6 Easy Steps to Create an Excellent Marketing Strategy
Every business deserves a marketing strategy, I mean stop and think about it. How are you planning to score brand awareness, set long and short-term goals, measure your progress, set your budget and who on earth are you going to target among so many other things it could benefit you with. So, no excuses. You must be able to create your own marketing strategy or polish your existing one after reading this article. Let’s go but first, we should understand what a marketing strategy is.
What is a marketing strategy?
A marketing strategy is a plan businesses use to achieve their long-term goals of buying and selling of products and services. It helps brand managers know and understand who their prospective customers are, where they are, what they need, and find a way to satisfy those needs plus identify the right communication channels to do so.
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With a good and clear marketing strategy, companies are able to stand firm on their mission, vision and goals while gaining a competitive advantage in the market. Customers are humans and are always seeking value in companies they choose to support, having a marketing strategy could help identity a perfect value proposition for your business.
People often confuse a marketing strategy with a marketing plan, but we can safely confirm that they are different, yet of the same nature. A marketing strategy is a long-term umbrella of marketing efforts within a company and a marketing plan is a stream of actions or activities that should be taken to accomplish a campaign. In simple words, a marketing strategy births a
6 steps to creating a marketing strategy
Step 01: Understand your business/brand
The first thing you must know and understand before going into business is your brand. As much as you are trying to satisfy other people’s pain points, you must fill the void of where you are standing in the market and understand what your purpose is.
You can start by doing market research to find out what you are putting yourself in.
Market research is a process of finding a loophole in the market. By so saying, a business must identify past, current and future trends in the market, what people are liking and disliking about products and services they are using plus who the competitors are. After getting this vital information, brand managers will be able to complete a SWOT analysis.
SWOT analysis stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Every business knows that the market is a vast space that changes often. It is important that every entity understands themselves well to know where they stand to avoid being swept by waves. Here is what SWOT does:
Strengths: Identifies the strongest points a brand has and can contribute in the market more than its competitors. It is important to take advantage of these and ensure they are concealed for business longevity. These could include excellent customer service or high-quality material, remember that even the smallest strength goes a long way.
Weaknesses: These outlines the factors that exhaust marketing efforts of a business. It is important to be honest about the areas where your business might be lacking. Perhaps your brand isn’t well-known yet, or you have a limited marketing budget. Understanding these weaknesses helps you plan strategies to mitigate them, such as forming strategic partnerships or focusing on niche markets.
Opportunities: These are factors that could benefit your business in the future. This might include emerging trends towards sustainability or underserved market segments. You can use your marketing to capitalize on these opportunities and position your brand as a forward-thinker.
Threats: These are challenges that could impact your business and they are prominent as an external factor. This could be competitive pressure, economic downturns or changes in consumer behavior. Anticipate these threats in your marketing strategy by diversifying your offerings or reinforcing your brand identity.
Step 02: Define your goals
Once you understand what is happening in and around your niche industry, you should be able to set SMART goals for your brand.
Specific: Define clear, specific objectives.
Measurable: Ensure that each goal has a metric.
Achievable: Your goals should be realistic and attainable.
Relevant: Make sure the goals are relevant to your business priorities and customer needs.
Time-bound: Set deadlines for your goals to ensure timely progress.
For each goal, come up with clear plans that links to your strengths and can use available opportunities while also tackling any weaknesses and potential problems. For example, if there is a chance to boost online sales and you’re good with digital tools, you might focus on improving your online store and stepping up your online marketing.
Once you set these plans in motion, keep a close eye on how they are doing compared to your set goals and remember to make changes as needed based on how well they are working and any shifts in the market. Regularly update your goals and plans based on what you learn from ongoing feedback and results. This approach works in keeping your strategy relevant and effective as conditions change.
This is also a stage where you identify your marketing mix, also known as the 4 Ps of a marketing strategy. They are:
1.Product: This refers to what your business is selling, whether it’s a physical good, a service or a digital product. It involves the development of the product features, design, quality, and the benefits it offers. The product should meet the needs and desires of your target audience.
2.Price: This is how much your product will cost. Pricing decisions need to take into account the cost of production, the target market’s willingness to pay, and how it compares to competitors. Pricing strategies can also include discounts, offers, and payment plans to make the product more appealing.
3.Place: Also known as distribution, this involves how and where your product is delivered to consumers. Decisions here include choosing the right distribution channels, such as online, retail locations or third-party distributors, and ensuring that products are available in the right places to meet consumer demand.
4.Promotion: This encompasses all the ways you inform potential customers about your product and persuade them to make a purchase. This includes advertising, public relations, social media marketing, email marketing, sales promotions, and more. The goal is to use effective communication strategies to maximize reach and influence your target audience.
Step 03: Identify your customer/audience
In this phase, you should be able to identify the people that will be interested to hear your brand messages. This is an important step for your business as it determines your success or failure.
To do so, you will start by:
1.Demographics: Begin by considering basic demographic information like age, gender, income, education, and occupation. This data helps you understand who your products or services are most likely to appeal to.
2.Interests and lifestyle: Consider the interests, hobbies, lifestyle choices and values of your potential customers because knowing what drives and motivates them can help you align your messages and products with their expectations, leading to business growth.
3.Geographic location: Determine where your customers are located. Are you targeting a local, regional, national or global market? Knowing this information will influence your marketing strategies, product offerings and how you communicate with your audience. Considering they are in different areas and would be experiencing different market trends.
4.Behaviour: Analyse customer behaviours such as their purchasing patterns, brand loyalty, time they spend on websites and product usage. It will help know how, when and why your audience interacts with your type of business which are your competitors, helping you tailor your marketing strategies effectively.
5.Feedback and research: Use surveys, focus groups, and market research to gather information directly from current or potential customers. This feedback is important to understand the needs and preferences of your audience, and it allows you to adjust your offerings and marketing tactics in a manner that benefits your business and audience interest.
Step 04: Choose your communication channels
You now know who you are targeting, you just need to find out where they spend most of their time and how so that you can communicate with them how they prefer. Depending on you marketing goals, we will share 7 different communication channels you can consider.
1.Social media: Different social media platforms cater to different demographics and interests. For example, LinkedIn is great for professional and business-related content because it targets professionals and industry leaders. Instagram and TikTok are ideal for visual and creative content aimed at younger audiences, looking for short video and image for of content. Facebook has a broad user base and is good for reaching different age groups with news, updates, advertisements and more engaging content.
2.Email: Email is a direct way to reach people who have shown interest in your product or service. It is good for sending personalized messages, promotions and updates to people who have subscribed to your mailing list. It is useful for nurturing and sustaining relationships plus keeping your brand top-of-mind.
3.Website and blogs: Your website should be your online store because it is where people can learn more about your products or services in detail. Blogs help in sharing more in-depth information about topics relevant to your audience, establishing your expertise in your industry niche and improving your website’s SEO with different tactics (making it easier for people to find you when they search online).
4.Online ads: Online advertising includes ads on social media platforms such as Facebook, search engines and other websites. These can be targeted very specifically to reach people based on their interests, behaviours, or demographic details. This is useful for generating backlinks that will drive traffic to your website and promote specific products.
5.Print media: This includes newspapers, magazines and flyers. It is useful for reaching local older audiences, markets where print is still a popular medium and people that don’t use smart devices to receive information.
6.TV and radio: These are traditional channels that are best for reaching a broad audience quickly. TV is good for visual advertisements that tell a compelling story or demonstrate a product. Radio can be effective for reaching people during specific times of the day, like morning and evening commutes. Therefore, one must be strategic when choosing to work with radio stations.
7.Events and networking: Participating in or hosting events and networking meetings can help in building relationships with potential customers and partners. This is a more personal approach to marketing that allow face-to-face interactions between a brand and its stakeholders.
After figuring out the stakeholders that will consume your messages, building a relationship with them should be your first considerations as it will build trust, support and loyalty. Make sure to not bombard your followers with marketing messages without getting to introduce yourself as a brand, it might cause people ignoring your messages altogether unless your marketing plan is strong. After acquiring these important elements, you are ready to implement your marketing efforts.
Step 05: Budget
Now that you know what you have to do to see your marketing efforts succeeding, you must allocate funds to different marketing plans and activities that will follow. Remember, this budget is dedicated to creating and shaping the overall plan for how a business will market itself.
It includes money for studying the market and competitors, setting marketing goals, and planning how to achieve these goals. The purpose is to outline a broad strategy for the business, such as deciding which customers to focus on, how to present the brand and whether to use digital methods like social media or more traditional methods like print advertising and TV broadcasting. Be prepared to adjust your budget as you track the performance of your marketing efforts against your objectives.
Step 06: Implement and monitor
Once all the previous steps are completed: understanding your business, defining your goals, identifying your customer, and establishing your marketing mix and budget, it is time to implement the strategy. This involves executing the planned marketing activities such as launching campaigns, distributing products, setting prices and engaging with customers through chosen communication channels.
You need to lay out a timeline for when each part of your strategy will be implemented. Allocate your budget across these activities according to their priority and expected impact.
Monitoring is critical to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. It includes tracking the performance metrics defined in your goals and making adjustments as necessary. Regularly reviewing these metrics helps you understand what is working and what is not, and it provides insights to optimize your strategy successfully over time. This could include adjustments to promotional techniques, changes in pricing or even spinning your product strategy to better meet customer needs and respond to market changes.
Continuous monitoring also enables you to stay on your toes, adapt to new challenges and opportunities as they arise, ensure that your marketing strategy remains aligned with your business objectives and market turbulence.
Begin your path to success now by contacting us and discuss how we can help you transform your marketing efforts. Please also follow our social media pages below.
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