Marketing without a clear plan is exhausting, expensive and doesn’t yield great results. Here’s why it’s crucial to have a marketing strategy.
Anyone who has ever attempted to market their business without a clear and detailed marketing strategy soon discovers that marketing becomes much like doing the laundry: overwhelming.
Like laundry, you know you need to do it, it can seem never-ending, and that day you remember you need a shirt but discover they are all in the hamper, it’s a mad scramble to quickly wash and dry one before running out of the house.
Marketing without a marketing strategy is exhausting, expensive and doesn’t yield great results.
Imagine then, life with a marketing strategy: where every piece of activity has been planned, is based on solid research to have maximum impact; where everyone knows what they are striving to achieve and exactly what they need to do on any given day.
If having a marketing strategy sounds as satisfying as coming home to a basket of freshly laundered clothes, well that’s just the beginning.
The value of a marketing strategy
When you develop a marketing strategy, you save more than money.
A clear marketing objective and strategic plan to achieve it means that everyone in your business is working together efficiently, and each campaign is aligned with your overall objectives and designed to get results in both the short and long term, saving time and effort.
A solid marketing strategy delivers the best results because it allows a business to identify the most effective marketing opportunities and digital platforms.
It allows a business to set a marketing budget it can stick to, and also identify the tools and assets they have and those they should acquire.
Importantly, a marketing strategy holds you accountable. You might have a clear idea about what you want to achieve but writing a marketing strategy commits you to delivering it.
Create consistency and a strong voice
Strong brands are like strong walls – made up of many bricks, built up over time, each piece created with a singular purpose.
Every social media post, every strapline, every blog post, and every piece of advertising should be consistent and help build your brand.
Ideally, a customer should be able to identify your brand – and therefore your values and offering – by glancing at an image you use or the first few words of your copy.
A marketing strategy will help you develop this strong voice. A marketing strategy will identify target audiences and refine messaging, ensuring clear communication of your brand.
Develop a holistic marketing approach
An important, and often overlooked, byproduct of a marketing strategy is the positive impact it can have across your entire business. This is because a marketing strategy requires a holistic approach.
Developing a marketing strategy involves exploring and locking in organisational objectives. What is it you want your marketing strategy to achieve? It could be to sell more goods or services; it could be to enshrine sustainability credentials in your brand.
The process of creating a marketing strategy can clarify for the entire organisation the aims of the company and what it is aspiring to achieve.
Why having a marketing strategy is so important
Being in business, we understand that strategic thinking is crucial to working effectively, and it is no less true for marketing.
Yet, in this fast-paced world of regular social media posting, the 24-hour news cycle, and instant messaging, marketing is still often seen as something that can be done on the run.
While it’s certainly true that the digital age has provided us with the opportunity to market immediately to customers, anywhere and from our phones, that’s also exactly why your business needs a marketing strategy.
The internet is teeming with countless competitors all vying for customers, some with marketing budgets that would make your eyes water.
A marketing strategy designs a road map for helping your business to stand out in a very crowded space.
Get started on your marketing strategy
Marketing strategies take in a huge range of factors including industry research, messaging, audience development and conversions, and to create the most effective marketing strategy, you need to call in the experts.
Assemblo is a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne and we can develop a marketing strategy tailored to your business and your budget.
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.