Almost all companies understand the importance of having a solid business plan. However, many businesses don’t put in the legwork to create a strong marketing strategy. Instead, many continue to rely on tried-and-true tactics when they could be benefiting from fresh ideas.
No matter how great your products or services might be, if you don’t get the word out about them through an effective content marketing plan, you’ll lose out on a lot of potential business.
What is a Marketing Strategy?
The initial step to developing a great marketing strategy is to run a SWOT analysis of your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This will help the marketing department achieve a deep awareness of all of the factors helping or inhibiting your success. It can be a fun and collaborative team exercise which is critical to your strategic planning process. Understanding what you’re best at and what areas need improvement helps you build a sophisticated marketing plan.
2. Find the Value Proposition
Any strong marketing strategy is derived from a business’s value proposition, which is an explanation of its unique strengths (identified in the SWOT analysis) and how they stand out from competitors. To get started, identify what values your company can provide your customers, followed by an outline of key differentiators. Once you do this, you should be able to explain your value to potential customers in a single sentence.
3. Know Your Target Customer
After you have painted a clear portrait of the benefits your company provides, it’s time to research and understand your target customer. An easy way to do this is to create a buyer persona for a more complete understanding of the people who are actually interested in your products or services. Get granular and create a list of demographics that describe your ideal customer, including their location, gender, age, interests, background, and income level. Sabal Group’s data scientists can assist you with gaining an intimate understanding of your ideal client. We turn critical and clean data into strategic insight to help you find, target, and reach the customers who want what you’re selling.
4. Determine Your Objectives
Your marketing strategy objectives should be expressed as measurable outcomes to be achieved within a set time frame. This helps the marketing team evaluate the success of the plan and holds them accountable for achieving the desired results. When determining your objectives, aim for at least three specific, measurable, and achievable goals within the pre-determined amount of time the strategy covers.
5. Select Your Communication Channels
Once you have created buyer personas and have established specific objectives and a clear timeline for your marketing strategy, it’s time to select the best channel for your brand communication. Use data insights to understand where your target audience spends their time online, when they do it, and why they’re using the platforms they choose. This helps to ensure you won’t be publishing valuable content on one platform while your potential audience is elsewhere. Then start measuring the results.
At Sabal Group, we employ an omnichannel marketing approach by delivering strategized messaging across a range of platforms. This way, we know your target customer can learn about your offerings at a time and place where they are most receptive to it. Whether it’s direct mail brochures, blogs, or social media posts, we’ll work closely with your marketing team to ensure the message is delivered. Want to know more? Just contact Maribeth to start a conversation on how we can help you create an effective marketing strategy.
