7 Marketing Tips to Boost Your Business Growth

There is often a stereotype by many that marketing is just about creativity. Years ago I remember a senior manager of a gym I managed saying “Marketing is just about making pretty posters” and whilst this man is a complete idiot, this is just one of the aspects of a successful marketing function.

Marketing has developed more in the last 10 years than it has in the last 50. In the 1990’s it was common for campaigns to be solely print based, relying on billboards, magazines & leaflets to get their messaging across with little ways to track customer acquisition. Fast forward 20 years and we are in a time where we are served advertisements on social media purely based on conversations overheard by our smartphones. The practices of digital marketing are at a stage where it is common place to have teams within teams dedicated to individual aspects of the field such as SEO experts, digital strategists and content creators. Whilst these areas on their own are important, each aspect crosses over to form a cohesive approach for the business.

Now as a coach this may all seem a little daunting, but in reality you don’t need a huge team to be successful in your daily business. However, there are some key principles you can use to boost your business growth …

The 4 P’s
Originally created in 1960 by E. Jerome McCarthy, the 4 P’s is a staple in any markers education. The framework provides a base to build successful campaigns, ideas and business functions from and can be adapted to literally any industry. The basics of the 4 P’s are as follows:

Product
What is it you are offering to the customer, is it a service, a product or a mixture of the two? Your product is there to meet a need for a customer. Finding the right offering is the first pillar of your business and you need to make sure you are confident in what you are delivering to consumers. An also very important aspect is to make sure the product/services you are offering has a target market. There’s no point trying to sell ice to Eskimos!

Improving your product offering is also crucial to staying ahead of the game, so whilst launching new products can be a great way to do this, there are other ways you can improve your offering. Adding value through things such as offering a money back guarantee if a client doesn’t achieve results or creating videos that help them to get the most out of your services. Look at your product as a whole and review what it is you are actually trying to get the customer to purchase.

Price
Money talks. The price element to your product/service is key to making sure you have a business that works. Environmental scanning is a posh marketing term for looking at what the competition are doing, and whilst I’m not saying you copy someone’s approach, you can take inspiration from established businesses to build on and make your own.

Information about competitor products & pricing in your chosen space is essential to establish your position within the market, but you need to be realistic. Setting a price for your product that is unrealistic based on your experience and service is a sure-fire way to go bust before you start. There are some amazing coaches out there that can justify the £500 a month charge to a client because they are paying for the years of experience, courses, learning, evolving that coach has done.

Make sure you can justify what you are charging and if you are struggling to get going, give your services for free in exchange for testimonials and reviews.

Place
The place aspect of the 4P’s can relate to either the place your are trying to sell your product, or the place in which they are purchasing it. For example the place in which you are trying to sell your product could be in a physical store or an online space, but where you purchase or deliver could be in a different space. The key with this is to make sure you are in a place that make sense for your product to be sold to increase the chance of conversion.

Promotion
Put simply, promotion relates to the marketing mix you are implementing to sell your product. This could be ways such as word of mouth & print media, to digital channels including socials and paid advertising. Whatever stage of the decision journey a person is at (Awareness, Interest, Desire or Action) will dictate a different message required to increase your chance of conversion. Choosing the best tool for the job should always be in your thoughts when trying to select the most effective media to reach your audience. If your customer persona (Your target customer profile) shows that TikTok is the preferred location where they hang out, promote your services here!

Over time the 4 P’s have developed and extended to the 7ps. This extended framework includes:

Physical Evidence
Every visual element of your product/service such as branding of your materials, the quality of your uniform, packaging your product is delivered gives cues to the customer over the quality of your product. When a customer hasn’t purchased from you before, these can be incredibly powerful indicators of what they can expect from you and provide reassurance if they are expected to pay for a product prior to it being delivered.

For a coffee shop this could be in the form of an artisan style surroundings with wood, industrial metals and quirky seating. For a coach this could be an online presence to include how you conduct yourself in your social media content, reviews of your services and the quality of your website. Even in a more relaxed world than ever, it’s important to ensure you are putting in the effort with these aspects.

Process
you understand the steps a customer goes through to purchase with you helps to map out considerations to make with your processes so they have a positive experience with your brand. Starting at the start is the best way (Funny that I know) to plan out the steps your customer goes through with you. For example:

– How do your customers make an enquiry for your services?
– How are they responded to?
– How do they make a purchase with you?
– What is the after sales process for confirmation & gaining reviews about their experience?
– How can technology be used to make these processes more efficient?

All of these are the beginnings of developing your own user experience across all the different areas of your business. Making the processes relevant to the location and capabilities of technology are very important considerations. Try to automate wherever possible but make sure that you still keep that personal touch.

People
People is arguably the most important component of a successful marketing strategy. A brands people (Including yourself) are at the forefront of interacting with customers throughout their journey from enquiry stage, delivering the product/service, to after sales support. An interaction can occur in a number of ways from an in-person question, an online complaint to a tagging of an Instagram story. Your people’s approach to the different interactions are what really set your brand apart and despite the digital age, consumers still prefer to deal with a person regardless of the channel they communicate with you on. Their knowledge of the products/information, speediness of accessing relevant information and ability to problem solve all help to create a great relationship with your consumer base and get them locked into McKinsey’s Loyalty Loop.

Summary
By using the 7 Ps principle will help you to coordinate your marketing mix and activities in a way that will position your brand clearly in the minds of your customers. Whilst creating social media content is one aspect of marketing, without creating an infrastructure for the above this is pointless. Make sure you take the time to think and walk through what your customers go through, analysing every aspect of your brand along the way. Also be honest with yourself, you’re not as great as you think you are and not as bad as you think you are.