And how you can fix it …

It’s quite common for people to confuse the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan. All too often, businesses begin marketing without any clear strategy. Then they wonder why they are not achieving the results they expect …

A marketing strategy is a business’ overall game plan!

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  • Your marketing strategy consists of:

    The “what” has to be done. Inform clients about the product or service being offered. Inform clients of differentiation factors.

  • Your marketing plan consists of:

    The “how” to do it. Construct marketing campaigns and promotions that will achieve the “what” in your strategy.

Before you begin any marketing whatsoever, it is imperative that you consider all the steps in creating a robust marketing strategy. Furthermore, you must avoid the 7 top reasons your marketing strategy will fail:

  1. Total lack of a robust marketing strategy

  2. Marketing strategy misaligned with business strategy

  3. Relying on tactics instead of strategies

  4. Having the same strategy as your competition

  5. Failure to meet the explicit needs of your target market

  6. Failure of identifying the correct media channels to communicate effectively

  7. Lack of budget and resources

Having a robust marketing strategy in place helps to ensure that your marketing activities remain aligned with your business goals. This maximizes the business return from your marketing efforts.

Here’s my 17 step marketing strategy framework that is guaranteed to deliver a robust marketing strategy for your business:

  1. Business Definition – Outline the key definition of the business

  2. Business Goals and Objectives – List all S.M.A.R.T. business goals and objectives

  3. Strategic Marketing Goals and Objectives – List all S.M.A.R.T. marketing goals & objectives

  4. Core Products – List all core products including those provided by a third party that add value

  5. Competitors – Consider both direct and indirect

  6. F.A.B – consider all Features Advantages & Benefits

  7. Unique Selling Proposition – Identify what is totally unique about your offering

  8. Profile of Target Market & Clients – Identify your target market, the perfect client that you would ideally like to attract, where are they and what do they look like

  9. Models – Carry out an in-depth SWOT, TOWS and PESTLE analysis

  10. Brand Message – Identify the key brand messages

  11. Price – Nail down your price point, fixed costs vs variable, considering market trends etc

  12. Media Channels – decide what channels are you going to use to reach your target market

  13. Marketing Plan (Tactical) to achieve Marketing Strategy – Spreadsheet to identify every marketing activity by month with marketing message

  14. Budget – ensure sufficient budget has been allocated to execute your strategy and achieve expected outcomes

  15. Responsibilities and accountability – decide who does what and Identify the very best person to deliver each aspect of marketing plan

  16. Resources – ensure that you have allocated sufficient resources to deliver your plan

  17. Measure and review – put robust processes in place to enable to measure your R.O.I

For help in developing a marketing strategy, or for information on our Marketing Strategy Workshops, do call me on 01280 700405 or click here to ping over an email and let’s see how I can help.

Until next time …

KATH BONNER-DUNHAM

 

PS:

If you’re looking for a partner to help grow your business, visit www.4pbusinessdevelopment.co.uk to discover how 4P Business Development can help you!