What is a marketing strategy?
“Marketing strategy”; the two words that often overwhelm business owners.
In all honesty, it’s a buzz phrase. It’s simply making a plan that is targeted and can be measured.
It serves to get you thinking strategically about what you want to achieve from your marketing, how it might work and who you are trying to target.
As you may suspect, creating a plan for your marketing does take time, which is something you don’t feel you have going spare.
A lack of time often means small businesses often whack generic content out on social media because they haven’t taken the time to think about what they are really trying to achieve.
Try answering the top questions we ask our clients when creating their marketing strategy.
- Why are you investing time/money in marketing and what do you want to achieve?
- Who are you targeting? Think about their age, gender, location, and the place they visit in real life and on the internet.
- What issues are these people facing and how can you help solve their problem or ease their pain?
- How can you help them or add value?
Answering these questions will give you a strong idea of what you need to do from a marketing perspective to generate the desired results.
Once you’ve cemented this information, you can think about which marketing avenue is likely to hit the spot with them. Do they read the local paper? Are they on LinkedIn? There are hundreds of avenues in.
A marketing strategy will be different for every business, even those performing in the same sectors.
It’s a bit like going out for dinner.
Picture this… you and some friends choose to dine out tonight. You decide to go for an Italian.
How likely are you all to order lasagne?
The likelihood is someone will have pizza, someone will have bolognese and someone may have lasagne. It doesn’t mean someone’s right someone is wrong.
You’re all having Italian, but that doesn’t mean it’s all the same.
The restaurant owner put together a selection of options and you each chose what was right for you.
Similar to your marketing, it’s about choosing different activities that, when combined, work for you and your business.
A successful marketing campaign will be made up of different elements, each adding value and working alongside one another.
It may include some online (website, email, social media, pay per click, SEO) and offline (newspapers, leaflets, exhibitions, branded merchandise) activity.
Quite simply, creating a marketing strategy will help you discover your target audience and how you’re best to engage with them.
