Promotion and Marketing Buisness

There are two different meanings of "promotion" in marketing:

1. In the marketing mix 4P's, promotion refers to any form of marketing communications.
2. Promotion also refers to discounts and other special offers to increase sales.

Nowadays, there are many forms of promotional media. Some marketers also refer to them as "touch points," since they are every place where people encounter your brand. Here I'll describe a few in a Western context (which I know best). Effectiveness and popularity of these media — and even how they are used — vary from country to country, even neighborhood by neighborhood. In addition, what works for one industry or brand may not work for other industries and brands. This is simply to provide you with an idea of the options; it's imperative that you adapt the medium to what works best for your brand, your stakeholders, and your goals.

 I. Traditional Media

Most people are familiar with these options, which are mostly used for basic advertising.

• Television: Generally the most expensive medium, not only to buy, but also to produce.The advantage of television is that it still provides the largest possible audience condensed in a short time frame, so it is ideal if you need to create a high level of awareness and reach specific goals by a certain deadline. Ad agencies love TV commercials because they provide a lot of opportunities for creativity, and because they get a percentage of the media cost.
  
  
• Radio: This is a classic medium, but it's critical to understand how your customers are using it before you advertise on it. For example, this is a good way to reach drivers, though not if you expect them to act immediately (such as making a phone call or writing something down).
  
  
• Print: Newspapers and magazines are declining in popularity, but they still reach an educated audience, some of whom actually enjoy reading the ads. They are ideal if you have a lot to say, and you want a more targeted readership (particularly business-to-business). You can also include forms and coupons in print ads.
  
  
• Outdoor: This includes billboards, bus stops, posters and other out-of-home advertising. The purpose of outdoor advertising is to create awareness, because you usually do not have the time or space in outdoor media to communicate a lot of words. The effectiveness of outdoor advertising is also very difficult to measure. Some governments restrict outdoor advertising as "visual pollution."
  
  
• Promotional Literature: This includes brochures, business cards, and other printed materials. These may be referred to as "collateral."

 II. New Media

Considering that the first websites are nearly 20 years old, it's odd to refer to many of these media as "new." Some marketers prefer to call these options "digital media." There's a lot of excitement about new media, since consumers are spending a lot of time online, and the media are relatively inexpensive to produce. However, doing new media properly often requires a large investment of time, talent, even money. I'll introduce the most popular forms here, and will discuss social media more next week.

• Websites: A website can serve as promotion, place and even product. (Consider my website UAEMD website that a lot of people are using now.) Creating a website is easier and more affordable than ever, though some complex websites can still require millions of dollars and several months of high-skilled labor. The challenge with websites is that, even though they serve as a promotion, they usually need to be promoted themselves. You can't just build it and expect customers to find it.
  
  
• Search Engine Optimization: This is an ongoing practice to make your website more easily found and highly ranked by Google and other search engines. Since Google and other search engines keep their algorithms (the computational formulas they use) secret, SEO experts conduct a lot of experimentation to see what works. In addition, Google changes its algorithm continuously to ensure that the most useful sites rise to the top, and to prevent spammers from gaming the system. To successfully execute SEO, you need to continuously research what words and phrases (called "keywords") are being used by your potential customers and to include those keywords on your site; to make sure that your site is user-friendly, so that visitors spend a lot of time and visit a lot of pages on it; and most importantly, to entice other websites to link to you. Google evaluates the number of sites that link to you, and the "authority" (size and importance) of those sites. The number and value of those links affects how they rank your website.
  
  
• Search Engine Marketing: You can also buy ads on search engines, which usually appear at the top and down the right hand side of search results. These ads are also based on keywords. Marketers usually pay per click (PPC) for these ads.
  
  
• Banner Advertising: These are the small online ads you're familiar with. If you click them, they will take you to a destination site. Marketers can pay per click (PPC) or pay per 1000 views (CPM - the M stands for "mille"). The click-through rate on most banners ads is abysmally low — less than 0.5% — so the PPC rates are increasing while CPM rates are decreasing. Most consumers don't even notice banner ads anymore, and software exists to block them.
  
  
• E-mail Marketing: Nearly as old as the Internet itself, e-mail marketing has actually become more difficult as countries pass laws to block spam. (And, yet, we seem to get as much spam as ever.) A more legal and effective form of e-mail marketing is the e-newsletter, which enables the marketer to maintain touch with past and current customers, while providing news and offers.
  
  
• Videos: Videos will soon be as popular as photos on the Internet. They're more effective than banner ads in attracting attention and getting people to spend more time (what marketers refer to as "engagement"). However, the competition to get views on YouTube and other popular video sites is incredibly intensive, and often requires both a high level of creativity and the marketer to promote the video itself. Yes, your marketing needs to be marketed! Note: do not call these videos "viral videos" until they have gone viral, which most don't.
  
  
• Social Networks: You're probably familiar with social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, whose primary purpose is to help people build relationships with each other. Marketers can buy different forms of advertising on these sites. They can also create their own corporate profiles and try to build relationships with potential customers and provide service to current customers. The greatest marketing value of social networks is the opportunity to learn more about customers and, particularly, "influencers" who are popular and authoritative.
  
  
• Mobile: Marketing on smartphones is perhaps the fastest growing promotional category, since there are many more phones in use than computers, and people take their phones with them everywhere. Mobile marketing can take the form of basic on-screen advertising; dedicated websites; text (SMS) ads; location-based marketing (the marketer knows the user's GPS location, or the user registers that she is at a certain location, and therefore she receives a customized message or offer); apps; and other opportunities just now being created.

Written By Yasser Al Mimar ..