by Cathy Gray | Apr 27, 2026 | eCommerce, Marketing
Recently I was in an online discussion about product titles in eCommerce. Someone made the claim that putting a SKU in the product title messes up your schema and just looks ugly. I disagree: at least not across the board.
The schema argument is a partial truth at best. And “looks ugly” depends entirely on who’s looking at it. A purchasing agent searching a part number doesn’t care how it looks in the title. They care that it showed up.
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. It never is in eCommerce. The right call depends on who your buyer is, how they search, and what industry you’re in. That’s what this post breaks down.
SKUs in the Product Title
B2B buyers don’t browse. They already know what they need before they search. They have a part number, a spec sheet, or a reorder list. The title’s job isn’t to sell them: it’s to show up when they search.
- They’re sourcing, not shopping: A purchasing agent searching a SKU has already made the decision. They need to find the product and get a quote. If your title has the part number and a competitor’s doesn’t, you show up and they don’t. That’s it.
- Real traffic from real part number searches: Running eCommerce for an industrial hose and hydraulics distributor, exact part number searches drove a measurable chunk of organic traffic. Not accidental visits. Buyers who knew exactly what they needed.
- Multiple distributors carry the same product: In industrial and technical markets, you’re rarely the only source. The SKU is the differentiator. It’s how a buyer finds you instead of someone else.
- Reorders are real: B2B customers come back. When someone searches the part number they ordered six months ago, your title either shows up or it doesn’t. General keyword optimization doesn’t solve that.
- It helps in Google Shopping too: Having the SKU in the title improves product matching in Merchant Center. Paid and organic both benefit from the same high-intent search.
- Put it at the end: The SKU doesn’t need to lead the title. Front-loading a part number that means nothing to a casual browser hurts CTR. At the end it catches part-number searches without pushing your primary keywords out of the visible window.
- These buyers convert: Someone searching a SKU isn’t comparing options. They’re checking availability and price. The decision is already made.
SKUs Not in the Product Title
This argument isn’t wrong. It’s just built for a different kind of store.
- General shoppers don’t search by SKU: Someone looking for wireless earbuds or a new jacket isn’t typing a part number. A SKU in that title takes up space that could go toward something they actually searched.
- Character space matters, especially on mobile: Titles truncate around 50 to 65 characters. On mobile it happens faster. If a SKU is pushing a real product descriptor out of the visible window, that’s a click you’re losing.
- Consumer brands don’t build recognition through codes: If someone finds you through a keyword search and sees a string of numbers and letters in the title, that’s not helping them connect with what you’re selling.
- The trade-off is real: A SKU runs anywhere from 6 to 15 characters. In a consumer catalog those characters could be a color, a size, a material: something a shopper actually typed.
- The advice is valid, just not universal: It comes from people working in consumer eCommerce. It’s right for that world. The problem is when it gets handed down as a blanket rule for every industry.
Addressing the Schema Argument
SKU belongs in your structured data. That’s not up for debate. But that’s a separate conversation from your title tag. Both can include the SKU and both should, if your buyer is searching for it. The person in that discussion conflated two different things: where Google reads product identifiers for indexing purposes, and what shows up in a search result title. One doesn’t cancel out the other.
If you’re using WooCommerce or a similar platform, your SKU should absolutely be in your product schema. That helps Google understand and match your product. But nothing in schema guidance says it can’t also live in the title. They serve different purposes and can work together.
The Real Question: Who is the Customer?
This is where the debate usually falls apart. Most of the “no SKU in the title” advice comes from practitioners working in consumer eCommerce. That world has different rules. A shopper browsing for shoes or skincare isn’t searching by part number. That advice is correct for that context.
But apply it to a B2B catalog selling industrial parts, hydraulic fittings, or hardware components and it breaks down completely. The buyer is different. The search behavior is different. The intent is different.
In B2C, the title needs to speak to someone discovering your product for the first time. In B2B, the title often needs to speak to someone who already knows exactly what they want and just needs to find where to get it. Those are two completely different jobs.
The Verdict
The debate over SKUs in product titles isn’t really about SEO rules. It’s about knowing your buyer.
If your customer is a general consumer discovering a product for the first time, SKUs in the title are wasted space. Use every character for something they actually searched.
If your customer is a B2B buyer, a purchasing agent, or anyone sourcing a specific part in a technical industry, the SKU might be the most important thing in your title. It’s not clutter: it’s the exact search term that gets you found.
The mistake isn’t following one camp or the other. The mistake is applying consumer eCommerce logic to a B2B catalog, or vice versa. Know who is buying from you, how they search, and what they need to see to click. That’s what drives the decision, not a universal rule someone handed down in a forum.
Schema handles what it handles. Your title tag handles what it handles. Both can include the SKU and both should, if your buyer is searching for it.
So Should It Be Included?
Follow the questions and answers to help you decide, you don’t have to know the ins and outs of the technical areas, just simple logic.
by Cathy Gray | Apr 14, 2026 | Business, Marketing, Portfolio, Professional Articles
Custom hose assemblies are not a simple order. There are a lot of variables involved, and when customers came in without the right information, the whole process stalled before it even started.
I spent seven years at Atlanta Rubber & Hydraulics before the company was acquired by Tipco. In that time, I saw the same gap come up over and over: customers needed something custom, but they were missing critical details. The result was back-and-forth, delays, and frustration on all sides.
The fix was simpler than you might expect. It was a flyer.
The problem it was built to solve
The S.T.A.M.P.E.D. acronym is an industry standard for specifying hose assemblies: Size, Temperature, Application, Media, Pressure, Ends, and Delivery. Every custom order needs answers to all seven. Miss one and the order can’t move forward.
The framework existed. What didn’t exist was a clean, branded piece that put it in front of customers in a way that was easy to understand and easy to act on. So I built one from scratch: the content, the layout, and the design.
How it worked across the business
Once it existed, it found its way into four different use cases without anyone having to force it.
For customers researching before they called, it lived on the website. They could look up what they needed before picking up the phone, which meant fewer calls spent gathering basic information.
For the sales team, it became a reference tool during customer conversations. Instead of walking through the same seven questions from memory every time, they had something concrete to point to. It kept the process consistent no matter who was handling the call.
For walk-in customers, it was ready at the counter. Someone came in, picked it up, and had a clear checklist of what they needed to pull together before placing their order.
And because it was a clean, professional document, it could be emailed out when needed. One file, used in context.
The takeaway
This wasn’t a complicated project. It was a well-placed piece of content that solved a recurring problem across multiple touchpoints at once.
When you take the time to identify where the friction actually lives and build something that addresses it directly, you don’t need four separate solutions. Build it once, do it well, and it works forever.
by Cathy Gray | May 9, 2024 | Marketing, Business, eCommerce
What Is Conversion Rate Optimization?
Most businesses focus on getting more traffic. CRO focuses on what happens after they arrive: increasing the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on your site, like making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or requesting more information.
Top view: CRO maximizes the outcomes from your existing website traffic: enhances revenue, and provides deeper insights into customer behavior, all without increasing spending on new traffic acquisition.
This guide will explain the essentials of CRO, its significance in your digital marketing strategy, and its role in driving sustainable business growth.
This is not a how-to guide for CRO or an in-depth technical breakdown. The goal is to give those within an organization a better understanding in simple terms and in ways that are easily digestible.
Why CRO Matters to Leadership
Impact on Revenue
Conversion Rate Optimization is not just about tweaking a website. It’s 100% about directly impacting your bottom line.
By refining the user journey on your site, CRO strategies increase the likelihood of visitors completing a purchase, signing up for a service, or taking whatever action matters most to your business. Effective CRO means more results from your existing traffic without the proportional cost of acquiring new customers.
Cost Efficiency
Investing time and energy into CRO is often more cost-effective than traditional methods of increasing traffic like paid advertising or PPC. By optimizing what you already have, you get more out of your existing marketing efforts and budget. This approach improves return on investment without requiring additional spend to bring new visitors in.
Insights into Customer Behavior
CRO digs into how users actually interact with your site, giving leadership real data on customer behavior and preferences. Understanding what drives conversions and what stops them helps refine marketing strategies, product offerings, and business decisions: aligning them more closely with what customers actually need.
Understanding Conversion Rate Optimization
Definition of CRO
Conversion Rate Optimization is a structured strategy focused on increasing the number of visitors who take a desired action: making a purchase, filling out a form, or signing up for a newsletter. It starts with analyzing user behavior to identify what’s working, what isn’t, and where the friction is.
Key Components of CRO
Each of these areas supports the others. Together they improve the effectiveness of your website and help you hit your business goals.
Website Design: Layout and aesthetics play a direct role in how users interact with your content. A well-designed site looks professional and makes it easier for visitors to find what they need quickly.
User Experience (UX): This covers everything from site speed and navigation to CTA buttons and overall ease of use. The goal is a seamless experience for every visitor.
At Bristol Facilities, heatmap data from HotJar showed exactly where users were losing interest. Content was reorganized and the site design was adjusted based on what real users were actually doing, not assumptions. KPIs improved as a result.
Analytics: Data is the foundation of CRO. Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console show where visitors come from, what they do on your site, and where you lose them.
At Atlanta Rubber & Hydraulics, Google Analytics and Search Console drove every decision: tracking where customers dropped off in the purchase funnel, which product pages had high traffic but low conversions, and where checkout created friction. That data pointed to the fixes.
Customer Feedback: Direct input from users complements the numbers. Surveys, user testing, and feedback tools provide qualitative context that helps explain what the data shows.
Segmentation and Personalization: Not all visitors are the same. Identifying different audience segments allows for more targeted messaging and experiences, which can significantly improve conversion rates.
Managing both B2B and B2C customers on the same eCommerce platform meant the experience couldn’t be one-size-fits-all. Pricing, messaging, and product visibility were adjusted based on customer type so each segment saw what was relevant to them.
Copywriting and Content: The quality of your copy directly impacts conversions. Clear, benefits-focused content that speaks to visitor needs guides them toward action.
Product descriptions on an industrial eCommerce site aren’t glamorous, but they matter. Rewriting them for clarity and search intent meant fewer returns, better qualified buyers, and more completed purchases.
Landing Page Optimization: Pages designed to convert should be clear, focused, and free of unnecessary distractions. A strong value proposition and a compelling CTA are non-negotiable.
Building out a separate site for a specific customer segment is landing page optimization at a larger scale. The goal was the same: remove friction, make the path to purchase obvious, and match the experience to the audience.
Psychological Triggers: Principles like scarcity, social proof, and trust signals can meaningfully improve conversion rates when applied thoughtfully.
On an industrial eCommerce site, trust signals matter more than flash. Clear return policies, accurate stock information, and straightforward shipping costs all reduce hesitation at checkout. Removing that friction moves buyers forward.
Fundamental CRO Strategies
A/B Testing
One of the core techniques in CRO is A/B testing: comparing two versions of a page or element to see which performs better. Each version is shown to a similar audience at the same time, and the version with the higher conversion rate wins. This gives you data-backed clarity on what actually moves the needle.
One important rule: test one change at a time. Testing multiple variables at once muddies the data and makes it impossible to know what actually worked.
Google Merchant Center is a practical example of this. Testing product titles, descriptions, and images one change at a time showed what drove more clicks and conversions. Small adjustments, tracked carefully, added up.
User Experience (UX) Optimization
An optimized UX means visitors find your site easy to navigate, fast to load, and worth staying on. Longer visits and more interactions are critical steps toward higher conversions.
Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)
A clear CTA guides users toward completing a desired action. It should be visually distinct, strategically placed, and direct. Vague or buried CTAs lose conversions that were already within reach.
On the Atlanta Rubber & Hydraulics eCommerce site, product pages were reviewed for clarity: were the Add to Cart and Request a Quote buttons easy to find? Were they in the right place? Small adjustments to placement and copy made a measurable difference in completed actions.
Advanced Techniques in CRO
Personalization
Personalization tailors the site experience to individual users based on data like browsing behavior, purchase history, and previous interactions. A more relevant experience increases engagement and the likelihood of conversion.
Segmentation
Segmentation divides your audience into groups based on criteria like demographics, behavior, or purchase history, and targets each group with relevant messaging. For leadership, effective segmentation leads to more efficient marketing and better returns.
Technology Tools
A range of tools support CRO efforts by showing how users interact with your site. Heatmaps reveal where users click and how far they scroll. Behavior analytics tools track paths and drop-off points. These tools are essential for ongoing optimization.
Tools like HotJar, Google Analytics, and Search Console were used consistently across client work to identify where users were dropping off and what pages needed attention. The data pointed the direction: the strategy did the rest.
Hiring a CRO Expert For Your Team
What to Look for in a CRO Expert
When hiring for CRO, look for candidates with a mix of technical knowledge, analytical ability, and creative thinking. Key areas to evaluate:
Analytical Skills: Strong ability to pull meaningful insights from data. Familiarity with tools like Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics is essential.
Technical Expertise: Working knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and responsive design to implement changes effectively.
User Experience Design: A solid understanding of UX principles and best practices, including intuitive navigation and accessibility.
Testing and Experimentation: Hands-on experience designing and running A/B tests and other experiments to validate what works.
Communication Skills: Ability to explain complex concepts clearly to stakeholders and collaborate across marketing, design, and IT teams.
Problem-Solving Abilities: A proactive, creative approach to diagnosing and solving conversion problems.
The skills above aren’t a wish list: they’re a working description. Analytical skills, UX familiarity, A/B testing, cross-team communication, and problem-solving are areas I’ve applied directly in real eCommerce environments across multiple industries and platforms.
Ready to put CRO to work?
CRO is one of those areas where the work speaks louder than the theory. If you’re looking for someone who has actually done this: auditing pages, reading the data, and making the changes that move the needle, let’s talk. Contact me.
by Cathy Gray | Aug 8, 2022 | Professional Articles, Marketing
How to Develop a Marketing Plan
A marketing plan sounds like something only big companies with dedicated teams and a conference room whiteboard need. It’s not. Whether you’re running a small business, managing marketing solo, or trying to get everyone on the same page, having a plan keeps you from throwing money at tactics that don’t connect to anything.
I built an eCommerce site from the ground up with no prior industry knowledge and had it live and selling within six months. That didn’t happen by winging it: it happened because there was a plan behind every decision.
This post walks through what a marketing plan actually is, why it matters, and how to build one. The outline at the end gives you a framework you can use right now.
What Is a Marketing Strategy?
A marketing strategy is the “why” behind everything you do. It’s the decisions you make about who you’re targeting, what you’re saying, and where you’re showing up. Tactics come after. If you skip the strategy and go straight to tactics, you end up busy without a direction.
A further article talks more about marketing strategies.
What Is a Marketing Plan?
A marketing plan is the document that connects your strategy to your execution. It outlines your goals, your budget, your tactics, and your timeline: everything in one place so nothing gets missed and nothing gets spent without a reason.
It should be specific to your business, not a generic template you fill in once and shelve. Plan to revisit it regularly. Markets change, budgets shift, and what worked last year might not be the right move this year.
Why Your Business Needs a Marketing Plan
Without one, you’re guessing. You might be doing a lot of things, but if they’re not connected to a goal, it’s hard to know what’s working or where to spend next.
A marketing plan gives you a clear picture of where you are, where you’re going, and what it’s going to take to get there. It keeps your budget accountable, your efforts focused, and your team (even if that team is just you) on the same page.
It also helps after the initial push. A lot of businesses put effort into launching a campaign and then drop it. A plan builds in the follow-up so the work doesn’t stop when the excitement does.
What Is a Top-Down Marketing Strategy?
Top-down starts with leadership. The company sets the goals, the messaging, and the overall direction: then the marketing team builds campaigns around it. Common in larger organizations where brand consistency matters across multiple teams or locations.
What Is a Bottom-Up Marketing Strategy?
Bottom-up flips it. The marketing or sales team drives the ideas based on what they’re seeing in the field: customer conversations, support tickets, search trends. It tends to be more responsive and works well for smaller teams that are close to the customer.
What Is an Integrated Marketing Strategy?
Integrated marketing means your channels are working together instead of in silos. The same message, adapted for each platform: email, social, paid, and your website are all saying the same thing at the same time. A product launch is a good example: you’re not running four disconnected campaigns, you’re running one campaign across four channels.
Marketing Plan Outline
Here’s a framework you can use as a starting point. Adjust it to fit your business size, goals, and budget. Not every section will apply the same way, but all of them are worth thinking through.
Executive Summary
Write this last, even though it lives first.
It’s a snapshot of your entire plan and if someone only reads this section, they should walk away understanding what your business is trying to do and why.
A marketing executive summary includes
- a description of the company,
- its products or services,
- its target market,
- how it plans to reach that market.
- Mission statement
Include a brief look at your competition and what sets you apart. One paragraph is enough.
Situation Analysis: Where Does The Company Stand Right Now
Before you set goals, you need an honest look at where things are. That means your strengths, your weaknesses, what’s working in the market, and what’s working against you. A SWOT analysis is a good starting point.
Some questions worth answering here:
- Who is your target customer?
- Who are your main competitors?
- How do you compare on price, product, and visibility?
- What does your current marketing look like and is it working?
- What is your marketing philosophy?
- Create a buyer persona
This section is the foundation. Skipping it means your goals are guesses.
Goals and Objectives: What Do You Want To Achieve?
This is where you get specific. Goals without numbers are just wishes. A short-term goal might be increasing web traffic by 20% in the next three months. A long-term goal might be growing market share over the next two years. Objectives are the specific steps that get you there.
Keep them realistic. A goal to grow sales by 50% when you’re starting from zero isn’t a goal, it’s a hope.
Some questions to work through:
- What specific marketing activities do you want to accomplish?
- What results are you expecting from this plan?
- How will you measure success?
Strategies and Tactics: How Will the Business Get There?
Strategy is the direction. Tactics are how you execute it. Once you know your goals, you can figure out which channels and activities make the most sense to reach them. Not every business needs every channel: pick the ones that match your audience and your capacity.
I’ve run SEO, PPC, content, email, Google Merchant Center, and print campaigns at the same time for the same business. The lesson wasn’t to do everything, it was knowing which combination was worth the time and budget for that specific business.
Some common tactics to consider:
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Search engine marketing (SEO and PPC)
- Content marketing
- Paid advertising
- Print and digital marketing materials
- Referral and loyalty programs
- Product launches
- Advertising and promotion calendars
Start with what you can actually manage and build from there.
Budget: How Much Money Will The Business Need to Implement The Marketing Plan?
You don’t need a big budget to have a good marketing plan, but you do need to know what you’re working with. Being realistic here saves you from committing to tactics you can’t actually fund.
Tools are a good example. There are expensive options for everything in marketing. But cost-effective alternatives exist if you look for them. SpyFu covers a lot of the same competitive research ground as pricier tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs at a fraction of the cost. Budget decisions like that add up.
Factor in the expected costs but also leave room for the unexpected: a freelancer you need to bring in, an ad campaign that comes up last minute but makes sense to run.
Some questions to work through:
- How much are you allocating to each marketing channel?
- What does a digital campaign cost versus a direct mail campaign?
- What are you willing to spend on advertising?
- What are you willing to spend on research and tools?
Marketing Plan Timeline
A timeline keeps everything from living in a document that no one looks at after the first meeting. It assigns ownership, sets deadlines, and tells you when to expect results.
Some questions to work through:
- Who is responsible for each step?
- When does the campaign start and end?
- How long will each step take?
- When should you expect to see results?
- Consider building out an editorial calendar alongside this
Review, Test, and Optimize
A marketing plan is only useful if you actually revisit it. Once you launch, check in on what’s working and what isn’t. If a goal wasn’t met, figure out why before you just do more of the same thing.
I used Google Analytics, Search Console, and heatmap and recording tools like HotJar and Microsoft Clarity to make real decisions: not just to pull reports, but to actually change what we were doing based on what the data showed. Optimization isn’t a concept, it’s a habit.
Make changes, then review again. Marketing is a cycle, not a checklist.
Conclusion
A marketing plan doesn’t have to be a 40-page document. It just needs to be specific enough to keep you focused and flexible enough to adjust when things change.
Everything in this post comes from actually building and running marketing plans, not from a textbook. The outline above is the same framework I’ve worked from. What you put in it is what makes it work for your business.
Start with where you are, get clear on where you want to go, and build from there.
by Cathy Gray | Aug 7, 2022 | Professional Articles, Marketing
Powerful Marketing Strategies for Business Growth
Every business needs a marketing strategy. Big or small, product or service: there is no one-size-fits-all approach. What works for one company won’t work for another, and what works today may need to shift as your data changes. The goal is to find the right combination for your business, your audience, and your goals, and then keep refining it.
What Is a Marketing Strategy?
A marketing strategy is the big picture. It’s where you look at what you’re working with: your strengths, your weaknesses, where you have room to grow, and where the risks are. From there, it leads to a plan.
The main components are market segmentation, target markets, positioning, and the marketing mix.
Market Segmentation
Segmentation is how you divide a market into groups of buyers who have different needs or behaviors.
- Demographics (age, gender, income, education)
- Psychographics (lifestyle, values)
- Behavior (purchasing habits, usage rates)
- Business types (b2b or b2c)
The point isn’t to split things up for the sake of it. It’s to get specific about who you’re talking to so your message actually lands.
Target Markets
Knowing your target market means knowing who is most likely to buy from you. You can target by location, demographics, lifestyle, or past buying behavior. The tighter your definition, the easier it is to reach the right people without burning budget on the wrong ones.
Positioning in marketing
Positioning is how you present your product or service relative to the competition. It’s your differentiation. Done well, it creates a reason for customers to choose you over everyone else. It’s not set-it-and-forget-it either: positioning should evolve as your market does.
Marketing Mix
The marketing mix is product, price, place, and promotion. All four have to work together. A great product at the wrong price point, sold through the wrong channel, with weak promotion: that’s a strategy that will underperform regardless of how good the product actually is.
Product is the first element of the mix and refers to the good or service that a company offers. Select a product that meets customer needs and is differentiated from competitors’ products.
Price is another important factor, as it affects how much consumers are willing to pay for a product. A business must find the right balance between setting prices too high or too low.
Place, or distribution, determines how products reach consumers. A business must choose the correct channels for getting its products in front of potential buyers.
Promotion encompasses all activities, from advertising and public relations to direct marketing and social media outreach.
Why Marketing Strategy Matters
Without a strategy, you’re guessing. You might get results short-term, but you won’t be able to repeat them or scale them. A solid strategy helps you focus resources on what’s actually moving the needle, spot opportunities before the competition does, and course-correct when the data tells you something isn’t working.
I’ve worked in environments where strategy was built from scratch and others where it was inherited and broken. Both taught me the same thing: clarity on the plan makes everything downstream easier.
Is a Marketing Strategy the Same as a Marketing Plan?
No, but they work together. The strategy is the “what” and “why”: your goals, your audience, your positioning. The plan is the “how”: the specific tactics, timelines, and activities that get you there. One without the other doesn’t work. A strategy with no plan stays theoretical. A plan with no strategy is just a to-do list.
Types of Marketing Strategies
There are four core growth strategies worth knowing:
Market Penetration: Growing sales of an existing product in an existing market. This usually means competitive pricing, increased advertising, or expanding your distribution reach.
Product Development: Creating new products for your existing market. Requires research, testing, and a clear read on what your current customers actually want next.
Market Development: Taking existing products into new markets. New geography, new customer segments, new channels. Higher risk, but real upside when done with a plan behind it.
Diversification: Moving into new products and new markets at the same time. The highest risk of the four. It can pay off, but spreading too thin too fast is how businesses lose focus.
What Goes Into a Marketing Strategy?
A marketing strategy is a plan that helps a company achieve its marketing goals. The strategy includes the company’s overall marketing goals, as well as specific tactics for achieving them. It can also include an analysis of the company’s current situation, its target market, and its competitors
Simple Marketing Strategy
- Define your target market. Who is most likely to buy from you? What do they need? What makes you different from the other options they’re considering?
- Research your competition. Know what they’re doing, how they’re positioning, and where the gaps are. That’s where your opportunity lives.
- Choose your channels. Where does your audience actually spend time? Match your delivery method to their behavior, not to what’s trendy.
- Build your message. Make it specific to your audience. Generic messaging gets ignored.
- Launch, track, and adjust. No campaign is perfect out of the gate. Set your benchmarks, monitor the data, and be willing to change course when the numbers tell you to.
Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing
Outbound is the push: ads, cold outreach, direct mail. You’re going to the customer. It can reach a large audience quickly but costs more and is harder to track precisely.
Inbound is the pull: content, SEO, email, social. The customer comes to you because you’ve given them something worth finding. It takes longer to build but tends to compound over time. Easier to track, lower cost per lead at scale.
Most businesses need both. The ratio depends on your timeline, budget, and where your audience is in the buying process.
Email Marketing
Email is still one of the highest-ROI channels available. It works for nurturing existing customers, re-engaging lapsed ones, and keeping your audience informed between purchases. The key is list quality over list size, and a clear goal for every send.
SEO
SEO is a long game. The goal is to show up when your customers are actively searching for what you offer. That means optimizing your pages, building quality content, earning links, and keeping your technical foundation clean. It doesn’t produce results overnight, but the traffic it generates doesn’t stop the moment you cut the budget either.
Content Marketing
Content is how you demonstrate expertise and build trust before someone is ready to buy. Blog posts, guides, how-tos, case studies: all of it helps your audience solve problems and positions you as the resource they come back to.
Social Media
Social media is a brand awareness and community tool. It’s where people get to know you before they’re ready to make a decision. Choose platforms based on where your audience actually is, not where you think you should be. Consistency matters more than volume.
Marketing strategy isn’t a one-time exercise. The businesses that get it right are the ones that treat it as an ongoing process: build it, test it, look at the data, and adjust. That part never stops.
by Cathy Gray | Apr 3, 2022 | Professional Articles, Marketing
Marketing Basics Price Product Promotion And Place
4 P’s of Marketing
The 4 P’s aren’t new. They’ve been around since the 1950’s and you probably learned them in school. But they’re easy to forget once you’re deep in campaigns, dashboards, and day-to-day operations. This is a quick reminder: product, price, promotion, and place are still the foundation everything else is built on.
Marketing tactics and channels will change. These four principles won’t.
As the example throughout the rest of the article, a kayak manufacturer will be used.
Product
This is what a business sells, either a physical item, a service, or both. From a marketing perspective, the following will need to be determined:
How many different product variations or product lines should be sold?
Our kayak manufacturer may have determined what kayak options they would bring to the market. Some variations may include: single or tandem (for two people), sit in or sit on, use of the kayak like fishing, rapids, seafaring. Colors, lengths and accessories can also fit into this category.
How should the product or service be packaged or presented?
Perhaps the manufacturer wants to market their kayaks for everyday families. So they make their marketing material relevant to families. While kayaks are generally long, they may have a specialty line for inflatable kayaks.
As a service, they may also offer credits for their customers if they want to upgrade their kayak and offer the returned kayaks as a demo for a more affordable price.
How will it be serviced?
The kayak manufacturer may have a warranty or satisfaction policy. They may also have an extensive website with detailed information on their kayaks and other products to allow their customers to understand every aspect of their kayak or accessories.
Sometimes marketers might have involvement in products are design and which features are included based on their market research.
Price
A product’s or service’s price isn’t just “how much stuff costs”. There is more to think about than that.
If marketing is all about driving profitable action, then prices need to be set at a level the market will support.
Here are some marketing considerations with prices that the kayak company will need to consider:
What is the market rate per unit of a product?
Pricing policies requires market analysis and competitive research to determine what is a fair price for a product while considering production costs and what consumers are willing to pay. If the kayak is sold at high prices, does it match with its perceived value
How should discounts be applied and timed?
The kayak manufacturer may have promotional activities and/or promotional pricing for its partnered retailers. Should the product be put on sale at certain times of year?
Does it make sense to give customers options for payments?
A retailer for the kayak may offer financing options through their website with the help of 3rd party payment processors or other payment plans.
However the kayaks and accessories are priced, as long as they are at the right price for the customer needs, they will be purchased.
Promotion
If a product is launched but no one sees it, does it exist? Technically it does, but only taking up space.
If there is a new kayak design or accessory, it needs to be marketed so customers know it exists.
Which channels will be used to promote the product?
A marketing channel the way the product or service is being marketed from the start at the company to end at the intended consumer.
This includes online and offline channels.
Some examples of traditional marketing include: print, television, and radio. For our kayak company, television or radio may not be optimal, but printed brochures or promotional displays at outdoor fitters may work instead.
Where will it be promoted?
Online promotions include social media and Google Ads for example, but are not limited to these. Offline promotions include the traditional marketing tactics that were previously discussed. It also includes in stores promoting and at relevant events.
What message needs to be communicated?
The text, images, and imagery that is used will to tell the audience what the product is all about, and encourage them to buy it.
Some examples of the promotion strategies may include, email marketing, content marketing, or advertising with local groups that have active families.
Place
The right product needs to be in the right place for customers to find it and purchase it.
Where is the product distributed?
Online then shipped or sold in retail locations.
As far as retail locations, will it be big box, like Cabela’s or Academy Sports.
Will specific locations get the product?
For example, the kayaks wouldn’t be sold in areas that are typically frozen year round. That wouldn’t make sense at all and would be a complete waste of time, money, and resources.
Conclusion
The 4 P’s aren’t glamorous. They don’t make for flashy conference talks or viral LinkedIn posts. But they work. If a strategy isn’t landing, going back to basics and running through these four questions usually reveals where something got missed.
It’s a framework worth keeping in your back pocket.
