Creating a Marketing Strategy: Do's and Don'ts
Samantha Higgins
It is important to have a good marketing strategy. It will help you achieve your business goals. But what is it, and how is it created? It is a business's overall plan for reaching potential customers and turning them into active customers. It should contain the business's brand message, what the business will deliver to its customers, and the target audience's details. Creating it is not hard, but there are things that you should do and others that you should not do during the creation. Below is a discussion on these things.
Focus On The Needs Of Your Customers
The golden rule in marketing is that customers' needs matter. Therefore, when creating a marketing strategy, focus on the needs of your customers. Anyway, your aim should be to offer products or services that will fulfill these needs.
To identify these needs, you need to understand your customer's pains, features, and preferences. Be specific when outlining these things in your marketing strategy. Facebook's audience insights and Google analytics can help you get more information about your potential customers' persona.
If these research tools do not help you, look at the marketing strategies that other companies are using. For instance, if you own an IT company, you can check some of the effective marketing strategies used by IT companies. The JumpFactor's IT marketing strategy is one of the best strategies that will help you know more about the customers' needs in the IT industry.
Choose an effective Positioning Strategy
A positioning strategy will help you influence your potential customer's perception of the products or services that you offer. It will help you build a good image of your business in the minds of these customers. It may focus on quality, speed, cost, or flexibility.
When deciding on positioning, think about the areas in which your company excels and beats your competitors. Identifying the weaknesses and strengths of your business will help you to identify these areas correctly. You should also consider the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and the needs of your customers.
If your products are low-priced, focus on cost positioning strategy when creating your marketing strategy. However, if you often change the products and services you offer based on your customers' needs, focus on the flexibility positioning strategy.
Establish Goals Before Creating A Marketing Strategy
It is no lie that some business owners create marketing strategies without stating their marketing goals. Doing this is wrong and will make you lose track when undertaking your marketing journey. To avoid this, establish your marketing goals before creating your marketing plan.
Your marketing goals should be specific, measurable, relevant, attainable, and time-bound. They should also be appreciable, modifiable, limited, and collaborative. Such goals will help you acquire and keep customers.
Your marketing goals will depend on the current state of your business. You can market your business to increase brand awareness or generate quality leads. Your goal can also be to increase the value of your customers or empower your employees.
Do Not Focus on Tactics, Instead Focus on Your Goals
You have probably come across business people who focus too much on tactics and forget about their marketing goals. For instance, you may hear them say that they need new websites. When you ask them why they need these websites, they do not have an answer. It is clear that they know that their websites are not effective, but they do not know why they need effective websites.
If you follow the same path as these business people, you will not achieve your marketing goals. Therefore, when creating a marketing strategy, focus on your marketing goals rather than focusing on particular tactics. Anyway, you will not have problems identifying the tactics that will help you when you already know your goals.
Do Not Target a Large Audience
Many people think that they will get many customers when they create a marketing strategy that targets a large audience. Well, this is not always the case because marketplaces have become too differentiated. Potential customers are of different ages, gender, and their lifestyles are different.
Attempting to serve all these people will reward you nothing but failure. Therefore, you should identify a small target audience that you will serve and focus on it. You will not have a hard time managing such an audience.
A good marketing strategy will help your business achieve its goals. To create such a strategy, you need to identify a small target audience, understand your customers' needs, and choose an effective positioning strategy. You should also focus on your business goals more than the tactics that can help you achieve these goals.
About the Author: Samantha Higgins is a professional writer with a passion for research, observation, and innovation. She is nurturing a growing family of twin boys in Portland, Oregon with her husband. She loves kayaking and reading creative non-fiction.
