Building a “powerful visual brand” through intense advertising isn’t likely to be within the marketing budgets of most small businesses.  Brand building is for companies with oversized marketing budgets.

The primary goal of most promotions is to tell your target how you will deliver on what they value.  If you don’t have anything new to promote to your customers, then direct your promotions toward the area of highest interest for your target customer, and create the motivation for them to try the product or service you offer.

You improve the effectiveness of your promotions when you speak to your target customer in compelling and relevant terms.  To be compelling and relevant, you must anchor your messages on the marketing mix elements most relevant to your target customer.

To identify which marketing mix element is likely to be most relevant to your target customer, think about the importance of your thumb in gripping an object.  The function of the thumb is to work with the other digits.  Your promotions are like your thumb; they need to work with the essential element in your marketing mix that influences people to buy from you.

You best move the customer through the purchase funnel, from awareness to buy, when your promotions offer one clear, specific, memorable benefit tied to product, place, price, packaging, or your people.  The purpose of your message significantly influences the success of your promotions.

Your target customer will never care as much about you or your business as they care about solving their problems.  Your promotions must point out, identify, or focus on what your target customer might want from you and how you can help solve their problem.

Business success often comes down to communicating the right message to the right people at the right time.  If you want to generate higher sales and more profits, you must consider which element of the marketing mix is most important for your promotional emphasis.  Below are the most common elements, categorized by the marketing mix, that you might want your business to be known for:

Just as you use your thumb to grip something important to you, your promotions need to support the most crucial element of your marketing mix, which is the one most relevant to your target customer.  If you message too broadly, you will only confuse people because you can’t decide what is most important to say.  What’s worst is you will waste a lot of money confusing them.

Want help defining your marketing mix?

Click here to schedule a time to talk with one of our marketing and sales experts on how best to direct your marketing mix management to unlock the secret to higher sales.