If you're looking to revitalise your marketing after years of neglect, there's a good chance you're considering a marketing strategy session. This can look quite different with different agencies, but the principle is the same: before you jump into any number of marketing activities, build a strategy that aligns with how you're trying to build the company. This is the role of a marketing strategy.
Here are 10 questions we think you have to ask before doing a marketing strategy session to ensure you are well prepared, and you get the most from your time.
1) What are you hoping to gain from undertaking this marketing strategy session?
Before undertaking any task it is always important to understand what the purpose of the task is. What are you hoping to achieve from your marketing strategy session? Do you want to gauge past performance and strategise future activities? Are you hoping to finish the session with a document outlining your marketing strategy for the next 3 years that guides your marketing plan and marketing activities? Be clear on what a successful session looks like and what you want to walk away with at the end.
2) Who needs to be involved in your marketing strategy session?
You’re the business leader, surely only you need to be involved in your marketing strategy session? Unless you are the only person in the business who deals with marketing and sales - this generally isn’t the case. It is often a good idea to ensure that key stakeholders (other leaders within your organisation) and any team members (or external parties) who are responsible for marketing or sales efforts are also included.
3) What growth do you want to achieve in your business in the next:
- 6 months
- 12-18 months
- 3 years
- 5 years
4) What is your value ladder?
What products do you sell from lowest to highest value? What are your gateway products (which products or services are most frequently purchased by new customers) and what products tend to be subsequent purchases?
5) What challenges are you currently facing in business?
Quite often a marketing strategy review is undertaken when business is not performing as you wish it were, or business growth has exceeded expectations and you are needing to change your modus operandis in order to meet continued growth. What challenges is your business currently facing and how might these impact your marketing efforts?
6) What marketing are you currently undertaking?
Prepare a list of all of your current marketing. List any object or activity that results in customers learning about your business. Include things like:
- Your website
- Facebook & Instagram organic activity
- Signage on your vehicles
- Your business cards
- Dedicated ad campaigns (TV/Radio/Google/Facebook etc)
7) How have customers responded to your sales and marketing activity in the past?
Understanding how your historic and current marketing is performing will help you to understand what you should continue to do and what you should change.
8) Who are your competitors?
In business it is really important to understand that the business you need to beat is your own, yesterday. Becoming obsessed with your competitors and what they are doing will only limit your success and ability to grow. However, there is some value in understanding who your competitors are and what they are doing in the market. It can be a great way to identify product and messaging opportunities i.e. if your business offers something positive that differentiates you from your competitors and this will help your customer - leverage this in marketing communications. Similarly, being aware of what your competitors are doing in the market can help you to understand changes in your own customer’s behaviour. I.e. if competitors have dropped their price and it has resulted in a drop in your sales.
9) What is the current situation in the market?
This follows on from understanding your competitors, in addition to understanding your competitors you also need to understand the driving factors in the market. If you build custom agricultural products for cotton farmers, but cotton farmers haven’t had a good crop in the last 10 years due to drought/poor weather etc, do you have any products that solve their problem now?
10) What budget do you have available to dedicate to marketing activities?
In an ideal world, you work out what your business & sales goals are, and leverage past marketing data to determine the marketing budget that you would require to drive the leads that you need to achieve the goals that you have set. For many businesses, this is too complex and they don’t have sufficient data to be able to extrapolate historical data for future reference. If this is you, then moving forward ensure you are tracking marketing budgets and performance (so next review you have the data you need to be truly strategic), but at this point allocate a marketing budget that is sufficient to implement your strategy. If your budget is limited, it will take some marketing options off the table immediately. Commit to how much you are willing to invest to grow your business.
