By Sarah Giometti | Marketing
If you study marketing at all, you’ll come across an area called marketing communications. In that area, you’ll consistently hear about the “Four P’s.” What are the Four P’s, you ask? Why it’s price, place, promotion, and product, of course! Blah, blah, blah – how boring!
The only thing you really need to know about marketing communications is this: it is simply the message and media you use to communicate with your market . . . period. Do you need to study up on the Four P’s, or even the Seven P’s (good lord, there are seven?!), and how to properly convey them to a market? Not really. What you DO need to figure out is who your market is and what they want. Then you communicate with them in a consistent manner so they understand and recognize who you are, what you’re about, and how you can help them.
I’ve said it for years . . . business is all about building relationships. You can study marketing and all of its intricacies, and drive yourself nuts trying to figure it all out. But your time will be better spent building relationships with your customers. You don’t always buy the product with the best price. For that matter, you don’t always buy the best product. You buy the product you want at a price you can afford from someone you trust.
Marketing communications strategies go into great detail about how to talk to your customers. But didn’t we learn in school that communication is a two-way street? If you don’t actively listen to your customer, are you REALLY communicating with them . . . or are you just talking TO them? I contend that the marketing communications you learned about in your college marketing class mostly revolves around advertising and/or is outbound in nature.
To truly communicate with your customers, you MUST listen to them. They know what they want and they want someone to listen to them. Your customers are looking for what you have right now. Will they find you? If they do, will you listen to them? Worry less about the Four P’s and use your Two E’s instead – your Two Ears.
Listen to your customers with an Digital Marketing strategy and you will be engaged in TRUE marketing communications!
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