What is the Digital Marketing Mix?
For the last 50 years the ‘4Ps’ of marketing – product, price, place, and promotion – have been the pillars of any successful marketing campaign for a very good reason. By focusing on these four critical elements when marketing to consumers, companies are able to effectively sell their products to consumers. The advent of social media and digital platforms has significantly changed how brands and companies communicate with consumers, especially as online behaviours change. This means the 4Ps of marketing are slightly different when it comes to digital – platform, process, people, and performance, to represent this change.
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Focusing on product, price, place and, promotion is still important to any marketing campaign, however, marketers now also need to utilise technology to foster personalised experiences. Fenix Marketing Director Jenna Chisnall explains: “Digital consumption is on the rise, where consumers are researching, browsing, and shopping via social media and online platforms, making digital channels critical in the decision making and purchasing process. Consumers will use social media to gauge the authenticity of a business, research products, and so much more. It is key that marketers understand their marketing 4Ps in order for the 4Ps of digital marketing to work together in achieving the overall marketing objective.”
With digital marketing, brands need to look at the 4Ps of digital marketing, process, people, platform, and performance to help them meet consumers’ needs and customise messaging for audiences who are demanding increasing personalisation.
- Platforms
Choose the right digital platform for your business. With so many platforms available it can be hard to make the right choice. Your service, product, target market, availability, and more will dictate which platforms you choose to market your company. A bad platform fit can cause more harm to your brand than good. If your brand is focused on selling to professionals and industry, you will use different platforms than a company selling personal care products.
- Process
In the digital marketing mix, the process defines the needed procedures, and their optimisation, for the delivery of products online. Simply put, it is what tasks are necessary for a product to provide its core experience for its users. The better the processes that are in place the more ready brands will be to deliver to consumers. By documenting every action taken you will have a better understanding of the health of your business through the online marketing perspective.
- People
People remain the cornerstone of any digital marketing mix as they are needed to help disseminate the values of a brand online. Many consumers will look at how employees talk about their company online, interact with them on social media, or how well they live up to the values of the company in their personal life. Too many times the actions of an employee taken privately will tarnish a brand’s reputation.
Employees are also important for maintaining customer satisfaction and running support services. Consumers are increasingly demanding to get support from people rather than bots, and these interactions can make or break companies.
- Performance
Understanding how well or badly your campaign has performed ensures you can continue to improve your marketing efforts and build closer relationships with clients. Gathering data from the platforms you have decided to use will give you insights into customer behaviour, conversion rates, engagement, loyalty, amongst others. You can then leverage this data to personalise marketing campaigns to specific target audiences.
Not sure how to adapt your digital marketing campaigns to suit the evolving needs of consumers? We can help! At Fenix Marketing we have extensive experience in marketing and specialise in every aspect of digital marketing, from choosing your platform to reporting back on performance. Reach out to our dedicated team today: hello@www.fenixmarketing.co.za
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