A ‘Marketing Strategy’ isn’t a highfalutin’, theoretical concept with no place in real life! It is a living, breathing thing that will focus and drive your teams, keep the business moving forwards – and help bring dreams, goals and ambitions to life!
What Is a Marketing Strategy?
Your marketing strategy is your roadmap. In the same way that a map shows where you are, where you want to get to, and it shows you how to get there, so does your marketing strategy.
If you know where you are now and where the business is going, you stay focused and with the end point always in mind. This framework:
> Gives you marketing confidence and belief in your campaigns
if you’re clear about who you’re targeting, you can identify how to reach them and what to say.
> Keeps you on track by reminding you where you’re going
A strategy is not a doorstop or bookend on a dusty bookshelf, it is a guide to keep your marketing focused and moving.
> Allows you to flex
No, not a contradiction – as long as you have your strategy, you can take a wrong or experimental turn every now and then, because you always know your way back…
> Allows you to identify if an opportunity is really worth doing
Marketing is an evolving discipline, and Covid taught us how fickle consumer behaviour can be! So, a firm marketing strategy helps you gauge ideas and marketing opportunities to see if they’ll knock you off track, or help you achieve your objectives.
Where Do I Start With My Marketing Strategy?
A marketing strategy can be as simple as a page, or as comprehensive as a full-blown research-led document. But it usually starts with your vision and a rough marketing strategy framework covers.
Current Scenario
Where are you now? Understanding your current status as a business lays the foundation of the strategy. Be honest and reflective about the true ‘state of your nation’ so you can be clear about where you need to get to.
Objectives
Where are you aiming to get to, in what timescale and how will you know when you’ve got there? What does success look like for you? Only by knowing what success looks like, will you know when you’ve achieved it!
Market Position
Where do you sit in your market? How do you compare with competitive products/services? By the way, this is not about whether you feel threatened by competitors! This is about who is on your buyer’s shopping list – you need to be aware of what else is available to your buyer and how you compare... food for though, no?
Target Markets
Revisit your product or service and the audiences who will buy it. Who are they? How do they live their lives? What motivates them in life? And what motivates them to buy your product or service?
Your Messages
Knowing your audience is vital; then you can speak to them clearly, concisely and consistently at every point of contact. Whether they’re reading your website, a leaflet they’ve picked up, your salesperson is talking to them, or they’ve downloaded you latest e-book, they should be clear about who you are, what you do/sell/provide, whether or not you can help them and what they need to do to get that help.
Marketing Activity
As you become clearer about your audience and what you need to say to them, you can start to work out the best way to reach them with that message. But be sensible! Just because your 13-year-old and all their friends derive great fun from TikTok, it doesn’t mean this is where you’ll find your accountancy audience! Put yourself in your customer’s shoes to select your marketing channels – online and offline.
Results & Measurement
Apply real targets to your marketing activity so you can monitor what’s working and what’s not. What do you hope is going to happen? What do you expect will? And then, what really does?! With these metrics in hand, you can be confident about what you need to scrap and what you need to keep doing.
So, What Did the Romans Ever Do for Us?
A fair few things, of course, and one of the drivers of the Roman Empire? Strategy, apparently.
A strategy is as long as a piece of string. It can apply to one marketing channel or campaign, a full 3-5 year marketing strategy, or even how you plan to exit your business – whatever you need, we can do.
We apply a strategic approach to all our client work at Website Success. If you’re ready to make a start, we’d be delighted to have you on board! Contact our Chichester office today on 01243 888555 or click here to book a chat in the diary.
