Marketing - what it is?

Marketing is about stimulating the right buying action. In simple terms, the definition of marketing includes many different disciplines, strategies and tactics used by companies, including the crypto market making Liquid Lines team, to position products and services in the market and motivate target audiences to make a purchase.

Defining Marketing Objectives

For all its complexity, defining marketing goals consists of 4Ps:

• Product, products.

• Price, price.

• Promotion, promotion.

• Place, place.

Tactics and channels change, but this is the basic concept around which everything else is built. And these parts of marketing are the same. 

Some models describe marketing processes more broadly. For example, marketing sections can include up to 7Ps: People are added, Process is added, and Physical evidence is added. There are other options as well, and there are many. But for a basic understanding of what is included in marketing, the classic 4 principles are enough.

Products and services

A product or service in the language of marketing is what the company sells, be it a product or a consultation, for example. From a product marketing point of view, the following should be defined:

• How many product variations or product lines do you need to sell?
  For example, an automaker might think about which categories of cars to produce - SUVs, crossovers, or pickups.

• How should they be packaged or presented?
  If a company makes car mats, should they come in boxes, bags, or other packaging?

• How will it be served?
  The answer may include warranties, return policies, and so on.

Marketers can take part in the process of designing products and determining what features they should include. 

Price

This is the answer to the question: "How much is a thing", but not only. If a company's marketing is aimed at stimulating income, then prices should be set at a level supported by the market. 

Here are some examples of what is relevant to price marketing: 

• What is the market rate per unit of product?
  This requires some market analysis and competition research to determine the marketing conditions: what is the fair price for a product, given the cost of producing it, and how much people are willing to pay.

• How to calculate and apply discounts?
  In terms of marketing, this is, for example, determining whether it is sometimes worth selling a product at a discount, or whether the price remains the same.

• Does it make sense to provide customers with multiple payment options?
  A car dealership, for example, may offer lending options rather than expecting customers to pay the full price in advance.

Promotion

Once a product has appeared, it needs to be promoted so that people know that it even exists. This is a marketing promotion function.

• What channels will be used to advertise the product?
  For marketing terms, this is a list of online and offline channels.

• Where will it be promoted?
  Marketing in business must choose places of promotion - Internet or offline, events, ambassadorship, and so on.

• What targeted message do you need to convey?
  Here the marketing goals are to determine which texts and which messages will tell the audience what kind of product it is and will encourage them to buy it.

A place

The right product must be in the right place so that it can be easily found and bought.

From a marketing perspective, the Place Principle is the answer to one question.

• Where is the product distributed?
  Marketing functions in this case mean the definition of whether the product will be sold in certain places or in all possible ones? For example, it makes no sense to wholesale fur coats and sheepskin coats in Sochi.

Marketing: Briefly about the main thing

Good marketing is based on strategy. Its essence can be reduced to the answers to the questions:

• Who is the target audience?

• What should they do and how can they be encouraged to do so?

• Choosing tactics to achieve goals

The target audience

Here, the main goal of marketing is to find out who these people are, when and where they can be found, what tactics, channels and events should be used to reach representatives of the target audience that are interesting to the business. 

Necessary actions and motivation for them

At this stage, marketing processes are an accurate understanding of where the client is at: from the first acquaintance with a product or having a problem, to exploring various options and making a real purchase. This is all called a marketing funnel.

Defining tactics

The final stage after determining the marketing strategy is the choice of tactics that must be applied to achieve the goals, relying on the functions and types of marketing.

8 key areas of modern marketing

The functions and types of marketing are very diverse. Here are some of the most basic ones.

Content marketing

The main idea of ​​content marketing is the creation of content that helps inform the audience and solve its problems. In this type, marketing tasks are:

• audience definition;

• building trust;

• increase in sales.

Includes content from websites, social media, print, or any other type of marketing material.

SMM-marketing

Social media marketing provides organic reach on popular social media platforms. This marketing is for:

• increasing brand awareness;

• community development;

• presenting content and products to new subscribers.

Targeted and PPC ads

Marketing goals are to successfully sell products directly through the Web when it comes to targeting and advertising. Allows you to see exactly the following:

• how much the company spends;

• how much revenue the advertising efforts generate.

The definition and concept of targeting and advertising marketing includes promotion in marketplaces, on search and in networks, push notifications, instant messengers and mobile applications.

Newsletter by e-mail

One thing about newsletter marketing is that it is ideal when it comes to increasing conversions. According to  H ub S po t , the ROI on email marketing ranges from 3800% to 4200%. This means that each ruble spent brings in from 38 to 42 rubles of income.

Video marketing

What does video marketing include? These viral videos posted on YouTube, Wistia, Vimeo, networks and search, and so on, allow you to attract new audiences and build brand loyalty.

SEO marketing

Search Engine Optimization SEO is the process of structuring content and performing other tasks that help improve a site's search engine rankings. The main goal of marketing is to attract a target audience interested in the topics and products that the company sells.

Influencer marketing

Why talk about your products yourself when there are bloggers, influencers and other influencers who can promote them? This is the essence of influencer marketing. It involves working with popular people in a specific niche or industry to present their products to their audience.

Remarketing and retargeting

Allows you to return visitors and customers who are already familiar with the company's products, but have not yet made a purchase.