Invest in your new or scaling business with foundational marketing
“To each their own” is a common phrase that can be applied to laying the groundwork of your marketing plan. Each person involved in creating the plan may have different ideas of what foundational marketing strategies to use. Our team focuses on our strategies from an inbound marketing approach that prioritizes intentional and helpful efforts at every stage of the customer journey to establish ourselves as a reliable and indispensable asset to our partners.
In this week’s podcast episode, Marketing Manager Jailyn and Digital Marketing Specialist Allie share our top 5 foundational marketing strategies and how to use the 4 Ps of Marketing to help create a marketing plan.
Read the full transcript from Episode 43
*Previously recorded as 301: The Redirect Podcast as Trademark Productions.
Jailyn:
Welcome back to the 301: The Redirect Podcast. I’m Jailyn.
Allie:
And I’m Allie.
Jailyn:
And today we are going to talk about foundational marketing strategies for new businesses. So when you’re starting a new business or a new venture, it’s super important to have certain foundations laid. Last week we talked about, um, having a marketing plan and what do you do with that? So this week we’re gonna talk about the Four Ps of Marketing. And so it’s this thing that’s been around for ages, and a foundation to help you lay out, you know, what exactly our business does. So those Four Ps include product, place, price and promotion. So of course, what are you selling? And even if you’re not product-based, it’s your service, so what service are you offering for customers? Um, that price, what is the price point that you’re offering it at? Promotion, what are you doing to promote it? So is it, you know, word of mouth? Is it digital marketing? Whatever that strategy is, that’s what that, um, promotion would be. And then also place, so is it online? Is it brick and mortar? Is it another, you know, asset or aspect that you are selling that product or service at? So that’s super important to make sure that you have listed down, in addition to that marketing plan, um, so you can have it down. And even too, like it can go as far out as more Ps.
Allie:
Another P would be passion, so really what’s making you stand out, you know, and makes you special against your competitors and really just why people choose you?
Jailyn:
Yep. Yep. And too, like it, it doesn’t have to be the standard of what we see. Like we know those Four Ps are standard, but if you wanted to add other Ps into your Four P of Marketing, by all means, it’s your marketing strategy for your business to help you stand out from your competitors, so that one that Allie mentioned, passion, is perfect, because it helps you to kinda break that mold and like be outside of the crowd to show like why your business or your organization is, you know, special.
So today, we’re gonna talk about, in addition to those Four Ps, like what do we think those foundational strategies are?
Allie:
So for foundational strategies, we really like to frame it, you know, through the lens of inbound marketing, so we really just wanna make sure that we’re prioritizing intentional and just really helpful efforts with all of the content and services that we are providing all of our clients.
Okay. So five strategies that we really like to focus on, you know, for new businesses or for businesses that are looking to scale themselves up, um, I really just break it down into four parts. Sorry, five parts. So refining your brand identity, creating messaging architectures, you know, you wanna be able to leverage organic presence, you wanna invest in a customer relationship management system, and you also wanna utilize paid marketing. So Jailyn, out of all five of those that I mentioned, which one do you think is the most important to you?
Jailyn:
Well, they’re all good, it’s really hard to pick one. I’m a little biased, but I’m gonna go with the CRM, so customer relationship management tool. So we use HubSpot, we are a HubSpot solutions partner, so that’s why I’m a little biased. But I do think that it is super important, um, because like we talked about last week, you have your marketing plan, so you already kind of like what metrics or what type of strategies you’re using, so that CRM system helps you to have all your contacts in one place, it helps you to have all of their information, any kind of like history or communication from emails in there, and even it’s a marketing tool, so email marketing, you can set up forms, you can set up landing plages, blog posts, even schedule social media. So that one for me, it’s kind of like almost a three-in-one type of tool where you can just do more than just have contacts. You can have contacts, you can do communication, you can market a little bit more than just some other things that listed, even though they’re still all good, but I’m picking the CRM.
Allie:
Exactly, and that’s the thing with it is we’re all going to be a little bit biased and we’re gonna choose things, you know, that we’re really familiar with or that we’re super excited about. So for me, you know, being in digital marketing and working with all of our social media clients, I’m going to gravitate more toward organic presence.
So, you know, really just being able to engage on social media, you know, doing some SEO and, you know, nurturing the search engine, being able to help, you know, drive traffic to our client, you know, that’s what I gravitate to. So I think the thing that’s really important about, you know, foundational marketing strategies, is that every single client, every single agency, every single person is going to have different strategies in their tool box. So by no means is this, you know, a really prohibitive list that you need to 100% focus on, we’re just rounding up, you know, just the top five things that are important, and also sometimes kind of forgotten about.
Jailyn:
Yeah.
Allie:
I feel like a lot of people, you know, wanna jump on the hottest trend or, you know, the upcoming platforms, you know, especially TikTok, but they don’t really have any strategies or ideas behind, you know, what they’re gonna do after they actually create an account on that platform.
Jailyn:
Yes, totally agree. And even too, the last one that we mentioned in that strategy is paid advertising. And while paid advertising is great, going back to Allie’s point, we need to establish an organic presence first before we’re spending money and targeting towards an audience that we don’t even know is, you know, gonna convert. So even too, like having that organic but then also doing… if you do paid ads, like maybe doing like a ‘like’ campaign on Facebook, or a traffic generation, um, campaign to start getting that like data first before going into like lead generation or website conversions, because those cost for clicks are higher, um, so doesn’t make sense to burn money if you don’t know what direction you’re going in. So I would say that one would be more so like a last resort, but it’s still super important after you establish whatever foundational strategy works best for your business.
Allie:
Exactly. And I think a really important thing to remember is that all of these different strategies need to be able to work together. So, you know, being able to leverage your organic presence, and also, you know, being able to nurture that audience and then transition into paid marketing to keep your CPC low. So that’s super important to realize, you know, and see a real life example of, you know, how they’re related to each other.
Jailyn:
Mm-hmm. Sorry, I just drew another blank. I’m trying to think of where to go from here.
Allie:
So, another one of our foundational marketing strategies is creating messaging architectures. So, you know, kind of going back to our marketing plan, being able to have, you know, that elevator pitch, but also making sure that your team across the board, no matter who they are within your company or your business, they know, why your business stands, what you have to offer clients. Because if you’re walking down a street and you run into somebody and you just, you know, get to chit-chatting, and you’re like, “Oh hey, like I work over here,” and they’re like, “But what do you do?”
Jailyn:
Mm-hmm.
Allie:
“What does your business do?”
Jailyn:
Mm-hmm.
Allie:
You need to be able to explain that.
Jailyn:
Exactly. And that’s super important to have documented, ’cause it’s, it’s good to know it, but of course, everything needs to be documented, so it is a walking, in a sense, advertisement or onboarding document that is given to, um, new hires, even existing management, you know, or hire ups that are not really involved in that aspect of the marketing world. Um, but having them being able to understand like what’s that brand identity, what’s that messaging that comes behind that is super important for them as well.
Allie:
Exactly. And I think that really lends itself nicely into, you know, word-of-mouth marketing.
Jailyn:
Mm-hmm.
Allie:
Because for me, a lot of my family, they own small businesses, so I know a big network of people, you know, that own their own businesses. So when they find out that I work for a digital marketing agency, they’re like, “Oh, what do you do?
Jailyn:
Yep.
Allie:
You know, specifically that I work within, you know, digital marketing, so email, social, but there’s so many other services that our agency has to offer. So being able to have, you know, the language to be able to describe all of the services that we have and kind of sell them on it.
Jailyn:
Yep. (laughs) Yeah, and I mean, word of mouth is never going away, like ever, so we always have to take that into consideration too, because it’s great that everything is moving, or, you know, has been online, but you still have conversations with people every day, no matter if it’s family, friends, strangers when you’re going into Target or anything else, um, that word of mouth is definitely important. And even too, outside of like digital, just this is kind of pivoting off, like that’s why merch is so important like T-shirts and mugs and cups, because that helps with identity too. Because if you have on a T-shirt with your brand, and it’s like, “Oh, like, I heard of that brand before, like I could use them for my business.” So then that ties into, okay, that’s, that’s the first step of like getting them in. And then when they go to your website, the website should just convert them from there, because the first step was them seeing that logo or whatever that merch item was, and then them, you know, being interested enough to go to the website and take that next step.
Allie:
Exactly. And I think the fact that they actually, you know, saw somebody wearing that shirt, even if it’s a stranger versus somebody they know that feels more personalized than it does, you know, getting a targeted ad, or just kind of like driving down the road looking through, you know, um, a Google business directory looking for those services.
Jailyn:
And that brings up a good point too, because while ads are great sometimes, like they’re great for us because of course it’s our agency, like we do it in-house, um, so that is something that we are very knowledgeable in, we get how it works, but on the flip side as a consumer, it can be a little creepy, because sometimes you’re just targeted ads where it’s like, “Oh, I thought about this one product, or maybe I just went to the website and of course it’s tracking me from there, so it’s showing me that ad.” So sometimes, ads can be like, “Okay, like it’s a little invasive, like it’s a little bit too much, like maybe I don’t wanna go with you because of the fact that you are targeting me an ad because of this reason.” Um, so I just think that needs to be taken into account too, because it’s great for people who are actually searching, you know, keywords in Google for specific things, you pop up for an ad, people convert, great, that is what the ad is for. But we also have to be on the realistic side of marketing and just make sure that we are still choosing, you know, avenues and efforts that don’t necessarily overwhelm the customer as well.
Allie:
Exactly. And that’s what I really like about CRMs, is though even though we’re automating some of our tasks and different processes that we do to be able to perform our outreach, you know, we’re still able to have those personalized touch points so it doesn’t seem like-
Jailyn:
Mm-hmm.
Allie:
… as, you know, as creepy.
Jailyn:
Yeah. Yeah. ‘Cause I mean, personalization is the name of the game right now, like everybody wants to be, you know, I want my name in an email, like basically I want to know that you’re actually talking to me and it’s not just this mass-marketed email. So that does help, and that to me is not creepy because I gave you my name. So it’s like, I already know you’re gonna use it because I already gave you that permission. And I mean, that’s still the same way with websites too, like you accept cookies and we know that that is transitioning sometime soon, um, so it’s gonna go from third party cookies to first party cookies, um, and so you still have to give those permissions and, you know, give apps access to either track you or to not track you. So it’s still privacy first, but sometimes it can feel like your privacy is being invaded, and that’s something that we always take into account in making sure that, you know, we don’t violate any of our, you know, clients, customers or consumers, and making sure that we are using their data appropriately.
Allie:
I agree. And I think it’s gonna come to a point too as, you know, ads and how cookies and that sort of thing, you know, as the cookie crumbles with that-
Jailyn:
(laughs)
Allie:
I think that some people are gonna miss, you know, that personalized touch, ’cause I think you can still be able to, you know, target people super specifically without it being creepy.
Jailyn:
Mm-hmm.
Allie:
I mean, there are times where I’m like, “Oh my gosh, my phone is listening to me.”
Jailyn:
Yep.
Allie:
But I’m happy that it was, because I end up finding a product and, you know, I end up, you know, stumbling across a brand that I’ve never heard of and I’ve already bought the product within, you know, 10, 15 minutes.
Jailyn:
Yeah.
Allie:
And I end up loving it. So I think as we kind of lose some of that, I think that, you know, with all of our data and what we relinquish, I think we’re going to have to find some middle ground with that.
Jailyn:
Absolutely agree.
So that kind of went off into many tangents of the (laughs) five different foundational strategies, but it’s all relevant information that we want to share with you guys, because again, we’re a digital marketing agency, we understand it as actual professionals and consumers. So looking at it from both standpoints are, you know, critical for us. So of course… So, that is our podcast for foundational marketing strategies for new businesses, also covering Four Ps. Um, so we will talk to you guys next time.
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