Promotion refers to the flow of selling services and products to customers. However, promotion has a broad meaning, and can refer to the flow of attracting customers, and can also refer to actions taken to build trust with customers.
In this article, we will explain the “4P3C” that you should keep in mind when conducting promotions, and explain 7 steps to develop a strategy. We’ll also explain common reasons why promotions fail, so you can use them to inform your future marketing strategies.
What is promotion?
First, let me explain the definition of promotion. Promotion in the web industry simply refers to the flow of selling products and services. However, as mentioned above, promotion has a broad meaning and is also used to build relationships of trust and attract customers.
Another word similar to promotion is ”
PR
.” PR has a broader meaning than promotion, and in this case promotion is often seen as a “narrow meaning.” Although the specific differences between each will vary depending on the situation, there is no problem as long as you first understand that promotion is a series of sales strategies.
“4P3C” to keep in mind when promoting
To carry out promotions, it is important to understand the basic concepts of marketing, “4P” and “
3C
.” First of all, 4P refers to a word that starts with four P’s, and its specific structure is as follows.
As mentioned above, promotion is included as one component of a marketing strategy. In addition, when formulating sales strategies, it is important for companies to first apply their services and products to the 4Ps listed above.
Related article:
What is the marketing mix (4P)? Learn the basics of marketing execution strategy
Next, 3C is a way of thinking regarding analysis of the marketing environment, and consists of the following three.
At Customer, we consider market-related perspectives such as market size and market growth potential, as well as customer needs and customer purchasing behavior. Competitor analyzes your competitors’ market share, strengths, and even future trends, such as what strategies they will launch in the future.
Finally, a company will create a foundation for its future strategy by considering its management philosophy, capital strength, and the extent to which it currently has weapons such as people, goods, and money.
Related article:
What is competitive analysis? Explaining the marketing analysis framework “3C analysis”
By applying and analyzing the 4P3C explained here to your company and products, you will be able to develop appropriate promotion strategies.
Strategy is important for promotion
When conducting promotions, the current situation is that simply trying to make consumers vaguely aware of your company’s products and services is unlikely to lead to effective customer behavior. Here we will introduce seven strategies that are important when running promotions.
I will explain each one in turn.
①: Setting target KPI/KGI
In order to carry out effective promotions, it is essential to measure the effects and review the results. A quantification of the ultimate goal of corporate management, marketing, etc. is called a KGI (Key Goal Indicator), and an indicator that includes tactics to achieve the KGI is called a KPI (Key Performance Indicator).
KPIs are often used to measure the effectiveness of promotions. KPIs are also referred to as important performance indicators, and they serve as indicators for understanding changes in the awareness of products and services. Specifically, the number of web page views and the number of shares on SNS are often set as KPIs.
Related article:
What is KPI? How to correctly understand the KPIs and KFS that are essential for business growth and master the “winning path”
②: Target setting
In order for your company’s products and services to be used effectively, it is important to understand and set your target demographic, including consumer age, gender, and occupation. And once you know your target audience, you need to know their needs.
This is because consumers buy things or use services because they believe that their wishes will be fulfilled. Knowing what your target customers want is one important factor in determining the direction of your promotion.
Related article:
Targeting | How to set targets to differentiate yourself from your competitors
③：Channel selection
Next, it is important to consider the channel of the product or service, that is, the route through which it will be distributed. For example, in modern times, customer information is easily available due to the development of IoT, so promotions that combine online and offline are effective.
The O2O strategy that guides customers from online (web) information to offline (physical store) purchases is famous. In addition, in recent years, the “D2C area” has become active, utilizing advertising and LP to deliver products directly to customers.
Related article:
What is O2O? We also explain the success story of UNIQLO and the difference between OMO and Omnichannel.
Related article:
“Digital D2C” which sells to consumers through our own channels such as EC sites. The market size is predicted to reach 3 trillion yen in 2025 (Survey by a successful online advertising company)
④: Selection of communication method
In today’s world, where we are overflowing with goods and services and where it is not uncommon for products of the same quality to be provided by multiple companies, consumers tend to place emphasis on stories when making purchases. Therefore, holding an event as part of your promotion is an effective strategy to communicate with consumers and have them become your company’s fans.
Furthermore, events tend to become a hot topic and can stimulate purchasing intent even among consumers who are not actually attending the event. In this way, businesses need to think about how they communicate with consumers.
⑤：Budget setting
Once we have thoroughly implemented the strategies mentioned above, we will set a budget for expanding our business. When deciding on a budget, we recommend working backwards from your goals as shown below.
We calculate the cost per ad exposure (GRP) for 1% of the target population and determine the budget based on GRP. In addition, if there is a discrepancy between the target and the marginal budget, the continuity of the business will be reduced, so of course you should also consider the initial cost and running cost.
⑥: Effect measurement
When measuring the effectiveness of promotions, it is necessary to evaluate the future potential of the business by measuring not only sales, but also recognition rates and image improvement. When selling products and services over the Internet, it is important to measure the effectiveness by applying the following four formulas.
For example, if you have fewer impressions, your ads may appear less often or your SEO content may rank lower in search results. In that case, you may need to increase your budget to increase the number of ad impressions or rewrite your content to improve your search rankings.
⑦：Improvement
Finally, once we have measured the effectiveness of the promotion, we will develop plans for future improvements. When formulating improvement plans, be sure to think about KPIs and KGIs. For example, let’s say that sales from promotions are currently 5 million yen per month, but the KPI after 3 months is 6 million yen per month.
In this case, we need to increase sales by 1 million yen in 3 months, so we will thoroughly consider which of the above four formulas to improve would be most effective. Also, aim for more accurate promotion by discovering methods that can be expanded laterally for the next approach.
Common reasons why promotions fail
Up to this point, we have explained the overview of promotion, the concepts and procedures necessary for strategy. From here, we will introduce the points that businesses tend to fall into when they fail in promotion.
Choosing the wrong channel
First of all, if you are not seeing the results you expected from your promotions, you may have chosen the wrong channel. You will need to reconsider whether the selected channel is truly effective for your company’s products and services.
It is important to check at least the above two items each time. If you’re in the early stages of using your budget, there are fewer sunk costs and it’s easier to change channels. Therefore, in order to avoid the worst-case scenario of “by the time you realize it’s already too late,” it is necessary to constantly check market trends.
Budget management mistakes regarding KPI/KGI settings
Next, there are cases where appropriate KPIs are not set for KGI, which is the ultimate goal of management. Also, it may be necessary to reconsider the KGI situation as a premise.
The reason why these mistakes happen is because we neglect market analysis. In fact, there are many cases where KGI is set solely based on the sales desired by the company. Therefore, be sure to set KGIs and KPIs based on your customers, and then think about what KPIs your company can achieve.
Improvement mistakes due to effect measurement
As mentioned above, when promoting, it is important to improve the four metrics: Impressions, PV, CTR, and CVR. However, if you focus on the wrong indicators, it is undeniable that instead of improving, you may end up moving in a negative direction.
For example, you may try to improve your PV even though you already have a certain amount of views, or you may increase your advertising budget even though you have Impressions. It is not easy to make appropriate improvements in everything, but it is important to conduct accurate analysis for improvement.
target is not clear
Some believe that the idea of targeting based on gender, age, and other basic attributes is outdated in modern times. Nowadays, even more in-depth target analysis is required.
By breaking away from the framework of basic attributes, discovering consumer personality patterns, and clarifying the needs that lead to purchases, promotion effectiveness can be expected to improve.
Summary: Advance preparation is most important for promotions.
In this article, we have explained the definition of the term promotion, which is important in marketing, the strategies that are important when promoting, and the points that businesses tend to fall into when promotion does not go well.
For promotion to be successful, it is essential to know the market and customers, analyze other companies’ strategies, and formulate your own business guidelines. In other words, the most important thing is to understand the concept properly and prepare well in advance, so why not start by analyzing your own products and the services of other companies?