Blogging Strategy: Online Marketing Mix

The Marketing Mix is one of the most famous marketing concepts, it refers to the elements of the marketing strategy which are designed to meet the needs of the customers and to support a company’s product or service offering.

Traditionally the Marketing Mix has been represented by four “Ps”: Product, Price, Promotion and Place. In simple words, the product must suit the customer’s needs, the pricing structure must be in line with the company objectives, the promotion techniques used must be efficient for the target market and the distribution channels must ensure that the product will be available on the right places.

One could use those four “Ps” to perform a marketing analysis of manufacturing and production businesses, but in order to apply them to online entities like websites or blogs we must redefine the four concepts. Below you will find the four “Ps” of the Online Marketing Mix.

From Product to Purpose: instead of a suitable product website owners and bloggers must have a clear purpose. This purpose will help you to define what you should and what you should not do with your blog. Secondly it will also make clear for your readers what they should expect from the blog, explicating what is the value that they will get out of reading it. Online success comes from understanding one simple rule: “it is not about you (author), it is about them (readers)”.

From Promotion to Persuasion: innovative media such as blogs, wikis and social networks are changing the flow of information on our society. Until some years ago companies had almost complete control of the promotion factor. Today, however, customers and users control half of the equation. They are able to rate products, express their opinion and recommend stuff to their friends or online communities. As a blogger you need to persuade (in a positive way) your readers, making them want to share your ideas and recommend your information to their friends.

Form Place to Presence: the term place has lost its meaning on the new economy. Today you are able to create a company and offer your services worldwide without leaving your room, as long as you have an Internet connection. Instead of place bloggers should focus on the presence. In simple words, where are people looking for information? What are the different ways that they could use to discover your blog and your content? Examples include online portals, article directories, forums, social networks, other blogs, advertising placements, online communities and so on.

From Price to Personalization: most of the services and information online are free, meaning that the price element is inadequate. Before paying attention to monetization options, in fact, bloggers and webmasters should focus on the personalization issue. The Web 2.0 phenomenon is growing fast because it shifts the power to the users. People want to be able to read their news on the most appropriate device, they want to personalize their home page, to tag their content, to share their favorite videos. And what is more important, they want to do all that on a smooth way. Make sure that your blog reflects that trend. Practically speaking make sure that you offer RSS feeds, email subscription, comment subscription. Secondly make it easy for people to comment, to contact you, send personalized emails and so on.