Publicizing the things that makes your service or product different and better is only natural, right? Basing a promotional campaign around your product and service advantages should attract viewers to your web page and buyers to your place of business. Unfortunately, although many small enterprises provide significant market advantages to prospective customers, many businesses miss the fundamental points of promoting these advantages, particularly when engaged in article writing or blog posting. And without some plan or structure to guide the effort, these organizations may simply be wasting a good deal of time and money.
A quick trip down “Memory Lane” and back to Marketing 101 is helpful. Recall that there are really just four controllable elements of what was then termed ‘the marketing mix:’
Product
Price
Promotion (basic outreach via advertising and PR) and
“Place”
These four :”P”s were taught on day one back in most business schools, but they still offer good guidance for constructing your marketing message, especially as that message applies to blogs and articles. Recalling also that article placement is a key ingredient in your SEO or internet strategy, a careful examination of these elements can yield significant material for topics and future posts. By re-connecting with these basic marketing elements, you can refine your articles and blog posts to reach your potential customers with a highly focused message for each piece you write.
Discovering new topic ideas by looking at one’s market message is a highly valuable exercise. New ideas or opportunities may be uncovered during the exercise. Look at each of the four market areas individually to fully understand the value you bring to the market in each area. Then simply make an outline of these ideas and build a blog posting schedule with one idea per article or post. This method will bring a general focus to your messaging strategy and will help potential customers understand the exact value of your service/product offering.
Product:
Most enterprises focus their marketing message in this area. Product features and service advantages are unique to each business. However, each manager should understand from current customers, exactly what the most valuable part of the product or service might be. Asking customers for this information frequently turns up valuable information.
In previous experience, a website owner that had noticed a great increase in traffic simply presumed that his product information caused more and more viewers to hit the site. In reviewing these viewers behavior though, it turned out that hitting the website to look for location telephone numbers was easier than going to a phone book. In this instance, some ancillary information – the location telephone numbers – turned out to be the single greatest value to the site. Had this business owner not asked his customers why they were using his site, he would have kept working to generate additional product features instead of working to make his locations more accessible by telephone.
Price
Cost or ‘pricing’ is of course hugely important in the buying decision. This decision however, should be examined in context. Businesses providing long term or durable goods should probably focus its message on emphasizing the long term “cost of ownership.” It may result that even though one’s product carries a lower purchase price, the overall cost of ownership is reduced because of shorter life expectancy of the product.
Price issues should be viewed in conjunction with other costs like financing, shipping and preparation. Cost of acquisition includes all additional fees for delivery and purchase of accessory items needed for the customer to receive full value.
Another area of interest for buyers is “Cost of Ownership.” Products that require no upkeep or maintenance might justify increased purchase pricing if the customer can validate that cost savings will offset the purchase price over the longer term.
Promotion (consumer outreach, advertising and marketing)
It is commonly believed that a business web presence or website should be use purely for promotional purposes. Of course internet marketing and promotion attracts new clients, many operators simply use the website to distribute information regarding product and service features. This is important, but one should miss some of the other benefits that customers and clients find valuable.
Promotion is simply a matter of connecting with clients and the customer base. Useful information provided in an easy-to-understand format is a great method of establishing your organization as a leader in the field and as a reliable business partner.
Place (point where product or service may be acquired)
Where do your customers go to get your product? This is a geographic question, so consider a few other points. If you provide product delivery as part of the contract price, the geographic point of acquisition is actually at the customer’s location. This can be a key market advantage as the customer doesn’t have to journey to a warehouse or store to make the purchase. Any advantage in where customers can get your product makes for good article/blog content.
Denver SEO Consultants and author Matthew Stone assist companies improve sales using SEO.