The world of marketing can get pretty complicated. Managing your Search Engine Optimization strategy, optimizing your Conversion Rates for first click or last click, and then following through to tracking the metrics on your marketing dashboard can get overwhelming. Outcomes matter, and even interim outcomes matter.

However, there are times when it's helpful to get back to the basics. For marketing, it doesn't get much more fundamental than the "Four P's." These basic concepts are at the core of all marketing that we do. If you find that you're spending too much time sifting through the mountains of big data and trying to remember what's the purpose of all the marketing and advertising that you're doing.

Then remember that it all – more or less—comes down to the Four P's! If your messaging is missing the mark, it may not be the analytics that set you free; it may just be the marketing.

The Four P's of marketing evolved in the late 1950s. Digital or otherwise, these four keys remain relevant:

1. Product - Product is the good or service you offer to customers. Your product should fulfill existing consumer demand or create a new market. 

2. Price - Price is the amount consumers pay for a product. Both a product's real and perceived value influence pricing, but companies must also consider the costs of production, distribution, and competing products' prices.

3. Place - Products must be available to consumers. Place is concerned with where products sell or where they are delivered. Executives hope to place products in front of the consumers most likely to buy them—and that now may be at a retail location or to the home of the consumer.

4. Promotion - Promotion involves the event. Promotion lets customers know what products are available, and why the present period delivers a promotional opportunity to purchase.

No matter the complexities of your marketing management, the Four P's will continue to deliver as the foundation of your efforts.