Summary: In session 7 of A Marketing Podcast I discuss the development of a marketing mix as part of your marketing strategy. The marketing mix is the biggest and most complex part of your strategy. In this session I break down the development into three simple steps and identify some things to keep in mind as you validate your mix.<br><br> <br> Session 7: Show Notes<br> Recap of Previous Sessions (related to strategy development):<br> <br> * <a href="http://www.amarketingpodcast.com/marketing-strategy-template/">[FREE DOWNLOAD] Small Business Marketing Strategy Template</a><br> * <a href="http://www.amarketingpodcast.com/session2/" target="_blank">Session 2: What is a marketing strategy and why do I need one?</a><br> * <a href="http://www.amarketingpodcast.com/session2/" target="_blank">Session 3: Establishing goals and objectives</a><br> * <a href="http://www.amarketingpodcast.com/session4/">Session 4: Understanding and developing your target audiences</a><br> * <a href="http://www.amarketingpodcast.com/session5/" target="_blank">Session 5: Performing a marketing SWOT analysis</a><br> * <a href="http://www.amarketingpodcast.com/session6/">Session 6: Creating your selling proposition</a><br> <br> What is a marketing mix?<br> <br> Some marketers associate, or even assimilate, the 4 p’s of marketing to the marketing mix<br> <br> Quick overview on the 4 P’s – thanks to E J McCarthy in 1960.<br> <br> Product/Service<br> Place<br> Price<br> Promotion<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> At AMP I refer to the marketing mix as the group of tactics you plan to use to execute your marketing strategy<br> <br> Goals for your marketing mix<br> <br> By defining a set of tactics it allows you to focus on tactics that are determined to be highly likely to succeed, and avoid others along the way<br> It’s not to shut down the potential of doing other tactics, we’ll talk about adjusting as we go in the session about executing your strategy <br> To provide yet another guideline for your marketing – it’s another piece of the road-map<br> <br> Things to consider when developing your marketing mix<br> <br> * Now is a good point in the development of your marketing strategy to get help from a professional marketer if you feel you need some help<br> * The marketing mix, although it will guide us, is not set in stone. We still need to be realistic and somewhat agile in regards to the tactics we use<br> * Forget about budget – we’re not there yet – plus it kills your brainstorming<br> <br> Developing your mix<br> Step 1 – Brainstorm<br> List out all the tactics you can think of:<br> <br> * Tactics you think will work<br> * Tactics you’ve tried in the past<br> * Tactics you’ve seen others try<br> * Tactics that are popular at the time<br> * Online and offline<br> <br> In the template I have outlined some basic tactical groups to get you started, those are:<br> <br> * Advertising (TV, radio, magazine, newspaper, SEM, display network, video on sites like Youtube, sponsorship’s of events, etc)<br> * Content Marketing<br> * Inbound Marketing<br> * Social Media<br> * Presentations<br> * Public speaking, conferences, trade-shows, webinars, etc)<br> * Events<br> * Print Media (direct mail, coupons, pamphlets, newspaper, magazines etc)<br> * PR<br> * Email Marketing & Communications<br> * Experiential marketing<br> * And so on<br> <br> Again this is a good step to get a marketing professional involved. This is where they will provide a ton of value from a tactical idea point of view.<br> Step 2 – Order by effectiveness<br> Reorder your tactics in order of effectiveness using the following criteria:<br> <br> * Refer to our goals and objectives<br> * Refer to our audiences<br> <br> Step 3 – Validation<br> The following list of items must be checked off for each of the tact...
