Good Marketing & Promotion Techniques

by Sam Ashe-Edmunds
Effective marketing techniques rely on research and creativity.

Effective marketing techniques rely on research and creativity.

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Many people use the words “marketing” and “promotions” as synonyms, even though they are quite different, with one supporting the other. Marketing includes all of the upfront product development, pricing and distribution strategies you need to create, with advertising, promotions and public relations using that information to effectively communicate messages to consumers. To create good marketing and promotion techniques, follow the “Four P’s” formula.


One of the most important marketing techniques is creating a product that people want by identifying a benefit consumers want and creating a unique selling point based on that consumer demand. You might need to add features if the benefit customers want is a specific outcome or reduce features if their main demand is affordability. Focus groups, surveys and researching your competitor are all techniques you can use to develop or improve your product.


Pricing your product is a function of marketing, not accounting. It’s important to know what your costs to make and sell your product are, but your marketing strategies will determine your final price. Depending on your competition, type of consumer you’re targeting and image you want to set for your product, you might set your prices lower than the competition, trying to make your profits on volume. If you have low costs of sales and an affluent target customer, you might set your prices higher than the competition to create a more desirable image among fewer consumers, making your profits on high margins.


Another important marketing technique is to choose the right places to sell your product or service. If you create a product that’s perfect for senior citizens but sell it only on the Internet, your marketing plan is unsound. If you’re skilled at making a product but not selling it, using wholesalers and distributors might be your best bet. Learn where your competitors are selling and ask your customers and potential customers where they want to buy to create an effective distribution strategy.


Once you know exactly what you’re going to sell, what your unique benefit is, what price you’re setting and where you’re going to sell, it’s time to promote your product or service. Test a mix of advertising and promotions before you commit your entire budget. Use a mix of in-store promotions such as sales, discounts, point-of-purchase displays and demonstrations, along with external promotions. Take advantage of social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest and LinkedIn to get people promoting you to their friends and business associates. A helpful technique for evaluating the performance of your promotions is to calculate the return on your investment of each, rather than the sales each generates. For example, a celebrity endorsement might generate the most sales, but by the time you’re done paying the celebrity, creating signs, placing ads and organizing press conferences, your cost to run this type of promotion might reduce your profits to much less than you earn with free or low-cost social media campaigns.

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