How to Develop a Marketing Strategy
Being successful in marketing your company all begins with having a well thought out marketing strategy.
But what are the essential tactics you can utilise to develop a successful marketing strategy?
Having a good marketing strategy in mind will allow you to define your vision and goals (including the goals for your business and brand,) as well as setting up an outline for your goals.
What is a marketing Strategy?
The marketing strategy you come up with will be the cornerstone for your entire business, and as such, it should be created with your business team.
This is a tool that is used for strategic planning and will:
- Explains who you are as a company and what you can bring to the market
- Describe your business, including the products and services that you offer
- Identifies the marketing tactics that you will employ
- Sets a profile for both your customer/client base as well as your competitors
- Helps you to construct a marketing plan
Having a marketing strategy will set the tone for the overall direction and goals for your marketing, and as such is different from a marketing plan.
It will outline the thought process and decisions that you will need to use to use your marketing strategy.
Overall, your marketing strategy is far reaching and can be used over the next few years, whereas a marketing plan can be used for the next year or so.
What are the Four Basic Marketing Strategies?
In simple terms, marketing describes placing the right product in the right place, at the right time, and the right price.
This may sound easy enough, although there is a lot of work and dedication that goes into this.
The whole process of marketing is important to help you understand what your product or service can bring to the table, and how to plan for success.
When you develop a marketing strategy, you need to consider the Four P’s of Marketing: Price, Product, Promotion, and Place.
Product
When talking about your product, we are referring to the physical good or the intangible service that your company offers.
Marketing will create the need for this product, or make your customers see the need for this “product” in their lives.
All products will have a life span, and successfully marketing yours means having a plan set in place for each stage of the product’s life.
Price
As you can expect, the price is what your customers or clients will pay for a good or service. The price will impact how well the product sells, as well as the product margins that you will receive.
This is more about what a customer thinks your product should be worth, rather than what you as the product owner places the price at.
Promotion
Marketing strategies will all fall under this category. This can include advertising, promotions affecting the overall price, and public relations.
Place
This refers to how the product will be accessible to the customer or client. Placement and distribution go hand in hand, and a placement strategy will determine how to best sell your product.
What are Effective Marketing Strategies?
Simply put, a marketing strategy is a plan and action that will determine how a business reaches its desired customer base.
Having an effective marketing strategy is the best marketing tool that you can have. Here are some methods to utilise when you develop a marketing strategy.
Social Media
One of the best and most cost-effective marketing strategies is social media. It’s easy to see why nearly 3 billion people utilize this type of strategy.
That is more than 35% of the population of the world!
SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
SEO is talking about how you can get traffic to your website (which equals more revenue).
As a goal, if you have a link to your website on the first page of a web tool search result (or better yet, the top 4 results), then you have done SEO correctly.
That said, this can take time and patience. This is not something that you do once and then leave it; you will need to adjust and change your web pages consistanty to remain at the top of a search result.
PPC – Pay Per Click
This is one of the more expensive marketing strategies out there, but it is well worth the return on investment. Essentially, you will pay a fee every time that one of your ads is clicked.
However, the benefit of this is that it is highly promoted by Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This means that more people will see your website from an ad of yours on another web page.
Email Marketing
Another low-cost option, this works better than the traditional approach of sending out letters.
And getting email addresses is much easier than getting mail addresses. Additionally, there are no postage or paper costs associated with email marketing. This makes email marketing free of charge.
Content Marketing
This type of marketing strategy is different from others, including social media and traditional methods.
One of the great things about this is that it can influence someone’s perception of a concept without them even realizing it. However, it does require some time, patience, and skill in writing.
Online Marketing Courses For Adults
Have you got what it takes to become successful at marketing?
Do you need to overcome a gap in your skill set to land your next marketing job?
Are you a business owner who needs to understand the fundamentals of your marketing strategy?
If you are ready to advance our carer in marketing, there are a range of online courses available to help you find success.
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These professional courses will give you the training you need to manage your marketing team or advance your marketing career.
Gain access today to get professional training in the following topics:
- Affiliate Marketing
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What are Important Marketing Activities?
Oftentimes, marketing can be synonymous with a to-do checklist for a business. There are marketing tactics that we know we should be doing, but are we doing it the right way?
If you find that your business is beginning to neglect these, it might be time to think about automating the marketing system.
1. Create Video Tutorials
People love to watch tutorials to learn something new. A good way to get the word out about your business is to create some.
This may require some hand-holding and showing something that may seem easy to you but vitally important to someone else. The better you become at this, the easier it will be to grow your business.
2. Utilise Your Blog
If you have a business, you need to have a blog. Just make sure that you are doing it the right way. Don’t post content that isn’t valuable or short.
Add value to what you can, and think about how this blog post will help out your viewer. People don’t want to waste time reading something online if it doesn’t help them out in some way.
The content on your blog can be the focal point for driving traffic as you develop a marketing strategy.
3. Leverage Influencers
If you want to get viewers to your website and build your client base fast, a great way to do this is to leverage influencers.
The vital thing to keep in mind is to find the right influencer, however. They don’t need to have millions of followers, but they do need to have the kind of followers that you are looking for to build your brand.
4. Build a Great Lead Magnet
In today’s world, marketing effectiveness can come down to creating a great lead magnet. The right magnet presented to the right audience in the right way can make all the difference in the world for your company.
To do this, determine the right points to get across and present a solution to a problem that your target audience has. If you do this correctly, you can begin the right way.
5. Create an Affiliate Program
Affiliate marketing is extremely powerful, and sadly a lot of people don’t recognize this. Affiliate can allow your company to grow fast; however, you have to approach the right partners in the right way.
If you want the larger affiliate to take you seriously, you have to create a good confidence-filled pitch.
6. Use Email Marketing Sequences
Email marketing sequences lay at the heart of any good sales funnel. These are messages that are computer generated and are sent to users once they subscribe to your email list.
Use these tools to build up a relationship with your customer, and be authentic.
7. Audience Re Targeting
Using the information that Facebook has about its audience can help you target any specific demographic.
This powerful tool can be used to show your Ads to a target audience.
You can show your Facebook Ad to only those that are the right age, geographic location, relationship status or topic interest.
8. Use Your LinkedIn Profile
Your LinkedIn profile is a great way to introduce yourself and your business to others that may be interested n your brand.
Understanding how to develop a marketing strategy can help your business succeed.
In today’s marketplace business owners need to be aware of the marketing opportunities available to promote their brand.
Read more about learning marketing as a business owner.
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