Put simply, a marketing strategy achieves efficiency, effectiveness and cost-savings. Here’s how you can get started with creating a strategy of your own.
Anyone who has ever tried to organise a family holiday will know that having a strategy is essential to choosing a getaway that meets the needs of all family members, is executed within budget and results in happy, relaxing family memories.
You might require a destination that is close to a golf course for dad to unwind; one that has plenty of fun activities to keep the kids entertained; and one that has a pool and poolside service for the exhausted mum.
The point is, you never just get in the car and drive, hoping for the best. Marketing is exactly the same.
What is a marketing strategy?
A marketing strategy is a business’s overall plan for reaching its marketing goals. That includes raising the business’s brand, conveying its value proposition, attracting prospective customers and increasing the spend of existing customers.
A marketing strategy should cover what marketing professionals call the seven Ps: the 7 Ps of marketing: product, price, promotion, place, people, process, and physical evidence.
Why do I need a marketing strategy?
Put simply, a marketing strategy achieves efficiency, effectiveness and cost-savings. A clear marketing strategy will have everyone in your business working together efficiently within a set budget, saving time and effort.
A solid marketing strategy provides an insight into the industry as a whole and identifies areas of potential competitive advantage.
A marketing strategy will help you develop a strong voice, and it will identify target audiences and refine messaging, ensuring clear communication of your brand and your value proposition.
How to create a marketing strategy
Now that understand what a marketing strategy is and why you need one, here are some tips on how you can get started with creating a strategy of your own:
Identify your marketing goals
Before you even think about creating a marketing plan, you need to know what it is you’re planning to achieve. You may want to increase sales, grow your brand, or generate new leads.
Be as specific as possible and identify measures and timings. For example, you may want to increase revenue by 50 per cent by the end of the financial year; you may want 1000 views of your explainer video per month.
Understand your clients
If you’re going to market to potential clients, you’ll need to know who they are. Specifically, what they look like, what they care about, where they are, and what they respond to.
Say you run a business designing and selling sassy yoga accessories. Your audience may be women aged between 20 and 50 who care about wellbeing and the environment as well as fashion. Right there you have information about what messaging you’ll develop and the marketing tactics you may use.
Develop your message
Your marketing message is what it is you want your customers to know, but don’t forget how you want them to feel.
You might, for example, want customers to know your hardware store offers low prices, but you might also want them to get excited about DIY projects.
Determine your budget
Setting a budget doesn’t tell you just how much you have to spend, it forces you to think about where to you spend your money.
A budget will make sure funds are spent on areas anticipated to give you the biggest bang for your buck, and avoid a situation where money is splashed around on activities that deliver less than ideal results.
Choose your channels
No matter how on-point your messaging is, it will fall flat if it’s not rolled out on the best channel – and the best channel will differ from company to company. You need to consider where your clients are and what they respond to.
Look back on past marketing activity for clues. Perhaps for your business customers are avid Facebook users and they respond well to written articles rather than videos.
Measure your success
Once a marketing strategy has been implemented and completed, it can be tempting to mark it as a success or disappointment and just leave it at that – but doing so will rob you of valuable information that can help inform your future marketing strategies.
Yes, your marketing strategy might have achieved your goals, but drill down as deeply as you can. What marketing tactics worked better than others? Were blog posts consumed more than video? What social media platform delivered the most clicks?
Then dig deeper. What length were the headings that were most successful? What time of posting yielded the best results?
It’s important to drill down to the specifics so you can gather data and insights that will inform future marketing campaigns and where the budget should be spent.
Speak to the marketing experts
Marketing strategies are complex beasts that take in a significant amount of research, internal data, and a knowledge of how to convey the most effective messaging to the right audience. That’s when you need to call in the marketing experts.
Assemblo is a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne who are renowned for developing and implementing marketing strategies that result in tangible bottom line results.
To find out how we can help your business, give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or send us a note via the contact form below.