General

Promote your business Whakatairangahia tō pakihi

Find out the best way to promote your business. Learn how to choose your promotion style and type, and plan effective ways to engage with your customers.

Choose your promotion style

Choose the promotion type that suits your goal, budget and audience, so you can share the right message at the right time and through the right channels.

You can use different types at different times. 

To choose your promotion type, use the 4 Cs of marketing.

  1. Communication – consider if you want to reach a large audience or deliver a personal message, and the level of interaction you want.
  2. Credibility – consider how trustworthy your business is, and how seriously the audience takes your message.
  3. Costs – consider your overall costs and the cost for each customer gained.
  4. Control – consider if you can target specific audiences, and if you can change the promotion if you need to.

Understanding your marketing mix

Every product has its own characteristics that make up its identity and give it a position in the market. This is called your marketing mix.  

Understanding your marketing mix can also help you promote your business the right way. 

To define your marketing mix, break it down into four areas. 

  • Product: what the customer needs from your product or service, how they use it, if it’s basic or full of features, and how it’s different from competing products. 
  • Place: where customers typically go to buy this product, and the advantages or disadvantages of selling it online. 
  • Price: for example, aiming to be cheapest or charging more because you offer more value.
  • Promotion: the best way to reach your customers. 

Promotion types

Promotion types are also called marketing communications. They have different goals, but they are all ways to interact with customers and promote your brand and business.

Learn how to advertise to customers

Different types of promotion

Advertising involves creating adverts and making sure people see them.

To reach broader audiences, use:

  • billboards or poster campaigns
  • TV or radio ads
  • web adverts.

To reach specific audiences, use:

  • social media adverts
  • newspaper or magazine adverts 

Adverts can lead to an increase in sales, but it may be harder to see a direct link.

How it scores on 4 Cs 

Advertising rates:

  • high for communicating with a large audience
  • medium for control 
  • low for credibility.

Costs vary depending on the channel.

Sales promotions are short-term offers to attract selected groups of potential customers.

Examples of sale promotions are:

  • discounts or coupons
  • branded items
  • vouchers handed out at in-store demonstrations.

Sales promotions usually lead to a short-term increase in sales. 

How it scores on 4 Cs 

Sales promotions rate:

  • high for control
  • medium for communicating with a large audience, credibility and costs.

Direct marketing means selecting people to directly offer a product or service, using a personalised approach over channels like phone, post or email. You then build a relationship or make a sale, depending on how they respond.

How it scores on 4 Cs

Direct marketing rates:

  • high for communicating personal messages and interaction and control
  • medium for credibility and costs.

Personal selling involves you, or someone else in your business, meeting potential customers in person. The aim is to build relationships as well as make sales. It’s a good way to:

  • collect real-time feedback on your product or service
  • check if your product or service is fit for the market
  • learn what specific customers need or want.

Because it’s expensive, personal selling is best for:

  • high-value products or services
  • customers likely to spend more or who value customisation.

Building a relationship makes customers more loyal, so personal selling can lead to long-term increases in sales. 

How it scores on 4 Cs

Personal selling rates:

  • high for communicating personal messages and interaction and costs
  • medium for credibility and control.

Public relations (PR) cover managing your business’s image. It includes being featured positively in the news and handling any bad publicity with messaging that helps rebuild trust in your brand.

Free media coverage can be great promotion for your business. It’s best to use this method when you have an interesting or unusual story to tell. 

How it scores on 4 Cs 

Public relations rate: 

  • high for credibility
  • medium for communicating with a large audience
  • low for costs and control.

Develop effective marketing communication

  1. Step01

    Define your goal

    Most of the time, your goal is getting people to buy from you. But it could also be wanting people to visit your store or follow you on social media.

  2. Step02

    Identify your target audience

    Think about your target audience’s research and buying patterns, and what kind of message is most likely to appeal to them.

  3. Step03

    Choose your promotion type

    Use the 4 Cs of marketing to decide what strategy is best for your business.

  4. Step04

    Create the message

    You should have a clear idea of your customer’s purchasing habits and your strongest selling point. This should be at the start of your message.

    Also, think about the messenger, also called the message source. This is how your customers decide to trust what’s said in your promotion. For example, a business new to market with one well-known client might use a quote from that person.

  5. Step05

    Choose the right channel and the right time

    Choose a communications channel that fits your goal and your budget. Channels fit into two groups; personal communication channels where people communicate directly with each other, and non-personal communication channels that carry messages without personal contact or feedback.

    Consider timing carefully, such as scheduling radio or TV adverts around programmes popular with your target customers and posting social media updates when your target customers are most likely to be online.

  6. Step06

    Collect feedback and measure success

    Feedback helps you understand how well your promotion worked.
    Measure what your audience does after seeing the message, then adjust it if necessary to make it even more effective. If you promote or sell online, use analytics tools to measure what your audience does. 

    If you don’t have an online channel, you can measure the effect of your message in different ways. For example, you can see if the foot traffic in a store increases after you send your message, and if more people ask about the product featured in it.

learning resource

Six steps to create effective marketing communication

No matter what kind of promotion you're running, it pays to plan. Use our step-by-step template to stay focused on your goal, make the most of your time, and ensure your message hits the mark. Start with your “why”, check for clarity, and get a second pair of eyes before you go live.

Step-by-step marketing communications template

Talking to customers

Use your online presence to market yourself. Consider these techniques.

  • Remarketing identifies customers who browse your website and start buying, but don’t complete the purchase – remarketing services send them reminder ads after they leave your website.
  • Micro-targeting allows you to use data to target potential customers more accurately – companies like Google and Facebook offer this service.

For small businesses, targeted advertising is often more affordable and effective than advertising to a large audience. 

Using digital promotion allows you to easily measure the effectiveness of a campaign. This helps you:

  • try several methods
  • find out which works best
  • track what people do in response.

LAST REVIEWED: 23rd June 2025

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Marketing strategy