1. Understand where you are at and where you can go: set goals, dreams and ways to achieve them.
Picture this. You’re thrown into a place that you’re unfamiliar with. How will you survive? How do you get to where you need to go? Unfortunately, with business there is no Google Maps. Things are constantly changing and to survive in the wild, you need a plan to thrive! A marketing strategy can help you analyse where you currently are and help you build a roadmap of where you want to go. The first step is to find your feet. Mark your starting point, it is here where you translate your big dreams into goals and objectives.
Your marketing strategy will also help you understand what your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are. Also known as the beloved SWOT analysis, this ‘oldie but goldie’ is a tool that is invaluable to understand what context your business is currently operating in and the possible factors that can either propel or hinder its success.
2. Know your audience and industry: what are you getting yourself into?
Okay, so you’ve passed Go! (monopoly fans unite), defined your objectives and analysed your business. Now what? It’s time to find out exactly what you’re getting yourself into. You see, another benefit to building a marketing strategy is being able to organise all your market and industry research into one place.
Let’s say you own a small, humble technology company called Apple. Before you start finding ways to make millions of dollars in profit, you need to know what the playing field looks like and who you want to target. What factors out of your control are affecting your business? Is there a consumer inclining towards sleek, simple designs? Are you trying to capture the early adopters or late majority?
A marketing strategy can allow you to answer these questions and give you important insights to help mould your plan of attack.
3. Who are you up against?!
All is fair in love and war.
You could have a fantastic product or offer a superb service but if your competition is equipped with a stronger marketing campaign or offers something similar, you need to know about it.
A marketing strategy can help you identify the key direct and indirect players that pose as a threat to the success of your business and find ways to establish your own competitive advantage.
4. Find your voice: brand identity.
You’ve now got a world of knowledge at your disposal, but before we walk the walk we need to talk the talk. Looking at your business objective, who do you want to be as a brand? Will you stand out or blend in with the crowd? If your brand was a person, what would it look like? What would it speak like? Where would it live? How would people meet and interact with it?
These are all important questions and the answers can be the very thing that enables you to succeed or fail. A marketing strategy not only helps you organise your insights and reflect, it also helps get your creative juices flowing. Dare to think big and be different!
5. Get direction.
Alright, alright, alright, we are at the final stretch. We have now, where we are, what the battlefield looks like, who we’re up against and who we are and want to be. What’s left?
The how. How will you get to where you need to go? A marketing strategy is like a game of chess. We need to protect our pieces whilst making moves to get ahead of the opponent.
With all the statistics, research and insights we have gathered we can start to piece together different campaign themes and tactics to get ahead.
From advertising to social media, from public relations to website design -
each tactic helps craft your brand's identity. A strong brand identity translates to consumer trust which in effect leads to customer advocacy. These are all the ingredients that you need to create a thriving business.
Don't know where to start? Our door is always open and we are always happy to discuss with you new, unique and insightful ways to write up your marketing strategy. Enquire today!