How to create a Marketing Strategy

How to create a Marketing Strategy

A marketing strategy is essential for every business. It should focus on making sure your products and services fulfil customer needs and a way to develop profitable relationships with those customers.

It’s a working document so you should update it every year as customer perceptions and the market changes.

This is what goes into a marketing strategy:

• Target market: Your customers defined. Characterise your different customers based on their needs. For example, quality versus affordability. These are called customer segments. Who are your existing customers? Who else could you target (new customers).
• Marketing messages: Now develop a strategy for each segment. You will develop a different marketing message for someone who wants quality to someone who’s looking for cost sensitivity.
• Marketing activities: Think about where each of your customer segments work, socialise and live. Are they online, if so where are they online? Now you can identify opportunities to reach them in these places to tell them about your products, through advertising, public relations, events and promotions. How do you target your existing customers (selling them more or other products) and new customers.
• Monitoring and measuring: This is really important. Make sure you have goals and objectives for each activity you plan and that you monitor and measure their effectiveness, otherwise you will waste money on activities that aren’t working.
• SWOT analysis: Take into account how your businesses’ and products’ strengths and weaknesses will affect your marketing.

Your marketing strategy will help you match your company’s and product’s strengths to your customer’s needs – a key element to any businesses’ success.