We all know the four Ps, you don’t have to have a marketing degree for that. Getting your marketing mix exactly right, that’s the tricky part. Positioning your brand exactly right can be the difference between failure and success. Getting it right makes you sell more, loads more. So how about your online marketing mix? Do the four P’s apply online? Of course they do! But your approach to them should be different. Here are my four P’s for ecommerce:
Product
Does your product meet the rules of ecommerce? That is, can it be shipped? Is it more convenient to buy online? And how about customer involvement?
Products that can’t easily be shipped tend to be difficult to sell online. Products that are easily shipped do better, but the best products to sell online are the ones that don’t need shipping: digital products. Convenience is also important. You’re not going to order a six pack online if you’re thirsty right now, but if you’re looking for a rare baseball card you would rather buy online than drive 100 miles to the nearest shop that has them right? Product involvement is becoming less and less important, but some people do still want to ‘see before they buy’ or ‘try before they buy.’ This is usually not possible online.
Price
People tend to still associate the internet with cheap or even free. How often do you hear someone say “don’t buy that here, buy it online, it’s cheaper?” Price comparison websites and of course Google Shopping are making a competitive price even more important. If you can’t compete on price, try offering free delivery or a volume discount.
Place
This is of course your website. The quality of your ecommerce website can easily be measured by looking at its results: your conversion. How many visitors actually buy? In an average sector, a good ecommerce website converts about 2 per cent of all visitors. Some people think it is all about the traffic, whereas in fact it is really all about the conversion. Doubling your traffic might be incredibly difficult and costly, whereas doubling your conversion might be as simple as improving your check out process a little.
Promotion
There are three core ways to promote your website: Search Engine Optimisation, Affiliate and PPC marketing and Social Media Marketing. SEO can be time consuming, but pays off in the long run in the form of free traffic. PPC and Affiliate marketing will get you fast results, but unfortunately it comes with a cost. If your profit margin is large enough, PPC is a no brainer. Social Media Marketing is also time consuming and you have to know what you are doing. But if you nail it the results will be far greater than you would have ever imagined. Create a buzz around your offer on the social networks and your traffic can go up one thousand fold.
