Let’s get back to basics and look at how to build a basic marketing strategy.
It’s easy to get lost when you start thinking about your marketing strategy. Where do you begin, what should it include? How will you measure your achievements and failures?
A marketing strategy gives you the direction and clarity you need to build your business for success. It offers you a guide to support your business to make decisions that enable it to thrive.
Defining a marketing strategy is about setting those all-important goals and ensuring everyone on your team is on the same page. It’s about making smart choices, and staying nimble as your strategy breathes and evolves right alongside your business.
But before you dive into strategy creation…
If you’re thinking of going all-in on a more elaborate strategy, I’d suggest you keep it light.
Assuming your budgets are fixed, you’re trying to demystify marketing, but you may be uninitiated. You’ve got your measuring sticks ready, and your product and pricing are set in stone, you’re probably even zeroed in on that one key audience group. And that’s a good approach.
How to craft a basic marketing strategy
The first step in your strategic journey is to define the destination. Where do you want to get to? What do you want your business to achieve? This is where the brilliance of SMART goals comes into play. It’s those well-defined, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives that serve as your business’s North Star.
Crafting SMART Goals
Precision is non-negotiable here. Ambiguity is the enemy of progress. So make sure when you set your SMART goals, they are clear, and involve a quantity. They need to be strict and bold statements that will help direct and guide your business forward.
Addressing the Strategic Trilogy
With your goals set, it’s time to turn your focus to the strategic core:
- The Problem You’re Solving: Remember, it’s not about you. It’s about your customers. Dive deep into their needs and wants and how your offering makes their lives better.
- The Person You’re Helping: Forget demographics for a second. We’re not interested in an avatar called Karen. Instead, ask yourself this. What’s going through your customer’s minds when they decide you’re the one they want to buy from? Focus on the problem, not the persona.
- The Idea You’re Planting: Here’s where positioning comes into play. What big idea do you want to foster in your customers’ minds? Consistency is your best friend in building that brand image. Stick with one message at a time. If you don’t you may confuse your potential customers and put them off buying from you.
Incorporating measurable goals for each tactic not only sharpens your strategy but ensures you’re positioned well to drive your business forward.
Are you ready to promote?
You’ve got your goals and strategy, but how do you get the word out?
Communication tactics, that’s how.
Don’t spread yourself too thin or try and be everywhere at once. Instead, select a handful of tactics that resonate with your marketing funnel stages. Anchor each tactic with clear, measurable goals to ensure you’re optimising efforts for impact, starting with actions closest to conversion.
Marketing doesn’t have to be complex.
With a straightforward, focused strategy, that gives you clarity, confidence, and a solid foundation to build something awesome, you can sidestep the overwhelm and set the stage for real, tangible growth.
