How to Plan Your Marketing Mix

A marketing mix is the set of marketing tactics a business plans on using. The success of any business’ marketing depends on their marketing mix. But with so many marketing channels out there, planning a marketing mix can be an overwhelming task. This brings us to the question: how do you plan a marketing mix? You should plan your mix to help you sustain customers and acquire more sales. Here is a simple guideline on how to accomplish this.

Define your business goals/objectives

The channel you use in your marketing mix will depend on the goals you want to accomplish. Maybe you want to inform and persuade, increase intention to act, promote a product, nurture advocacy, or reinforce behavior change. If your objective is to educate the target audience, you should combine social media with mass media. Your goals should be measurable and realistic. It’s all about balancing the ROI in your campaigns.

Define the unique selling proposition of your business

Let’s face it–competition is a natural order of any business. Knowing the right channel to use, when marketing your products and services, could mean the difference between blending in and standing out. At its core, a unique selling proposition makes your brand worthwhile to customers. What is the value proposition for your products or services? Are there possible glitches or concerns about your product?

Know your audience

Do you use social media or email marketing to reach out to your customers? Once you have a good picture of your customers in mind, you can shape your marketing channels around that description. If your product targets the millennials, you may want to ditch the traditional marketing channels and concentrate on the digital ones. Write down the personas for different customers and research the best channels to use when reaching out to them. Use one or more channels to reach your marketing goals with little waste. Also, identify the media your prospective customers use when looking for information.

Here are a couple related blog posts you might find useful:

• Why And How to Create Marketing Personas
• Generational Marketing: Which Marketing Channels Are Best For Generations?

Truth be told, finding the right customers takes a bit of legwork. So, when you identify the right person, you should appeal to them in every aspect of the business. Take time to check how many people the available channels will reach. You must understand the channel your target audience prefers. According to the latest stats, 70% of customers prefer to learn about your products/services through digital methods over the traditional ones. With that being said, do some looking into your target audience’s preferred digital marketing channel.

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Consider the strengths and limitations of the marketing channels

There’s no perfect marketing channel–each comes with strengths and weaknesses. When you use a blend of channels in your marketing mix, you can create a reinforcing effect and increase the effectiveness of how the message is delivered. The major strength of social media marketing is that it’s interactive and can be personalized to suit individual needs. However, it requires a high level of literacy. So, you can combine it with traditional marketing channels like radio, TVs, and billboards.

Think about your budget

What is the cost of using each available channel? If you’re starting a new business, you should set a budget to benchmark from. For an established business, you should analyze last year’s budget and check whether your needs were fulfilled. Do you have sufficient resources to utilize the channel mix selected? If you’re short of funds, you may want to combine your resources with a local partner. The most important thing to do is to prioritize the marketing channels that have a high ROI. As you assign the budget on each channel, make sure you don’t miss the hidden costs that may compromise your campaign. Of course, you have to stick to the budget to achieve long-term goals.

Establish the timing and frequency

Write down the marketing channels that can complement each other. Just to make sure the timing makes sense; you should determine the costs you incur in a specific period. The frequency also determines the effectiveness of the marketing channel. For example, if you run an online business, it doesn’t make sense to start a TV campaign. You should invest more on social media and PPC to market your products to your target audience. Think of the existing activities and cost considerations. For instance, if you’re using email marketing to market your products or services, you should determine how often you’ll send the emails. This could be daily, weekly, monthly. The time also matters. You don’t want to send an email to a prospect in the middle of the night. The same applies to other marketing channels.

Unlike social media, email marketing has easy performance metrics like click-through rates, open rates, bounce rates, etc. Sometimes, it works better than marketing with websites, blogs, or social media. According to email marketing stats, for every $1 spent on marketing, you get a return on investment of about $38. Emails that have personalized messages are opened more frequently than generalized emails.

Evaluating the placement options

The business owner or a marketing director should understand where the customer is most likely to make the purchase. When you use multiple channels, you can target a wider customer base. If a specific channel serves a niche market, you should use it in a particular area. This is because the perceived value of the product or service is tied to its availability.

If you plan to use social media channels, you should consider Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Look for those that align with your business goals. It’s estimated that 91% of businesses use more than one social media channel. However, if you know your target audience is not on a social media platform, do not use it. For example, if you are targeting adults who are retired, you may not want to use Instagram or LinkedIn. This is because that audience is typically not on these platforms.

The bottom-line

A marketing mix should put the right product or service in the right place. Think about how the channels complement each other. How will each contribute to the achievement of your goals? Most importantly, you should pay attention to sources of communication. Finally, you must cross-check on the effectiveness of the marketing mix. Does the promotional material keep up with the channels proposed? Do the channels reinforce the value of the product?

If you need any help deciding on your marketing mix, please contact us. Our team would be more than happy to help you decide which marketing tactics would be the most effective for your business. Additionally, we will help you evaluate which channels you should continue using after you get started. So, please send us a message if you would like. We look forward to hearing from you!