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What Is Marketing Mix and How to Use the 7Ps Marketing Mix?

Digital Marketing | Dec 05, 2019

Whether you are an executive at an established software consulting company or a freelance consultant who wants to level up your career, understanding marketing mix and incorporating it into your strategy is a great starting point to grow your business.

What Is the Marketing Mix?

The marketing mix is one of the most popular terms in marketing. It refers to the operational or tactical part of a traditional or digital marketing plan. It is primarily made up of 4 Ps (price, place, product, and promotion). In many cases, the addition of process, people and physical evidence make up a complete marketing mix.

What Is the 7Ps Marketing Mix and How to Use It?

What Is the 7Ps Marketing Mix and How to Use it?

The 7Ps Marketing Mix

1. Price

As you know it, the price is the amount your clients are willing to pay for your services. Many businesses and startups don’t have enough funding which is why they have a preference over third-party companies or vendors that could provide quality services at reasonable rates. However, as a software consultant, you understand that it’s not always possible to reduce your prices just to acquire more clients.

Instead of slashing your rate, you can make your services more affordable by reducing your operational costs. For example, instead of paying a marketing agency to promote your firm, you can use an all-in-one marketing platform that lets you create and manage campaigns in one go and reduces the need to hire an on-staff marketer.

Another approach to pricing is to increase your clients’ perceived value of your products or services.

2. Place

Another component of the 7Ps marketing mix is the place. It refers to the distribution channels you use to provide your products or services to your customers. You can use multiple channels, such as a mix of online and mobile technologies, to make accessing your services much more handy for your target clients.

3. Product

It’s most likely that you have spent a great deal of time and effort perfecting your software product. But is it enough to resolve the problems encountered by your target audience?

Being able to address the software issues of your clients should be your main concern. But it is also important to consider the other areas of your marketing mix if you’re looking to scale your business.

4. Promotion

To successfully promote your business, consider the following steps:

  • Understand your customers. Create a detailed persona of your target audience.
  • Analyze the market. Identify key trends in your industry.
  • Know your competition. Assess their strengths and weaknesses to figure out how you can add more value to your target customers.
  • Check out your potential partners. Are there third-party companies that you can collaborate with?
  • Use digital marketing. Cloud-based marketing platforms combine different online marketing strategies to reach more customers, from social media to email and performance marketing.

5. Physical Evidence

This refers to the material part of your service. It includes your website, social media accounts, office, documents like business reports, annual accounts, well as your tools, equipment, and infrastructure.

6. People

Having the right team is essential to growing your software consulting business. You need the right people who possess the skills, experience, and background to come up with innovative solutions for your clients’ problems.

People are the most important factor in companies that provide knowledge-based services. You need to recruit talents who will fit your corporate culture and will add value to your organization.

7. Process

The process involves activities necessary to deliver services to customers. These include function, activities, processes, and tasks. You need to create a viable marketing planning process to get the most results. How are you going to reach your target audience? How will you promote your brand? and so on.

How to Create Your Own Marketing Mix

Choosing a marketing mix isn’t easy. It’s like baking a cake. You add or reduce ingredients until you find the perfect balance of sweetness, flavor, and texture.

The key is to assemble the right marketing tactics that will help you win customers and sustain your business as you build your customer base.

Follow these steps in creating your marketing mix:

1. Establish Your Customer Persona

Providing professional services isn’t something that gets marketed like a product might. Great firms rely on doing great work and having a great reputation. This makes it challenging for consulting businesses to promote their companies.

Every powerful marketing strategy starts with understanding who your customers are. Consider different factors that are important to you, such as customer demographics, age, and other qualifying criteria.

Related Article: How to Create a Well-Crafted Buyer Persona(S): 80+ Questions to Answer

2. Determine Your Goals and Budget

Before determining your marketing mix, you should first establish what you want to make happen. What results do you need from your marketing strategy in order to achieve success? Next, determine your budget.

Note that some marketing tactics are virtually free while others require out-of-the-pocket expenses. How much you should spend on marketing depends on a variety of factors, such as how big your target audience is, the complexity of your message, and the media required to deliver that message.

Related Guide: The Six Marketing Metrics Your Marketing Director Really Care About

3. Decide on your marketing tactics

The final step in creating your marketing mix is identifying the tactics you will use. You want the strategies or techniques that allow you to reach your target with little waste and those that you can use over the long term.

A good mix of marketing strategies would be something that reaches prospects when they are actively looking for your services and another that utilize networking to motivate potential clients to know about your business.

Mike Austin


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