eMarketing Trends|Verbal Acrobatics & Graphic Gymnastics

So as most people in the marketing field know (or should know) the 4 traditional P’s of the marketing mix are:

1. Product
2. Price
3. Place (distribution)
4. Promotion

Now this model was designed somewhere in the 1940’s and has served the marketing industry fairly well. However with the emergence of the World Wide Web and  the infiltration of the internet into the marketing fraternity I have decided to come up with the 4 M’s of the digital marketing mix.

Now some of you may think that by choosing M’s I am bowing to the inherent narcissism of somebody whose name starts with an M, you are probably correct but it works pretty well too. So without further grandstanding here are my 4 M’s

1. Moment of relevance
2. Multi-channel
3. Message
4. Measurability

Moment of relevance

This is a moment in time when a consumer decides they need a certain product/service/information source and actively pursues this commodity. How is this important to internet marketing? Well in order to satisfy the consumer the product/service/information must be immediately visible and available to the consumer as soon as they start the search process. This availability of the commodity must be facilitated by the internet marketer.

A great example of this is Google. You see Google excels at matching  customers needs/wants with products/services/information available as they leverage computer and contextual targeting tools to automatically place ads at the moment of most relevance for the consumer.

Multi-Channel

Now some of you may think that digital marketing is THE channel however you are WRONG. Digital Marketing is an umbrella for a multi-channel offering. Search Engine Marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, mobile marketing and blogs are but a few examples of different channels within digital marketing.

There is such a multitude of channels that any kind of target market can be reached via one of the assorted channels and the message to these target markets can be tailor made for the channel on which the message is best presented most well received.

Message

Now ever since the marketing industry has been around marketers have been striving for the best possible message that can be delivered to their target market. The fact that this is an examination on digital marketing still does not change this fact. However there is much more information out there since the advent of the internet that can help internet marketers develop a more effective and in particular targeted message.

What this means is that a certain advertising message can be tailor made depending on your location, the time your search commences, previous purchase choices, your gender and the list could go on. This is once again due to the “digital footprint” a consumer leaves while spending time on the internet.

Messages can also be easily adapted for different channels in digital marketing, for example it’s a lot easier to convert a mobile ad to a Google Adwords ad than it is to convert a print ad to a T.V ad

Measurability

Now in the past when one was asked to measure the number of consumers exposed to some advertisement on a particular medium (radio for example) the marketer responsible for the ad could give a vague estimate based on a random questionnaire given to a small sample of people who might listen to the particular ad. For me that doesn’t sound accurate at all.

Now in the digital age there are almost no limitations on what kinds of indicators within a digital campaign that can be reported on. From the time an average person has spent on my website to the amount of people who mention my companies name on blogs, all these factors are measurable. For example I can track what keywords an internet explorer user based in Timbuktu is using to land on my site and how long he is viewing each page for.

How does this impact us as marketers? Three little letters ROI!! For the longest time marketers have struggled to convince their clients to part with their hard earned company revenues, they had vague and unconvincing proof for why their clients should advertise. Now with all KPI’s being tracked and measured digital marketers can show how much or in some cases little impact their ads are having on ROI

So there is my little update on the traditional marketing mix, it is by no means exhaustive and I welcome any additions, as long as they start with an M