• How to promote your product. Modern methods of product promotion

    Product promotion means a combination of various types activities to convey information about the merits of a product to potential consumers and stimulate their desire to buy it. The concepts of “marketing communications” and “product promotion methods” are essentially identical, although experts classify different groups of methods as product promotion and marketing communications. Thus, direct marketing can refer to methods of marketing communications or methods of organizing retail trade.

    However, it should be borne in mind that the communication function is also performed by other elements of the marketing mix. For example, sometimes the design of a product, its characteristics, packaging and price tell the consumer much more about the product than its advertising. In this regard, the classification of promotion methods, however, like many other classifications, is relative in nature and is used primarily to facilitate the process of learning marketing.

    When establishing communications, you need to know at what stage of product acceptance the consumer is and what information he primarily uses. So in Fig. Figure 11.1 depicts one of the most commonly used approaches to identifying the stages of the process of consumer acceptance of a new product and the information he uses in doing so.

    Rice. 11.1. Stages of consumer acceptance of a new product and information used

    Establishing effective marketing communications is carried out in the following sequence: the target audience is identified; her desired response is determined, which in most cases involves a purchase; the goals of the communication campaign are determined; a communication message is developed; communication channels are selected; the person who makes the message (transmits information) is determined; feedback is established with the target audience; a general promotion budget (communications budget) is developed; promotion methods are selected and the effectiveness of communication activities is assessed.

    The target audience is a collection of potential or existing buyers or consumers who make or influence purchasing decisions. How target audience one can consider individuals, groups of people, various segments of the public.

    As an example, here are the following goals for establishing communications to promote a product:

    • Bringing information to the consumer about the emergence of a new category of goods, for example, CDs.
    • Providing information to the consumer about individual brands of goods belonging to a certain category, for example, about Sony CD players.
    • Developing a positive attitude among consumers towards products of a certain brand.
    • Ensuring that the consumer desires to buy a product of this brand.
    • Creating conditions for convenient purchases on favorable terms. To do this, retail outlets must be conveniently located, the product must have the appropriate characteristics, and have the appropriate environment, including the price.

    To create initial awareness, the communicator can simply repeat the name of the company or product brand in his message, transmitted several times. Next, consumers who have expressed interest must be provided with additional knowledge about the company and/or its specific products. The communication campaign is aimed at developing a favorable opinion among consumers about the subject of interest. The next step is for the switch to develop in consumers a sense of preference towards the promoted product by describing its advantages. Next, you need to translate the feeling of preference into conviction about the need to make a purchase. Not everyone who wants to buy something does so immediately. They may postpone the purchase for various reasons. To prevent this from happening, the communicator must strive to persuade the consumer to take the final step - making a purchase. This can be achieved through various means: providing price discounts, the opportunity to test the product, etc.

    Once the desired audience reaction is determined, a communication message is developed. At the same time, it is determined what to convey (the content of the request), how to convey it (from the point of view of the logic of the request), its structure and how to convey (from the point of view of its execution) the format of the message.

    Determining the message format involves choosing the right headline, content, illustrations and their design (color, font, etc.).

    Communication channels can be personal or impersonal. In the first case, two or more communicating people contact each other directly or through various means (telephone, mail, Internet, etc.). This makes it easy to establish effective feedback. Some personal communication channels are controlled by the organizations that create them, such as the activities of sales agents. Others are not controlled, for example, contacts with consumers of independent experts. Communication with target buyers - their neighbors, friends, family members, colleagues - is carried out through word of mouth channel. Having identified opinion leaders in different target audiences, they carry out, first of all, establishing communications with them, creating for them some favorable conditions for purchasing goods.

    With the help of impersonal communication channels information is transmitted without personal contacts and direct feedback. Impersonal channels consist primarily of the media and external media (advertising stands, posters, notices, etc.).

    How to complement the consumer qualities of your goods. Here you need to take two steps. Compare your product with the qualities of competitors' products. And the second step is to try to convince them that you are the best. This trick will allow you not to think about how to promote your product. And the target audience will understand that your products are more profitable than those on the market.

    Develop and implement branding. For promotion goods It is necessary to establish frequent contact between your target group and the brand. The contact can also be visual. After all, promoting on the Internet is one thing, but promoting a virtual office is quite another. It is necessary to make your website very informative, fairly easy to navigate and accessible to search engines.

    Create information bursts. If possible, appear often on the pages of both electronic and paper media. So you know how to promote your product in order to arouse genuine interest with a press release not only from the end consumer, but even from editors of newspapers and magazines.

    Please note

    High quality releases depending entirely on how quickly you promote
    company.

    If you decide to start your own business, do not create illusions, you must very soberly assess your strengths and capabilities, your market value. In order to be expensive, you need to “promote” your product, to become not just a product or service, but a whole brand.

    Instructions

    Research your target audience.
    Describe in detail the person who is a potential buyer of your product A. Who is he, what family is he from, what gender and age, education. Does he hold leadership positions or, on the contrary, is he a performer? Rides or uses public transport? Does he watch TV or doesn’t have time for it? Perhaps he has children or pets? You must not only see this person in your imagination, you must get used to the role, understand what he wants, how he feels, what pleases him and what disgusts him. The more accurately you describe your target audience, the more accurately you will identify the very value for which the client is willing to pay extra? Maybe it will be prestige for people with high . Maybe safety for family people, or sexuality for young people.

    Unique product offer.
    In order to product has become a brand, it needs to be unique. Offer people something that your competitors don’t offer, unique packaging, excellent service, warranty service. Do everything so that your customer not only wants to come back to you again and again, but also tells all their friends and acquaintances about you.

    Starting to promote your company, it is important to decide on the three components of a marketing policy. Answer the questions: what do you produce, for whom do you produce, how do your products differ from those of your competitors. Having received the answers, you can start promotion.

    You will need

    • brand book, list of industry and business media, computer, phone

    Instructions

    Develop a brand book in which you describe your concept and the main services it offers. Don't forget the target audience - with demographics as well as consumer preferences. Such research can be purchased from large marketing agencies, but it is preferable to develop it yourself. After all, only in this case the consumer niche will be determined as accurately as possible. In addition to this data, the brand book should contain a reflection of your competitive advantages.

    Make sure that as much as possible is known about your site by competently and meaningfully describing the site, which should be completely ready by the time of promotion. Never distribute materials online that are posted on a site whose development has not yet been completed.

    Video on the topic

    As competition intensifies, companies enter into price wars. This strategy is not suitable for small companies. We have to attract customers with services and services that are not interesting for large companies. From simple services small firms pave the way for further cooperation, retaining clients with goodwill and quick response in case of problems.

    Instructions

    Attract customers with something free. The challenge is to gather a client base and establish trusting relationships. Prove to potential buyers that you are an expert in your chosen field. This is done through trainings and seminars. Train future customers on how they should act to solve problems associated with paid products/services that you will provide in the future. Receive feedback from clients, ask for their opinions and ask for contact information.

    Sell ​​something inexpensive. People are reluctant to part with money until they know how conscientiously the seller fulfills his obligations. Your task is to show customers that the company is safe to do business with. If customers are satisfied with the service, they will make a large purchase next time.

    Sell ​​related products. Make a call to every first-time customer. Ask how things are going and offer another product that complements the previous purchase. You will have a sales system. For the chain to function, it is necessary to maintain statistics for each person from the database collected in the 1st step.

    Sell ​​the same product in a different form. If the customer purchased a physical product, offer an audio course that teaches the intricacies of using the product. After the audio course, offer training in -format. Then invite to a meeting on the same topic. Display books, stickers, bookmarks, and other merchandise related to the product. Make another packaging, change appearance packaging, etc. If a client likes something, he will purchase it in different forms.

    Sell ​​an expensive product. This is easy to do if the buyer is used to repeat orders from the company.

    Start with step 1, gradually promoting the next expensive product. Build a system of relationships with clients, gradually complicating it.

    Video on the topic

    9. Promotion of goods (services)

    9.1. Promotion functions

    Promotion is any form of communication to inform, persuade, remind about goods, services, social activities, ideas, etc.

    Key Features promotions:
    - creating an image of prestige, low prices, innovation,
    - information about the product and its parameters,
    - maintaining the popularity of goods (services),
    - changing the way the product is used,
    - creating enthusiasm among sales participants,
    - convincing customers to switch to more expensive goods,
    - answers to consumer questions,
    - favorable information about the company.

    Promotion goals: stimulating demand and improving the company's image. Specific actions depend on the so-called impact hierarchy (Table 9.1).

    Table 9.1

    Their roles in consumer and industrial marketing are somewhat different (Table 9.2).

    Table 9.2

    Places by importance of types of promotion

    If marketing research aims to “listen” to the consumer, then promotion is the second half of the dialogue (see Fig. 35).

    Rice. 35. Roles of research and promotion in marketing

    9.2. Composition and main provisions of the theory and practice of advertising activities

    The concept of coding is as follows. The media for transmitting advertising messages (television, the press) have specific features that can distort the message and introduce “information noise”. Therefore, a certain optimization of the impact of individual messages is necessary, taking into account the external environment of the recipient.

    Promotion should be considered as an integral part of the marketing mix. Advertising refers to competitive product brands. Therefore, it would seem that with its help we should try to increase sales of this particular product. However, a progressive element of promotion is the promotion of the entire company, and not its individual brands. Since a company can use different types of promotion, this promotion contributes to the promotion of individual brands of goods. Each type of promotion is designed for a specific target audience. But each of these promotion campaigns must be considered as part of a single whole.

    Research has shown that advertising is more effective if:
    - the product is standardized,
    - there are many end consumers,
    - small size purchase is typical,
    - sales are carried out through intermediary channels, and not directly,
    - support services are important,
    - the product has a premium price (or premium quantity),
    - the manufacturer has a significant benefit on ruble sales,
    - the manufacturer has a relatively small market size and/or excess production capacity,
    - the majority of the manufacturer's sales are made up of new products.

    In general, there are three main groups of actions in advertising activities:
    - information (a message that the product exists and what its qualities are),
    - persuasion (inducing favorable emotions, forming a position of recognition of the product, switching consumer decisions to purchase it),
    - maintaining loyalty (consolidating existing consumers as the main source of future sales).

    To ensure all this, a unified process for managing advertising activities must be carried out (Fig. 37).

    9.3. Advertising in industrial marketing

    Advertising in industrial marketing has its own characteristics. In many ways, it is carried out through personal contacts and requires more information. These campaigns last for a longer period, the budget of advertising campaigns is relatively smaller (per unit of sales). The campaign typically targets 6-7 individuals in each buying organization, and so on.

    9.4. Developing a message (message)

    The main message in advertising is usually based on a specific benefit, with which the advertiser identifies the main advantage in which his product differs from that of a competitor. The advertiser will strive to find a “unique selling proposition” (USP). It can be based on physical or intangible characteristics of the product. On the other hand, SCP can be based on a psychological aspect: fear (insurance financial transactions), guilt, positive emotions (love), humor. It can also be based on certain associations (Pepsi-Cola and Michael Jackson).

    Moreover, if the product is practically similar to similar products of competitors, then the company can try to explain its advantages more clearly than competitors, for example, differentiate its advertising style and thereby create an “extra value” in advertising effectiveness.

    It is believed that an advertising campaign should be built in two stages:
    - attracting public opinion leaders;
    - attracting the bulk of potential consumers (typical consumer groups in different stages product life cycle).

    The message may be contained not only in speech or video, but also in something that was kept silent, but it is quite eloquent.

    The choice of message must necessarily take into account the need to persuade the recipient. Experts typically recommend some focus on the central selling proposition. The strength of an advertising campaign depends on the strength of the main idea contained in it. This idea should be:
    - clearly defined and rich;
    - clear and simple;
    - believable for the recipient;
    - resistant to opposition;
    - related to the needs of the consumer.

    The actual application of marketing techniques may differ significantly from theoretical concepts. Thus, it is considered an axiom that any marketing decision should be based on marketing research. However, there are situations where this is literally difficult to follow. For example, a competitor suddenly changes its strategy; retaliatory actions should follow within a few days. There is simply no time for marketing research, and decisions are made largely intuitively.

    Real (“rough”) marketing is therefore based on the inclusion of a large number of intuitively assessed factors due to incomplete information and lack of resources. Therefore, when developing advertising messages, success will largely depend on the plausibility of the simulation of the average consumer.

    In theory, selecting a message medium should be a process of selecting the most cost-effective medium to achieve the greatest coverage and number of presentations. Typically both of these dimensions are assessed. Advertising must reach the maximum number of target audiences. It is usually difficult to capture the last percent of this mass: the cost of cumulative coverage is described by an exponential curve. Thus, the coverage decision in practice represents a balance between the desired full coverage and the cost of achieving it.

    Even with high coverage, a one-time presentation of advertising (“Opportunity To See” - OTS) is not enough to influence the recipient. Typically, an average of about 5 OTS is required to achieve the required degree of impact to the level of recognition and switching attention to the advertised brand of product. To achieve five OTS, even with 70% coverage of the target audience, it may require 20-30 press reports per national level. Submission frequency is a function of campaign timing. 12 messages in a year or 12 messages in a week are not the same thing. It is often considered appropriate to present information in “rolls” or “waves”.

    Main types of message media (in order of importance):

    The press can be divided into the following sectors: national newspapers, regional newspapers, magazines, professional and technical literature.

    Posters (road posters), radio and cinema are the least attractive mediums for transmitting messages due to their specificity.

    Research in England determined the positioning of various information environments (Fig. 38).

    9.5. Work of advertising agencies

    Traditionally, such agencies perform three main functions:
    - accepting orders,
    - creative work,
    - purchase of message medium.

    Additional features:
    - production,
    - control,
    - administration,
    - marketing research,
    - marketing,
    - “public relations”,
    - direct mailings,
    - promotion.

    A typical agency organization is shown in Fig. 39.

    The differentiating factor for most advertising agencies is their creativity. To achieve this, large agencies must have certain creative specialists:

    Text writers prepare texts and scripts, often being sources of original ideas. Visual element advertising is prepared by artists who are usually called visualizers. They work hand in hand with the text writers, creating sketches with texts. Usually they do not produce a finished artistic work, for which specialist photographers, illustrators, etc. are invited. Producers are needed in television, radio or film. They ensure relationships with external partners to ensure that all commercial terms and conditions are met.

    From the client's point of view, the typical ad creation process goes through a number of stages:

    The order is usually made in a standard form, which is agreed upon by the client with the agency responsible for accepting the order and the executive artistic director (visualizer) (Fig. 40).

    Acquiring a presentation environment also involves a number of stages:

    9.6. Planning of advertising activities

    As with all types of marketing activities, advertising must establish its objectives, including:
    - who and where (target audience, percentage coverage, message environment);
    - when (time balancing of individual parts of the campaign);
    - what and how (the essence of the message and its presentation).

    The most important aspect of the plan is that it must be quantified, including results (particularly awareness and shifts in audience acceptance of the product).

    The budget for an advertising campaign is usually determined based on experience. The most popular approaches:
    - if possible (depending on individual costs and required profit);
    - as a percentage of sales;
    - based on parity with competitors;
    - according to goals and objectives (calculation of necessary costs).

    A survey of companies in England showed that three approaches are most often used in practice:
    - percentage of sales volume (44% of companies);
    - estimates of production costs (21%);
    - by goals and objectives (18%).

    The advertising research process usually follows the same rules as other marketing research: time and channel are examined turning on the TV, remembering advertising messages on TV and in newspapers. “Spontaneous awareness” is measured by the proportion of those who remember the brand without any other promotion. “Promotion awareness” is measured by the proportion of those who recognized the brand when presented with it.

    Brand recognition is assessed by the number of those who changed their position as a result of the advertising campaign. And finally, the integral indicator is the increase in sales after such a campaign. Test marketing is also used to compare different campaigns in different regions.

    Effective method research into the effectiveness of advertising in the press is a system of coupons - discounts upon presentation of a coupon in the newspaper. Thus, it is possible to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising by publication, time of release, placement of information, etc.

    One aspect of planning advertising activities is choosing an advertising agency. The following order is recommended:
    1. Clear definition of needs and goals.
    2. Desk search - selection from reference books and based on your own experience.
    3. Formulation of the task - optimal advantages, key questions.
    4. Narrower search - narrowing the alternatives to two or three agencies.
    5. Real choice.

    9.7. Legal aspects of promotion

    Legislation regulates the activities of promotion firms. These requirements range from prohibiting the installation of billboards in certain locations to requiring popular personalities who advertise certain products to actually use them.

    There are five main ways legal protection consumers and competitors from unfair promotion:
    - provision of complete information;
    - confirmation;
    - termination orders;
    - corrective advertising;
    - fines.

    Providing complete information requires that the consumer has all the data necessary to make the right decision (product composition, consequences of use, etc.).

    Verification requires that a firm can prove all of the claims it makes, including through rigorous testing.

    Fines may be levied to the treasury and in the interests of specific consumers.

    9.8. Direct and interactive marketing

    Direct marketing consists of direct (interactive) communications with a selected specific buyer, often in the form of a personalized dialogue, to obtain an immediate response.

    Main forms of direct marketing:
    - personal (personal) sales - direct interaction with one or more potential buyers for the purpose of organizing presentations, answering questions and receiving orders;
    - direct mail marketing - includes mailing letters, advertising materials, booklets, etc. to potential buyers to addresses from mailing lists;
    - catalog sales - the use of catalogs of goods sent to customers by mail or sold in stores;
    - marketing by telephone (telemarketing) - using the telephone as a tool for direct sales of goods to customers;
    - direct response television marketing - marketing of goods and services through advertising television (or radio) programs using feedback elements (usually a telephone number);
    - interactive (online) marketing - direct marketing carried out through interactive computer communication services in real time.

    Companies that use direct marketing closely monitor the relevance of the marketing offer to the needs of a narrow segment of consumers or an individual buyer.

    Many companies, when using direct marketing, focus primarily on concluding individual transactions. However, in lately More and more companies are turning to direct marketing in order to achieve not only more effective access to target consumers, but also to create stronger, long-term and personalized relationships with them (relationship marketing).

    According to most experts, the transition from mass marketing to individual marketing is associated with changes taking place in the household, with the emergence of technologically complex products, new ways of making purchases and paying for them, with intense competition, with the development of additional distribution channels and new information technologies.

    Below are the main differences between mass and so-called individual marketing:

    Mass Marketing

    Individual Marketing

    Average buyer

    Individual buyer

    Anonymity of buyers

    Focus on a specific buyer

    Standardized product

    Individual market offer

    Mass production

    Customized production

    Mass distribution of goods

    Individual distribution

    Mass product promotion

    Create personalized purchase incentives

    Unidirectionality of the product message

    Bidirectionality of product message

    Emphasis on scale

    Focus on depth of coverage

    Coverage of all buyers

    Reaching profitable customers

    Market share

    Share among buyers

    Attracting buyers

    Customer Retention

    In direct marketing, the key to success is detailed information according to individual consumer. Modern enterprises create special databases about buyers, which represent an array of detailed information about individual (potential) buyers, including geographic, demographic, psychographic, as well as data on the characteristics of purchasing behavior. Such databases are used to find potential buyers, modify or develop products to suit their specific needs, and maintain relationships with them.

    Database marketing is the process of creating, using, maintaining customer databases, as well as other databases (products, distributors, sales, etc.) for the purpose of completing sales transactions and establishing relationships with customers.

    Companies use both individual forms of direct marketing and integrated direct marketing, which can include all forms. One of the diagrams of the integrated MSP (Marketing and Sales Productivity System) system is shown in Fig. 41.

    Rice. 41. Information support for direct marketing

    A relatively new and rapidly developing form of direct marketing today is interactive marketing and e-commerce. Interactive marketing has gained such popularity for the following main reasons:

    The advantages of interactive marketing also include:
    - the possibility of its use by both large and small firms;
    - practically unlimited electronic (as opposed to, for example, printed) advertising space;
    - fairly fast access and copying of information;
    - as a rule, confidentiality and speed of electronic purchases.

    In addition to the advantages, modern interactive marketing has some disadvantages:
    - limited access of buyers and, consequently, volumes of purchases;
    - some one-sidedness of demographic and psychographic information about customers;
    - chaos and information overload in global networks;
    - insufficient security and confidentiality of data.

    9.9. Sales promotion

    Key Features this type of promotion:
    - effectiveness for a relatively short time;
    - direct impacts on sales potential, distribution channels, consumers or a combination of these groups;
    - use for specialization of some specific actions.

    Sales promotion covers a wide range of possibilities. To those given in table. 9.3 Sponsorship should also be added (for example, for sporting events).

    Table 9.3

    Types of Sales Promotion

    indirect

    indirect

    indirect

    Consumer

    Price reduction

    Coupons
    Vouchers
    Cash equivalent
    Competition

    Free access
    Premium Shopping
    Free gifts

    Coupons
    Vouchers
    Cash equivalent
    Competition

    Guarantees
    Group participation
    Special exhibitions and performances

    Trade

    Instructions to dealers
    Loyalty schemes
    Stimulation
    Shopping across the entire range

    Expanding Credit
    Deferred payment
    Returns
    Coupons
    Vouchers
    Cash equivalent

    Free gifts
    Trial purchases

    Coupons
    Vouchers
    Cash equivalent
    Competition

    Guarantees
    Group participation
    Free service
    Risk Reduction Scheme
    Education
    Special exhibitions, demonstrations
    Reverse trading schemes

    Coupons
    Vouchers for service
    Competition

    Sellers

    Bonds
    Commission

    Coupons
    Vouchers
    Point systems
    Cash equivalent

    Free gifts

    Coupons
    Vouchers
    Point systems
    Cash equivalent

    Free service
    Group participation

    Coupons
    Vouchers
    Points system in the service
    Recognizing chance
    Competition

    The main advantages of sales promotion:
    - sales growth is the main short-term benefit;
    - specific target audience;
    - clear role;
    - indirect roles - the ability to be used to achieve other goals.

    Flaws:
    - short duration of impact;
    - hidden costs;
    - the possibility of conflicts with advertising representations;
    - price cutoff - the ability for buyers to expect lower prices in the future.

    Methods of targeted stimulation include:
    - price reduction;
    - coupons (purchases or services under obligations with price reductions);
    - financing of next purchases;
    - credit;
    - seasonal price reductions.

    Non-price incentives:
    - buyer competition (lotteries);
    - personal promotion;
    - free gifts (possibility of additional free purchases);
    - presentation of samples of new products for trial use.

    9.10. Public Relations

    Public relations (public relations, PR) is a range of programs whose purpose is to promote and (or) protect the image (image, prestige) of a company or individual products.

    Publicity (propaganda) is a type of public relations and is defined as the non-personal and non-sponsored stimulation of demand for a product, service or activity through the publication of commercially important information in the printed media or favorable presentation on radio, television or on stage.

    One of the most important tasks of PR is maintaining contacts with key journalists in relevant areas (press, magazines, radio, TV). This is essentially a process of “investing” (results will not appear immediately). First of all, these are messages about new results, new products, demonstrations of such new products at business meetings, lunches, conferences using communication technology. It is advisable for companies to create certain press centers.

    Corporate PR tools include:
    - relations with shareholders;
    - advertising;
    - connections with local communities;
    - sponsorship;
    - exhibitions.

    Exhibitions allow you to get double effect: product demonstrations and personal contacts. Therefore, exhibitions should be carefully planned based on objectives, theme selection, placement and design.

    Goals should consider retaining existing customers and acquiring potential ones. This can be illustrated by the matrix in Fig. 42.

    Rice. 42. Matrix of goals for “public relations”

    Previous

    It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million people, television 13. Facebook reached 200 million users in less than a year.

    More than 82% of Internet users have accounts in social networks and sit in them (at least) two hours a day. Russia ranks first in Europe in terms of popularity of social networks.

    There is a growing number of users who come to social networks not for communication, but for information, as well as businessmen who understand that social media is an effective marketing channel. If you want to promote a project through social networks, then get acquainted with four effective ways of promotion.

    Content is the main factor of promotion

    Any SMM specialist will confirm: without quality content, promotion tools are useless. If your brand’s page is boring, you shouldn’t count on audience growth and loyalty.

    Three components of good content:

    1. Uniqueness. The information you post should be relevant and engaging. Do not copy materials from other resources. The exception is cross-posting between a company’s blog and its page on a social network.
    2. Regularity. Articles should be published systematically. Two, three, four or seven times a week - depends on the specifics of the business and its target audience. So, for people from the business environment, two or three updates will be enough, but for the beauty community this is clearly not enough. It is necessary to adhere to the chosen content strategy regardless of the number of subscribers.
    3. Virality. Publications should be lively, evoking an emotional response in the form of a burning desire to tell friends about them. Avoid overtly promotional posts.

    Facebook in Russia- “social services are not for everyone.” It is used by marketers, programmers and other IT-savvy people. They are not afraid of a “complex interface”, and their areas of interest include gadgets, the Internet, travel, education, books and business in all its forms. They willingly like and share materials on these topics, as well as motivating articles that set the mood for positivity. Most of Facebook's active audience uses the mobile application - it is recommended to illustrate posts with pictures measuring 800 × 600.

    "VKontakte"- the largest social network on the Runet (more than 230 million registered users). Her audience is younger; Users' interests are mainly focused on entertainment (communication, games, music, movies, etc.). VK users do not like text content (it is advisable that the length of the post does not exceed 500 characters), but they love photos and videos.

    The most popular among photo hosting sites in Russia is Instagram. At the same time, when maintaining a brand page on Instagram, it is recommended to adhere to uniform style in design (use not only standard filters, but also third-party photo editors), and also place objects in the photo on 2/3 of the screen (this makes the picture more visually attractive).

    Targeting

    The ability to place targeted advertising is available on almost all social networks: VKontakte, Facebook, Odnoklassniki and others. At the same time, it is believed that targeted advertising on social networks is more suitable for the B2C sector. However, there are also companies in B2B that effectively solve business problems through targeted advertising.

    Some types of targeting:

    • Geographic (geotargeting) - displaying advertising to residents of a certain region / city / district, etc. For example, you want to promote a beauty salon located in Khimki near Moscow. Your targeted ad will be shown to residents of this city.
    • Socio-demographic - advertising display depending on gender, age, marital status and other social criteria. Thus, it is recommended to place advertisements for children's products and household goods on the pages of married women over 25, and advertisements for an art store - on the pages of designers, architects, and decorators.
    • Contextual - displaying advertising in accordance with the user's interests. Membership in groups such as “Fashion”, Fashion, “Shopping”, etc. clearly demonstrates the user’s interests. He will be interested in relevant advertising.
    • Behavioral - displaying advertising depending on specific user actions (travel routes, favorite places, frequent search queries, etc.). Let's say a person is interested in Latin American dancing, goes to a salsa club, and looks for relevant videos - there is a high probability that he will be attracted by an advertisement for a last-minute tour to Cuba.

    Despite its apparent simplicity, targeting is a tool that requires serious preparatory work. First, you need to analyze the brand's target audience. Secondly, make an ad.

    Advertising in communities

    Advertising in communities (in the professional language of SMM specialists - sowing) is the purchase of posting posts or reposts in popular communities. In the first case (purchase of a post), the advertiser’s goal is to increase traffic on the company’s website; in the second (buying a repost) - attracting users to the company’s group on a social network. Moreover, the more subscribers the community in which you buy a post has, the more expensive the advertising campaign will cost.

    You can negotiate with community owners directly or use the services of a special exchange. In 2013, it was opened by the social network VKontakte (an account for advertisers). Advertising is placed by the community administration in its feed and, according to the conditions, must remain there for 24 hours.

    Professional promotion in social media

    This refers to services that provide paid promotion services on social networks. As a rule, they independently create high-quality content, launch a targeting mechanism and negotiate advertising in communities. These include Plibber. Why conditional? Because the capabilities of this service are much wider.

    • register;
    • decide on the format of work on the site (you can advertise your brand yourself or contact the Plibber team to organize a shocking advertising campaign);
    • prepare an advertising post;
    • select the most suitable sites from the target audience and begin sowing.

    After preliminary moderation, your task will be available and you can start attracting fans of your brand.

    How to get organic loyal traffic? We addressed this question, which is of interest to all advertisers, to the founder of the Plibber project, Oleg Ratunin.

    Oleg Ratunin

    General manager and the ideological inspirer of Plibber.ru. Knows about social media everything and even more.

    To attract potential fans to your brand, you should:

    • use quizzes, infographics, illustrations, viral videos, advertising games, etc.;
    • place a link within the visible area of ​​the post announcement (first and second lines);
    • introduce a call to action into the content;
    • add a provocative survey;
    • work with associative content format and its adaptation to the brand;
    • launch creative, vibrant and unique competitions.

    If you manage to find the content that your audience craves, you can count on over 600 clicks from one post.

    Also, do not forget to analyze the communication of large brands with their subscribers; now good results are being detected in the community

    And their implementation. All other functions play a supporting role, accelerating or even slowing down commerce. Production and trade are constantly changing in pace, forms, methods, and so on. In particular, the promotion of goods and services on the Internet has changed greatly.

    Internet and trade

    World Wide Web greatly changed the world order. The space has shrunk significantly. Large amounts of information are instantly moved to any point globe, changing the situation in the economy, politics, personal life. Of course, the Internet has had a major impact on trade. Data about goods and services can be transmitted from your home, distributed to many people at once, transferred to interested customers, neutralized large number barriers in the form of borders, financial and tax regulations, differences in laws, and so on.

    Online trading is developing at a very active pace. This is evidenced by statistics, where the share increases from year to year. New data is constantly becoming more and more impressive.

    Trading via the Internet has become quite profitable, so many people have appeared engaged in different trading methods, and a lot of ways to promote goods on the Internet have appeared. Today, products are sold via the Internet, bought, resold, engaged in dropshipping (trading without a warehouse) or simply advertising, receiving a percentage of sales.

    Methodology

    It is necessary to develop the company's brand for the successful sale of goods. It is also necessary to develop methods for promoting goods on the Internet. For marketing, promotion is a method of activity that is aimed at increasing sales performance through specific communicative stimulation of buyers, contractors, partners and employees. Promotion develops the following goals: increasing demand for a product or service among customers and developing a positive attitude towards the company. Product promotion implements such significant functions as:

    • attractive enterprise form, positive image: status, innovation, low cost and high quality goods;
    • the ability to disseminate product data, including its characteristics, wholesale buyers and ordinary clients;
    • existence of a need for a product (service);
    • activation of all participants in the product sales chain;
    • restructuring the process of habitual perception of products;
    • dissemination of information about the reliability of the company;
    • distribution of expensive goods.

    A trade development complex is a generalization of marketing capabilities and techniques that make it possible to provide data about a businessman’s products to end consumers. Such a set of actions is formed from different methods product promotion, including on the Internet.

    Uncrate

    Uncrate is, first and foremost, a product control site with loyal support. Here it is much easier to promote goods and services on the Internet. Active users of Uncrate not only tend to look at interesting products, they also enjoy purchasing them. Promotion of products on the Uncrate platform can help increase sales and provide new ways to publish your information in periodicals.

    But selling through Uncrate is not that easy. Officially, there is no selection process, but informally one requirement remains the same: the product must be of high quality. Uncrate decides to talk about individual companies, but the rest need to call, inform, and also send product samples.

    Directed trading

    Targeted marketing, also known as word of mouth, exists as an analogue of the oldest methods of promoting a new product on the Internet. Such marketing combines everything that may require other people to tell their friends about the product, leading to recognition and trade. Nowadays, the Internet can be used, which makes such marketing have an even greater impact on sales. The World Wide Web makes it possible not only to connect a larger number of users, but also makes it easier for people eager to take content from a company, while allowing owners to track trading results.

    Bloggers

    The most difficult stage of starting a trade is promoting a product on the Internet in the absence of consumers. If you don't have your own customer base, you need to either pay to increase traffic to your own site or poach other people's customers until your own audience is created. Help from bloggers is a great way to turn your products into prestigious and marketable products. You can find famous bloggers and order an article or review about a product from them. If they have a large audience that relies on the blogger's opinion, this will help boost the site and increase sales.

    Advertising on social news sites

    Quite a lot of businessmen do not even try to work with advertising on existing social news sites, although such methods can be a very effective system for promoting goods via the Internet. Even the most passive advertising networks can sometimes be very profitable, because their cost is lower and they offer a lot of ways to express themselves.

    Try to advertise on the social news site you use to promote your own products. You can order a paid publication on a website similar in topic to your business. Use the platform to discuss your products and announce discounts. The most important thing is that your publication is combined with other materials on the subforum. In other words, you should not publish advertisements for new cosmetics on a car forum or in a group of bikers on a social network.

    Pop-Up Shop

    A pop-up store is another way to operate and promote products online. If your business distributes products online, you don't need to maintain a retail store to leverage the benefits of brick-and-mortar sales. Use another option - you can make a temporary store. Most likely, there is an empty space nearby (in a city, region, industry - depending on your capabilities), the owners of which will willingly allow you to work for a week or even two or three days.

    The operation of a temporary store will give the owner the opportunity to loudly advertise his products, appear in local media, take advantage of seasonal trading, sell the previous collection and learn much more about his consumers by talking with them personally. You just need to emphasize that the store is temporary, sending customers to the online platform and actively distributing your own printed products.

    Blog

    Blogging is a great way to activate your store and promote products online. An effective blog will in a good way attracting customers to the site and building an image associated with your product. It may also arouse the interest of the media and bloggers who decide to write about the new company.

    Instagram Features

    Instagram has around 400 million users on a regular basis, so having a post or business page on this social network is a great way to promote your products online. At least 50% of the content that appears on Instagram every day is business content. Each brand can post various information about their products in this network, which outwardly do not seem to be commercial goods.

    There are a number effective ways working with Instagram to develop the store. You can inform your followers about the qualities of your products, publish individual photos showing your products in practice, hold competitions, or work with the owners of popular Instagram profiles, inviting them to advertise your product.

    YouTube

    Now YouTube is ranked by regular search engines like Google and similar ones. This allows business owners to take advantage of great opportunities to promote products online.

    You can develop your own business by publishing interesting and useful videos on your own channel. Many consumers may have already tried to find your product or brand on YouTube. And using a branded channel with video content, you will control all the material.

    Vine

    These days, Vine no longer seems to be such a trendy platform, however, the social network continues to be used frequently. In previous years, it had approximately two hundred million users. This original network allows smartphone owners and businessmen to publish and view short videos. Brands are offered a large number of opportunities to promote their own products and services.

    In particular, you can publish videos about your own products, hold competitions, or attract consumers in other ways. Or you can reach out to popular Vine users and see if they can advertise your products for a while. The cost of advertising depends on the number of subscribers and the popularity of the account owner.

    Competitions

    A competition is an easy and relatively inexpensive method to boost product promotion on the Internet. You donate your goods and services with confidence that this interesting competition is taking part desired type consumers: potential buyers.

    However, you still need to take into account that a number of competitions do not live up to the hopes placed on them, and the money is wasted. There are several mistakes that you should avoid when holding competitions with the goal of business development. First, you need to understand that the platform, time, information and actions that potential clients need to implement to participate in the competition must be thought out in detail.

    So, products almost never sell themselves on their own. Fortunately, there are a huge number of ways to boost your sales online. Use the one that seems most effective to you and take action.