So what exactly is ‘marketing strategy’?
A marketing strategy is a business’s plan for reaching prospective clients and turning them into loyal customers. A marketing strategy is a high level strategy and provides an overarching guide and outline of your company marketing as opposed to a detailed plan for implementation of marketing activities. A marketing strategy helps to provide context for all of the activity you do across the customer journey: the sales strategy, channel strategies, content marketing strategy, brand strategy, product marketing strategy etc.
What should a good marketing strategy include?
Company goals - A great marketing strategy starts by defining the goals of the organisation. This gives a particular direction and focus that helps shape and sharpen everything that follows.
The company brand message - a well written brand message speaks to your customer’s problem and sets your company on a mission that resonates with prospects and unifies your team. It includes the brand summary statement, value proposition and key messaging themes.
An outline of your customer persona, that includes their:
- Demographics - Age/Gender/Job Title/Level of Qualification
- Location
- Interests - What other brands are they interested in? Are they health conscious? Vegan? Do they like cooking?
- Behaviour - What devices do they use? What other products do they purchase? What social media platforms do they use? Where do they access the news? What shops do they frequent? Are they parents? How old are their children?
- Wants/aspirations - what do they want in this context? What kind of person are they aspiring to be?
- Frustrations/fears - what keeps them up at night? What are they afraid of?
NB: You might have different target customers depending on the product/service that you are offering. I.e. A financial planner may offer a “buying your first home” consultation for people aged 18 - 35 and a “preparing for retirement” consultation for people aged 45 - 65, but in terms of your marketing strategy, you would look at the age range and common interests and behaviours of your total customer base - I.e. Adults aged 18 - 65 looking to plan for their financial future.
An overview of the budget that your business is committing in order to achieve its’ marketing goals AND a quantitative measure for success:
How will you know if your marketing strategy has been successful?
What metrics should be measured in order to know if your business achieved its goals?
It is also a great idea for your marketing strategy to touch on the 4 P’s of marketing for each key product/product range or service:
Product - What is your product/service? Who needs your product/service and why?
Price - What are consumers willing to pay for your product or service? What is the real value? What is the perceived value? What other factors affect the cost of your product or service? Can elevating the price of your product make it more exclusive and desirable or will offering a discount drive greater sales and higher conversion?
Place - Where are your products/services available? Are they available online or in store? Are they exclusively available within your store or do other retailers stock your products? What is the perception of the retailers who stock your products (are your products available in Kmart or David Jones?)
Promotion - How do you communicate with your customers that they need this product/service and that it is priced appropriately? This covers everything from your media strategy, to your public relations and advertising strategy.
If you’re looking to get your marketing back on track, consider our marketing workshop. You’ll come out of our workshop full of confidence knowing that you’ve got clarity on where your business is going; who your customer really is and what they want to hear; and the marketing plan you need to focus on to effectively engage with them.
