The New Marketing Mix

Old marketing strategies still has a place in the world of online marketing, as a basis for good business. But long gone are the days in marketing where store vendors knew each of his customers and each of their individual personalities. It was a time when interaction was on a one-on-one level, with real human voices along with physical connections. In online marketing, things are quite different. Marketers are limited by what you can show them on your website.

In a recent podcast hosted by Creative Thirst‘s Bobby Hewitt, he discussed how insufficient the old marketing mix is in today’s age, and how we can adjust our marketing strategy to properly meet what our customers need. This applies to markets where the marketers do not or cannot interact with their customers. This also includes online markets.

The 5 P’s of a New Marketing Mix

We are all familiar with old marketing strategies, and the old marketing adage of The 4 P’s of Good Marketing. This includes:

• Product
• Place
• Price
• Promotion

However, the old marketing mix is not enough anymore. In the past few years, social media has been a prominent factor, thus, user engagement has become more important than ever. In today’s age, we need to add a 5th P in our marketing mix. The 5th P is Persuasion. In online shopping, the customer is the one who decides about everything, and this is why you need to use persuasion. The best way to help the customer decide to buy your product is to provide some useful information. You need to explain how your product works, why is it good to own it, and convince them that it is the best solution to solve their problem.

The Fifth Element

First of all you need to understand what persuasion is. By persuading a customer, we don’t mean to force or manipulate him, but explain the experience you had by using a certain product. This is the only thing that can help your customer make the right decision. Persuasion needs to be used properly in order to achieve better results in the marketing mix.

[Tweet “Be clear cut and tell your visitors what they gain and why they can trust you.”]

Persuasion helps in increasing customers trust on your product or service. If a visitor believes in your words it is more likely that he will become your customer by making a purchase. As a vendor you need to use the persuasion wisely. This is a good way to improve the virtual communication with your customers.

To get a successful sale of your product, you need to conduct a special marketing strategy that involves persuasion and all the other P’s. Most of the website owners are lacking in persuasion. They don’t have the ability to persuade a visitor and convince him/her that their product is the answer to people’s problems. The persuasion is probably the key element that could increase the conversion rate. Do you think your website uses persuasion? If you are not sure about the answer, maybe it is time for you to take a real action and do something about it. According to an article called Marketing Basics: The 5 P’s of Marketing,

The 5 P’s are a set of recognized marketing tactics, which you can use in any combination to satisfy customers in your target market. The 5 P’s are controllable, but subject to your internal and external marketing environments. Combining these different marketing tactics to meet your customers’ needs and wants is known as using a ‘tactical marketing mix’.

Make sure your customers find all the information about your product on the website. Make enough of an effort to reflect your online brand and define what customers can benefit from your product/service. To learn more about testing and conversion optimization, you can visit us at Convert.