In today's blog, we're talking all things marketing mix! What is it? When should I do it? Is it really necessary!
Well to answer that first question -> Yes! It's abso-freaking-lutely necessary!
Let's just keep it real! In today's boutique world, there's so much competition! & to stand out in the saturated environment, you need to plan early to have multiple marketing channels or vehicles by which you promote your business and products!
Let's define what I mean by marketing mix here. If you google marketing mix right now, you'll get the '4Ps' or the '7Ps of Marketing'. Which are: Product, Price, Promotion, Place, Packaging, Positioning, and People. But . . . that's not what I'm talking about here. That is excellent knowledge to know, but I'm specifically talking about Promotion and Positioning.
Where are you going to promote and position your brand to make money? One of the biggest hurdles new business owners face in lead generation and lead generation momentum. Experienced businesses struggle to lead generate while remaining profitable. New business owner's often struggle with where to start!
There's digital marketing, direct marketing, paid advertising, email + sms marketing, organic marketing, social media marketing, retail marketing, and soooo much more! It's a lot right!
Real quick, fast, and in a little bit of a hurry, I'm going to give you a big picture overview of different types of marketing. Then I'm going to give you my recommendation on what you should have as a new biz owner making less than $250k in business. Then, we'll finish it up with some of my favorite resources for getting started in the areas I recommended!
Free vs. Paid Marketing
Today, we're going to learn about marketing types in three main buckets: Free, Semi-free, and Paid. There's many different ways to segment marketing topics, but since my target audience are biz newbies, I know cost of marketing determines which route you start out in!
Free Marketing
Yes, you read it right! There are some options for free or low cost marketing in your new business! Common types of free marketing are organic marketing (social media), word of mouth, and user-generated content.
Organic marketing is social media marketing. It's what we are all most familiar with and most of us use daily! Rather you use Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snaptchat, or (dare I say) Tik Tok lol, these are all options for organic marketing. My rec, choose one to start with. & not just any one, but the one your target customer will be on the most! (tip: if you haven't done target customer research or gotten to the point where you know where they are, now is the time!)
Word of Mouth marketing is when your momma, daddy, sista, pookie & 'nem rave and share about your business without you paying them to do so! & side note, there's no shame in telling or incentivizing your family and friends to talk about your business. My only advice, is be strategic and set clear expectations and boundaries from day 1. Let them know what they are getting for sharing, how much, and for how long. Get creative here. Can you give away samples? Free items? Free food? Or anything else that you know you can provide that they want to get the word out there. When I'm working with new clients in my firm that have never launched, one of the first goals is to get 5 sales period! No matter where they come from. Word of mouth is a great way to get those first 5 sales.
SEO or also known as Search Engine Optimization is a very important type of free advertising. This one requires a little bit of training and research, but it's a must-have in online, digital marketing. Data shows that Google alone (other popular search engines in the USA are Yahoo and Bing) processes over 99,000 searches every single second . . . (Internet Live Stats, 2022) Let the fact that 100k searches are being done every single second marinate in your mind! That is A LOT! & how will you get found in all of those searches? Search Engine Optimization is how. This is a rabbit hole of information that for boutiques, mainly means strategically naming photos, placing blogs, and placing keywords in your website so that when Google's bot takes inventory of your website, it has what it needs to rank you first! Or somewhere close to it!
User-Generated Content is falls into two marketing types. Free and Word of Mouth. Most times, this content is free and unsolicited. I do recommend that, as part of your marketing, social media strategy, you plan to ask for feedback in
the form of social media reviews via reels, posts, tags, and/or story shares. The sayings, 'closed mouths don't get fed' and 'you don't get what you don't ask for', apply in business too. Ask for the feedback to help grow your know, like, trust factor!
Paid and Semi-Paid Marketing
Okay . . . Don't roll your eyes and exit stage left just yet! There are some startup friendly paidi marketing options. Hang on until the end with me bestie! Some types of paid & semi-paid marketing are paid advertising (aka Ads), retail advertising, email + sms marketing, and pop-up shops.
A lot of sites will consider email and text marketing as free, but I don't. You pay to be able to have a service that houses the emails addresses and text numbers, and they allow you to send emails and texts to those contacts. Even if it is free, if you're doing it right, it will not be free for long! These hosts charge based on list size and communication frequency. Due to this, I call place it in the semi-paid category so that you can set realistic expectations for your marketing budget.
UGC can also be considered semi-free marketing once you start doing things like influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, and offering rewards for leaving reviews online your website or on social media. There are shopify apps that you'll start paying for and including in your marketing budget. This too, makes this a semi-paid for marketing strategy.
Pop-up shops are a great beginner-friendly way to market your business. It is one of my favorites and I highly recommend it to my clients in the beginning stages. Relying on free marketing most-likely will not get you the lead generation and momentum you need in your business to scale at the rate you most-likely desire. Pop-up shops and trade shows allow you to prove product-market fit, learn and master sales strategy, and get new leads to add to your sales funnel.
Last, but not least, paid advertising! This is the one that scares most business owners. But it is, oh so needed, when you decide you're serious about your business and want to scale. If you want to really quit your 9 to 5 and rely solely on your boutique's income, you'll need to invest in paid advertising. And you'll need to get good at it! So, even if you aren't ready for paid ads, get ready!
Other marketing types that I'm not hitting on, but are worth researching are direct mail marketing, public relations, and billboard marketing! Most newbie boutique owner's aren't quite ready for these yet, but I will write a blog on them later! Make sure you check back weekly for new blogs!
Which Should You Start With?
Straight to the point, no fluff. You need at least two of these to start out with. Specifically, one paid and one free. In an ideal world, you'd be able to start off with all of the above. And honestly, that's what big brands do. Especially the likes of Beyonce, Rihanna, or any celebrity started brand. The hire a huge firm to execute all of these marketing tasks and more!
But you (and I) my friend are solopreneurs. We're bootstrapping this thang, and going all in! With that being said, I recommend one free social media platform (Instagram, Facebook, or Tik Tok) and one paid marketing strategy (Pop-up Shops and/or trade shows) to begin with. Do your research. Find where your target customer is in these online streets and literally in these real streets, and make sure you are all in their face! Yes. Get on their nerves. Make them see you. Get their feedback. All of this will help you be ready to add on more marketing strategies to your unique mix as you grow and scale in your business. You'll find that many of your target customers will be in many areas, but you have to start with one. Find out HOW, WHEN, and the FREQUENCY that they show up. Find out how they want to be marketed to. When they want to be marketed to. All of this, helps you better reach them, which helps you make money. & unless you're in this as a hobby (then you're probably at the wrong blog) then you're in it to make money!
Dear business bestie, I hope this blog found you well and helped you to start painting a picture of what you need your boutique's marketing mix to be to achieve your goals! Let me know and ask any questions you may have in the comments below! As always, happing boutique'ing and let's plan, thrive, and succeed together!
Want to learn more? Join the Plan Thrive Succeed Facebook Group to get access to the mini lesson I created for boutique owner's just like YOU! Learning with a group of ladies that understand your struggle and are doing what it takes to work through it too is a major game changer! Sometimes, all it takes to help you get through the day is knowing, you're not doing this alone!
More of a podcast kind of girl? Don't worry! I got you covered. Listen & learn successful tips on creating a custom marketing mix where ever you love to podcast! Apple, Spotify, Google, and more!
Here are some resources to get your marketing strategies together!:
Jance Chartae's - The Boutique Academy. She has an amazing paid monthly membership that has several lessons on marketing! Guest speakers and all!
Hubspot - From their blog, freebies, and youtube channel, if you need free marketing advice, Hubspot is a one-stop shop! They offer free templates & more!
Want more resources? Tell me in the comments!