Marketing, it’s a dark art of voodoo magic!
It’s not, but that’s what someone said to me the other day. They also said “I’m sure there’s more to it than just pressing a few buttons and posting a few photos on Instagram, but I’m not sure what….!”
Well, depending on what area of marketing you’re looking at, there can be a lot of posting photos on Instagram. Sadly, however, it’s rarely just a case of pressing a few buttons!
Some Marketers or Marketing Agencies specialise in the specific tactics of Marketing, that is to say, PPC campaigns or social media management or design work. Others, like Keane, take a more holistic approach and work from the top level of strategy creation right down to implementing the deliverable tactics. In taking this approach, it means that we will ask questions like ‘what do you want to achieve for the business?’ ‘what does return on investment look like?’ ‘why do you want to do it?’.
It’s not because we’re trying to think of ways to blind you with science or confuse you with the dark art of Marketing, it’s because we want to understand your challenges, identify the potential best routes to address them and bring you the results you’re hoping for. In doing so we’ll employ a number of different elements within the strategy to achieve the overall objective. Part of this will include looking at the 7P’s marketing mix:
- Product – What is your Product (or service)? Does it need amending it any way or is it spot on for your target audience? Is it the very best it can be?
- Price - Is your price point suitable for your target market – are you competitive / is your profit margin where it needs to be? Have you got the right pricing model for your business?
- Place - where can people experience your products / service – distribution channels; online, in person, into retail stores, are you putting your service / product where your customers are?
- People – have you got the right people in place – do you have enough resource and capability or do you have a skills gap and need some training / recruitment to be able to deliver the best product / service to your customers? Have your people got the right training and attitude to deliver exceptional customer service?
- Process – Is everything in place internally to be able to successfully deliver value to your customers – turnaround times, delivery methods, customer feedback process etc. Are they efficient and reliable and do they match your brand – for example if you’re positioning your products as environmentally friendly, are you practising what you preach with your processes?
- Physical Evidence - how are you removing fear and building trust in your customers – have you got plenty of testimonials, do you have knowledgeable & friendly employees, do you have a strong website presence, does your packaging and branding represent the quality of your service / product?
All of these elements have an important role to play in ensuring that your Marketing efforts are coherent and cohesive and this is why we ask the questions we do. It’s a bit like a recipe – if you don’t have all the right ingredients, in the right quantities and using the right method, you can’t really expect the end result to look like it should. It’s not voodoo magic, it’s data, insight, knowledge, expertise and experience. ( And pressing a few buttons….!)
