape and we’ll see you next time.

James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com