How do you choose a promotional mix?

Identifying objectives should be an easy task for marketers. Ultimately, marketing is a sales support function and we need to make sure that all of our goals boil down to revenue generation. It's easy to fall into the trap of looking at vanity metrics and assigning value to engagement but without a clear view of revenue and attribution from marketing, you can easily spend money creating nothing. Revenue / Awareness and Engagement / Tactics... it's as simple as that, the complexity of marketing comes from how well you apply the tactics.

> audience mapping > measurable goals > considering product & budget factors. balancing strategies with costs > leverage owned, earned & paid channels > test & optimize > build in agility to take advantage of new platforms > ensure consistency and ensure coordination > blending online & offline outreach IMO, a successful promotional plan tailor's activity to audiences, systematically tests effectiveness and continually optimizes mix and messaging sustaining careful coordination across channels, we can achieve cut-through and engagement.

Choosing a promotional mix involves carefully selecting the right combination of marketing tools and strategies to effectively reach and engage your target audience. Start by understanding your target market's preferences, behaviors, and media consumption habits. Consider the nature of your product or service and your marketing objectives, whether it's brand awareness, lead generation, or customer retention. Evaluate different promotional channels such as advertising, public relations, sales promotions, personal selling, and digital marketing, assessing their potential impact and cost-effectiveness.

Align your promotional mix with your overall marketing strategy, ensuring consistency in messaging and branding across all channels. Additionally, monitor and analyze the performance of each promotional activity, making adjustments as needed to optimize results. A well-chosen promotional mix leverages the strengths of various channels to create a cohesive and powerful marketing campaign.

Choosing a promotional mix involves strategically combining different marketing tools to effectively reach and engage your target audience. Key considerations include understanding your target market's preferences and behaviors, setting clear promotional objectives, and aligning them with your overall marketing goals. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each promotional tool—advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing—to determine which combination will best convey your message and stimulate desired responses. Additionally, consider your budget, the competitive landscape, and the unique selling points of your product or service to ensure a cohesive and impactful promotional strategy.

A massively underrated aspect of market research is just asking people. Don't be afraid to jump on sales calls or demos and get a feel for the people (and after the initial engagement), even asking specific questions to help build your understanding. Don't use assumptions of your audience, the only thing doing that guarantees is that you'll be wrong. To what degree you'll never know...

Remember that having an actionable insight that is relevant for a given touchpoint along the customer journey is key to motivate your target audience. And validate your target market assumptions by conducting A/B testing and pilot campaigns before committing your entire campaign.

In the world of platforms, ecommerce and deliveries, the only true competitive advantage is user experience of the product. The sharper the UX and the smarter the platform is when it comes to anticipating demand & recommending the right purchases, the further ahead you'll stay ahead of competitors. Competitors will always converge around your winning product feature rapidly, so Marketing will always need to work super closely with Product to innovate further. Therefore, Marketing and Product should sit in the same entity and speak daily. Unfortunately I don't see this taking place in many organisations.

When we do this, we try to start with a clean slate. As in, what worked before may not work this time. We never assume that just because we like a certain tactic or methodology it will work again. We look at the target market, think about what they're doing and come up with ways to effectively engage them. Sometimes those ways aren't exciting and that's okay.

Choosing the right promotional methods is pivotal in marketing. Assess your objectives, target audience, and competitive edge. Create a balanced mix tailored to your specific needs. Each method has its strengths; advertising for wide reach, sales promotion for short-term boosts, PR for credibility, personal selling for relationship building, direct marketing for personalization, and digital marketing for online presence. Combining these approaches effectively ensures engagement throughout the buyer's journey. Flexibility in your promotional mix can be a strategic advantage.

Budget allocation in marketing should align with your goals and resources. Consider various approaches, such as a percentage of sales, cost-based estimates, competitor benchmarks, and affordability after expenses. A mix of these methods can provide a balanced and flexible budget strategy. Prioritize the promotional methods that align best with your objectives and target audience. Regularly review and adjust your budget allocation to optimize ROI and adapt to changing market dynamics. Tailored budget planning is key to effective marketing resource utilization.

Always be aware of potential biases when measuring the results of any campaign, e.g. the confirmation bias that you may avoid by searching out ways in which the data proves you're wrong, rather than the ways in which you're right. Be also prepared to share your findings with other stakeholders that may have other ways to analyze the data and be prepared for their challenges. Lastly, be aware that market conditions may change rapidly, for example your competitors may launch a new product to counter your communication strategy or may implement innovative point-of-sales tactics. Stay agile and adaptive in your promotional approach.

By asking five simple questions: 1- What my customer wants to see? 2- What my customer wants to read? 3- What my customer wants to hear? 4- Where my customer wants to find my message? 5- When my customer wants to receive that message? By answering these five questions I will have a clear vision about the my promotional mix strategy and plan and I will easily set and allocate my promotion budget.