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As
discussed in part one of the
Five P’s of Marketing, the Marketing Mix is made up of the following
variables.
Product
– the product or
service offered to the customer
Price
– pricing strategies with the goal of meeting a desired profit margin
Place
(Distribution)
– distribution of the product/service to your target market
Promotion
– communication and endorsement of your product/service to a customer
People
– service marketing and the level of customer service you provide to
your customer
Each of these variables has a diverse effect on search engine marketing.
The question becomes what role does each of these variables play in
search marketing efforts? Let’s look it from the eyes of a website
owner who is marketing their product or service through their website.
Product
The Product portion of the marketing mix applies to SEM in various
respects. Of course it refers to the products and services that you
provide on your website. Whether you incorporate the use a shopping
cart on your site, or provide an online service you need to market your
product/service online. This may include establishing a sponsored
campaign using key phrases that pertain to your product or service, or
this may include optimization for your site for branded phrases that
pertain to your product or service offering. Does your website convey
the features and benefits of your product/service? Your online
marketing efforts need to communicate this. Search engine marketing
definitely plays a key role with the Product variable of the marketing
mix.
Price
You may have noticed that many sites who sell their products online tend
to offer better prices online than offline. (Pier One and Ikea are good
examples). Many sites offer discounts on your next online purchase with
them. Pricing strategies are as important online as they are in
physical bricks and mortar locations. With so much competition out
there, employing proper pricing strategies on your site is a must.
Using search marketing to get users to your site is the first step.
Communicating clear pricing on your site is a necessity if you are
looking to succeed in the online marketing of your business.
Place (Distribution)
Search engine marketing has a definite impact on the distribution of
your product/service via an online medium. Depending on the stage of
the buying cycle consumers are at, many people use search to
research and/or purchase products online and quite often offline. If
your site is not found in the prime real estate of the search engines,
you are going to have a hard time marketing your product online. Search
engine marketing can get you there. Think of search as an online
distribution channel for getting your product/service to satisfy the
needs of the consumer.
Promotion
Your website can act like a book or catalog with web pages of your
products for potential customers to browse and hopefully purchase.
Through search engine marketing efforts you can promote your brand, your
service, your
unique online competitive advantage, conversion points and more.
Search engine marketing plays a distinct role in the promotion of your
site whether it is through a sponsored campaign or through organic
efforts. Simply put, if you want to have an effective online presence
you need a strong search engine marketing campaign to help provide that
presence.
People
As mentioned in
part one of this series, the fifth P in the marketing mix is for
People. (People, meaning your service and support staff.) So how does
this variable in the marketing mix apply to search engine marketing?
Not only does this include your online support staff (who answer any
questions and concerns that your consumers have), but in this case the
people variable also refers to those involved in the creation,
promotion and upkeep of your site. This may include your web design
team, your marketing team, and even your search engine marketing firm
that you may be using. Combined these people are helping to ensure that
the other variables of the marketing mix are in place so that you can
achieve online success.
To
answer the question, do the Five P’s of Marketing play a role in search
engine marketing? The answer is yes of most definitely. A better
question to ask yourself may be what role does search engine marketing
play in your marketing mix? |
Jody Nimetz