As the old adage goes, “the only thing constant in life is change.” Appreciating change in all its disruptive, challenging glory allows marketers to keep up with their customers evolving needs and wants while also looking for familiar patterns each time there is a shift in customer trends.

Though it seems there are new digital platforms released daily to reach customers, our target audience is not necessarily using them all. How do we find out where customers are spending their digital time and how do we use this information to reach them effectively?

Back to Basics

There are a few fundamental factors marketers consider throughout changes in marketing strategy over time to find out how to reach their customers. Product, place, price and promotion, or the four Ps of Marketing, are established and effective tools to use in digital marketing strategy.

• What kind of product or service are you selling?
• Where are customers looking for that product or similar products?
• How much are customers willing to pay or how much have they already paid?
• When, where and how you can that information to promote your product.

It may seem impossible to find out where customers are spending their digital time to look for products or services in such a vast platform as the internet. Using some of the basic, traditional rules of marketing allows you to keep up with the complex, modern trends in customer buying habits.

If you’re selling a product geared toward a niche group, find out where they tend to look for that product through search engines, page views and website traffic numbers. Taking this information gives marketers an idea of where to share their product digitally and where to avoid spending resources and time. By finding this information, marketers can also note the amount customers have spent on the product and where that places them on a financial scale. Knowing the economic climate of your audience answers the four Ps by giving marketers an idea of the lifestyle, background and reasoning for buying the way they do.

Answering the four Ps works so well because they are the same questions customers are asking themselves when seeking a product or service.

• What product or service do I need to make my life better or easier?
• Where can I find it quickly with similar products I may also be interested in?
• How much do I pay for it? Is there a cheaper version of it with just as much quality?
• Which companies are selling it with the most meaningful story, purpose and message behind their product? (Who is selling it the best, basically.)

It is true that the means customers are taking to buying products has changed tremendously over the past 15 years since the internet changed the way we do everything, especially buying. What has remained somewhat constant is the questioning that goes into a purchase. What am I looking for, Where can I find it, How much will I pay for it and What is the story behind the product?

This leaves digital marketing the task of sharing a compelling story on whichever platform best reaches their customer.