Getting Started With Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy starts with research. Before you can figure out where you want to go, you need to understand who you are and who your customers are.
Whether you’re working on your first marketing strategy or rebuilding your foundation after a brand audit, developing a marketing strategy starts with answering three questions: who is your target audience, what do you want them to think about you and what are your objectives with that audience?
Who is your target audience?
You can’t market effectively without knowing who you’re marketing to. Are you trying to engage new customers, re-engage existing customers or are you targeting a new industry entirely?
When it comes to planning and budgets, it’s a good idea to think one year ahead. So when putting together your strategy, you should consider who you’re trying to reach within that year.
You need to understand their needs, what they want and how they like to receive information. By narrowing your focus on a distinct target audience, you can then choose the tactics that will allow you to reach and influence them most effectively.
What do you want them to think of you?
Positioning yourself to your target audience is a key part of building a marketing strategy. Your brand position needs to answer the question, “Why should I care about this company?”
Your messaging needs to tell people who you are, what makes you different and how you can help them. If you’re struggling to begin, one great starting point is to answer the 3 Cs.
What are your objectives to achieve with that audience?
The objectives start with where the audience currently is with you. You want to identify the gaps between where they are now and where you hope they will be in the future.
Some gaps we might start with could be:
Does the audience already know you?
Would they consider, or even prefer, purchasing from you rather than a competitor?
Are you losing opportunities at the quoting stage?
Are you getting opportunities to quote but not closing, or are you not even getting the opportunities to quote?
Identify the biggest leaks in your funnel so you can start to close those gaps. You won’t be able to do everything all at once because resources are limited (but if they aren’t, let us know, because we’ve always wanted to do a Super Bowl spot). Start with the gaps closest to the transaction, then work backward to ensure that as much of the funnel is getting through the pipeline as possible.
Answering those three questions should help you start to build a marketing strategy. If you’d like a little help, drop us a line.
