Marketing: Are you mixing it up?

Marketing has become pretty much synonymous with the idea of promotion, and so when people talk about their marketing (or their ‘marketing mix’) very often all they’re referring to is how they use a variety of promotional tools, e.g., Facebook, Instagram, leaflets, website etc. But marketing is much more than this. It’s actually:

Any action you take to promote your services and satisfy client needs using a combination of price, product, place, promotion, people, processes and physical evidence/‘packaging’.

So my question is, given ‘promotion’ is only 1/7th of your marketing mix, how much time do you give the other 6? My guess is probably ‘not much’.

Taking the time to explore your marketing mix and giving each element the same effort (if not more) than your promotional work is far more effective and efficient than focussing on promotion alone in terms of growing your business. You can do the most wonderful social media marketing in the world, but you’re not going to get clients, you’re not going to keep clients, if other elements of your marketing mix fall short. In fact, £ for £, spending time on other elements of your marketing mix is far more cost effective than the same time spent on your social media.

As an example of how important the marketing mix is to growing your business, let’s take a quick look at Place, i.e. the physical and online places you sell your services.

Think about your experience of ‘place’ when you’re buying products and services, whether online or in a physical building. How important is it in influencing your purchase decision? My guess is a lot. And it’s the same for your clients. If parking is a nightmare, or the treatment room is cold, then no matter how great you are they might not come back. If your website isn’t clear about how to book, what your prices are, or there’s no online booking system, potential clients might feel frustrated, give up, and go elsewhere.

Put yourself in your clients shoes and explore your ‘places’ through their eyes, for example:

Physical places: Your treatment room

Go through the journey your client takes from parking their car to getting back in their car. Go over every inch with a critical eye and a fine toothcomb (maybe rope in a friend to help). What does the walk to your treatment room look like? Is there anything that could be improved? Get on your treatment couch – does it feel safe and sturdy or rickety and narrow? Are you feeling how you want your client to feel? Is there somewhere to hang their coat? Do you offer them a drink? Do you help them on and off the couch? If you use linens are they in need of an upgrade? Have you made it clear if toilet facilities are available? Basically, what can you do to make your physical space, the physical experience your client has with you, better?

Online places: Websites and online booking systems

More and more people do their research and make purchases via their mobiles, and Google now penalises websites not optimised for mobile, so yours needs to be easy to use and look good even on a mobile screen. So look at it on your mobile! Make sure information clients need about you and the treatments you offer is clear and easy to find. Have pictures of you and your treatment room on your site, and include your prices (it’s soooo annoying when there are no prices). And with many clients viewing themselves as time poor (think stress) more and more of them are looking for quick, easy and convenient solutions (think stress free) when it comes to booking their appointment. Seriously consider getting a good online booking system so you don’t miss out.

Not all these suggestions are going to apply to you, or even be within your control. But there will be others that are; changes that when taken together have the potential to help you grow your business in 2025 for very little effort – and next to no cost.

I’ll be honest here, failing to give time to all the elements of my marketing mix is something I’m guilty of, which is terrible considering my degree is in Business. But I’m trying to put it right over the coming weeks and months, and of course I’ll share it all here.

Have a great week, Sarah x

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