The A to Z of Digital Marketing Success: C and P Edition

Got a business to promote? Developing a digital marketing plan is the key to success. With the right approach and ample knowledge of online platforms, you can create a comprehensive strategy that will maximize your reach and boost your bottom line.

Did you know that you can use the letters of the alphabet as a memory aid to help you remember information better? This article emphasizes the letters C and P to help you recall the fundamental elements of a company’s marketing strategy.

The ‘C’s Of Marketing

There are many core marketing components, starting with the letter ‘C. You can create a list and ensure your digital marketing plan covers them.

Customer

Knowing your customer is vital. You can not create digital marketing campaigns that convert if you don’t know how to present them to your target customer.

Target loyal customers with the best offers.

A business will not be successful if it tries to target everyone. Your marketing system needs to focus on your target audience and not much else.

In other words, who is the target demographic? These people will always be interested in what your company has to offer. If you are still stumped about your target audience, consider grouping your customers into the following factors:

Lifecycle

Consider how long the customer has been with your company, as repeat and long-term customers are the most loyal.

Different segments

Categorize customers based on geography, purchase history, behavior, and demographics.

Problem

What does the customer need help with? Determine how your service or product can help.

Convenience

Make it easy for your customers to find your business. You need to be where your customers spend time online.

Typically, this involves social media and search, so you will need professional and active social media profiles, Adwords, and a website with EEAT (expertise, experience, authority, and trust) to attract your customers.

You will need to invest in SEO and content.

Content

Your website will play a key role in providing content, i.e., publishing relevant news, views, and updates on your blog, sharing them on your social media profiles, and using them in your email marketing campaigns.

Content and SEO go hand in hand when getting found in search results. Your content will appear in organic search results, and your aim is to get as many first-page results for your website as possible.

Search Engine Marketing

Your content can also be used in SEM (search engine marketing) and paid search marketing. The Ads you see at the top of keyword search results are SEM campaigns.

Community

To earn authority, your business will need a community of followers. People who follow your blog and social media presence will converse with you and your followers online and click the links you share.

Google views this activity highly as organic, not paid, showing that your business has its own organic community; it’s not just paying for website traffic.

CRO

Conversion Rate Optimisation is used to improve your offering so you get more sales. It uses data and customer insights from your website, social media presence, and advertising to enhance the marketing message and reduce the campaign cost.

The Ps of Marketing

When you start a business, the four Ps of marketing are product, price, place, and promotion.

Product

What are you selling? Who wants it? What are its USPs? How well you know your product or service dictates how you market it and whether it will be a first in the market, like Apple’s touchscreen, or whether it competes well on something else, like price.

Price

Consumers are willing to pay its price when they value your product or service. Therefore, getting the price right and the marketing message to present the value for money is critical to selling more. What you need to consider to get the price right includes the following:

• Cost Analysis – calculating all costs of producing or delivering your product or service. This includes direct costs (materials, labor) and indirect costs (overhead, utilities, marketing)
• Competitive Analysis – understanding the prices your competitors are charging for similar products or services
• Value Proposition – create a unique value proposition for your product or service to set it apart from competitors
• Target Market Analysis: Who is your target market, and what are they willing to pay? Conduct market research, surveys, or focus groups to understand how much customers will spend on your product or service.
• Profit Margin: Determine the level of profitability you need to achieve to sustain and grow your business in the long term.

Promotion

The marketing message will attract or repeal customers. You can have the best product, but with a failed marketing message, it can remain the world’s best-kept secret. Work hard on the promotional message and content to hit it off with its targeted audience.

Investopedia named Absolut vodka as a product that first failed in its advertising campaign until it created an advertising campaign that resonated with its targeted audience of skiers, hikers, and discerning holidaymakers.

Use a marketer to create a promotional marketing campaign that includes free merchandise.

Place

Where are you marketing your offering? Remember, convenience is vital, so your marketing campaigns must be where your customers can find them. Consider collaborations in your social media marketing.

Summing Up

It’s not always easy to remember all the core components of digital marketing. Using the alphabet like the letters C and P will help you stay focussed on what your campaigns need and what you need to measure to keep delivering results for your business.