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Your marketing strategy is the comprehensive approach your company will take to achieve its goals and objectives.
Definition of a Marketing Strategy
An effective marketing strategy integrates the activities involved in marketing, sales, advertising, public relations, and networking. Each of these components of your overall marketing strategy serves a unique purpose, offers specific benefits, and complements every other component. All components must work together to enhance your company image, reinforce your brand strength, and ensure that your company is distinct from your competitors.
The traditional (offline) and new media (online) components of your marketing strategy should all fit together. These components include promotion of your range of services and products, determination of your prices or rate structure, creation of advertising and public relations plans, promotional campaigns, and multi-media endeavors. It is important to think through your strategy and gather information about your market and your competition before you set your price structure or book ad space. Trial-and-error marketing plans are too expensive.
Goals of Your Marketing Strategy
What do you hope to accomplish through your marketing strategy? Market research, advertising campaigns, sales incentives, public relations efforts, and networking plans should all move your business in the direction of achieving your marketing goals. The best marketing plans are results-oriented; they define specific, realistic, measurable goals within time parameters. All sales, advertising, and public relations efforts are designed to work together to achieve these goals.
Goals of your marketing strategy, for example, could include creating a strong brand, building a strong customer base, and increasing product/service sales. Each goal should be explained in terms of what it means to your company? To illustrate, let’s examine three examples of goals:
- Create a strong brand.. What is the current level of brand awareness for your company/product/service? Are you starting from scratch or building on a familiar name? What are the characteristics of this brand that you want to reinforce in the minds of consumers? What level of brand awareness do you hope to achieve?
- Build a strong customer base. Who are your best customers? What customers are most likely to spend money, and return? What is the profile (demographics, psychographics) of your ideal customer? How can you reach this market, online and offline? What particular characteristics of your company/product/service are most likely to inspire loyalty in your ideal customers?
- Increase product/service sales. How can you predict the future demand for your product/service? What new level of sales growth can your business handle? What quantities of your product can you produce/distribute? What level of service can you support through existing or additional staff?
Basic Marketing Questions
Five fundamental questions should be answered in order to identify your marketing goals: Who, what, where, when, and how? Specifically:
- Who are your customers? Who are your competitors?
- What are you selling? What quantities of your products will you sell and at what price?
- Where is your target market located? Where can you reach your target market?
- When are your customers most likely to buy? When are your busy seasons?
- How will you reach your customers (stores, offices, web site, catalogs)?