5 Ways How To Market A Product Or Service

You have already developed a product or service that you intend to sell. Is it already a success? Yes, but if you want to grow your business, you need to get customers who will provide you with cash flow. To get them, you should promote your business and put some money into good advertising. What do you need to know, how much should you invest, and how to market a product using the Internet?

Promotion strategy

Before you can figure out how to advertise your products and services, we need to address the development of a plan of action, or promotion strategy.

Fortunately, there are many great promotion strategy examples in the history of marketing. Analysis of the actions of companies such as Apple, IBM, Ferrari and Gucci helped create the AIDA model. This acronym stands for:

• Awareness: to buy anything from you, people need to know that your product exists. They may read about it in the newspaper, see it advertised on TV, or meet someone who uses it.
• Interest: once people know that your products exist, it's time to gain their interest. Maybe you should create a newsletter and regularly send out information about your product line? Also a common and very effective method is interesting logos, slogans and advertisements.
• Desire: time to convince the customer that they need what you are selling. This could be a sense of luxury, excellent product quality or a sense of beauty. Note that it is in this aspect that many differences between brands occur.
• Action: the last element of AIDA is action, that is, convincing a potential customer to buy. Companies promote their products and services in different ways, and there is no fixed rule. Perhaps you should encourage with a good-looking online store or convince people with quality?

Classic product promotion- banners

Let's start with the most popular form of advertising. Banners can take physical and digital forms. Banners placed in popular places are very expensive-such advertising can cost up to $20,000 per month. This is an outdated and not very effective form of product promotion, so we will focus primarily on banners on websites.

Advertising banners on Google are extremely popular, primarily because of the ease of their creation. There are many tools for creating, optimizing and analyzing banners. There is also the undoubted advantage of greater ad customization - if you are creating a promotional strategy for a car dealership, you should focus on adult people who have the budget to buy a car. That's why you don't want your ads seen by children or people who can't afford to buy a vehicle.

The cost of advertising on Google depends on the industry and is expressed in CPM, or cost per thousand. CPMs range from $0.3 to as much as $9, and it all depends on the target audience, the size of the ad and the potential number of impressions.

Affiliate marketing and influencer marketing

There is already an article on our blog describing affiliate marketing, so we will try to describe this promotion strategy in a very simplified way.

If you want to sell a product aimed at a large group of people, you can build a network of affiliates who will distribute your product in exchange for an appropriate commission. This strategy is very often combined with influencer marketing, which you absolutely must keep in mind. Always pay attention to the people you work with - brand image is very valuable, and it may not be possible to rebuild it.

Of course, the best solution would be to use your own blog, social media profile and your own group of friends, but this is not always possible. However, you can experiment and do influencer marketing yourself.

It is very difficult to determine the costs of affiliate marketing and influencer marketing, as these details are often secret. The first form involves costs of 1 to 6% of revenue, while trendsetters expect tens to thousands of dollars per month for cooperation.

How to advertise with discounts?

Discounts on prices are one of the typical AIDA promotion strategy examples, as they are meant to catch the attention of customers. How can retailers afford to sell products for 50% of the regular price or even less? It's very simple! Customers don't just buy discounted goods, and the margin gained on the entire set of products seamlessly covers the loss from the price cut.

If you are marketing a service bought regularly, such as a cleaning service or a haircut, you can offer your customers a discount on their next purchase of your services. In this way you will gain a regular customer, and at the same time postpone the loss resulting from the promotion, which is good for cash flow. You have to remember that thanks to inflation, a €10 coupon will be worth less if the customer only uses it next month instead of today.

Create market for a product

If the existing market does not favor you, maybe it is possible to create a new one? Although it sounds complicated, it doesn't have to be that way at all! If your products are dedicated to consumers, maybe it's possible to modify them slightly and start selling B2B? Or maybe small adjustments will make your goods unique? The possibilities are indeed many.

We dedicate this solution to people who make their own products or have a big impact on their production. If you are just starting your business and plan to launch your first product, you will not be able to afford experiments and constant improvements to your product. Nevertheless, it is worth considering this idea.

Marketing a service as a specialist

Although many customers mainly suggest price when buying goods and services, quality and brand are also very important. If you are a widely recognized authority, many companies and individuals will be interested in your services.

Gaining recognition and a reputation as a professional is a long process and requires a lot of investment in courses and other forms of learning, but it is an investment with a very high rate of return. Be aware, however, that you are thereby tying yourself to your business for many years, which does not suit everyone.