What is a Marketing Strategy & Do I Need One?

Everyone wants to know the magic secret in marketing. How do I attract more customers, how do I sell more products and what actually works? Now, if I knew the answer that helped everybody, I’d either be out of a job or a millionaire.

However, one of the best ways you can decide what you need to do for your marketing is by having a strategy. A strategy looks at where you are now, where you want to be and the marketing tactics you’re going to use to get there.    

So, I am going to quickly talk about some of the key things you need to know to help you start plotting out a marketing strategy for your business. 

Part 1 – Where you are.

Think about where your business is right now. What is the profile of the business, who is your current customer, what products or services do you offer? Who are your competitors and what are they offering and doing in terms of marketing? What marketing have you done to date? What has and hasn’t worked?

Part 2 – Where you want to be.

In the second section really think about which direction you want to take your business in? Do you have a vision (i.e the best marketing consultant in Cumbria)? What are your key messages? The things you would shout from the rooftops about your brand, what makes you stand out and different from others in your industry? Who is your target audience? So, this may be the same as who you currently target, or you may want to tap into a new market? Perhaps you can break your audience down into niches, or industries. Then finally, think about what you really want to achieve with your marketing. Things like ‘growing your business’ are great business aims, but what specific marketing aims can you have. For example, growing your email list, increasing sales by X%, developing a blog on your website. Really try and get into the nitty gritty to decide what you want to achieve with your marketing.

Part 3 – How are your going to get there.

This section of your strategy will outline all the things you are going to do in your marketing. But, now we have a really clear vision, we know our specific aims and who we are targeting we can be more strategic with exactly what we are going to do to tick all those boxes.  

Write a list of all the marketing tactics and really think if it is going to achieve your aims, or get in front of your target audience. If the answer is no, then don’t do it. There are so many things you can do in marketing, but if you take the time to really understand what you want to achieve you can be really methodical about your marketing and ensure you hit those targets you set out for yourself in your strategy. Don’t just write it and let it fester away. Come back to it time and time again. Some times things won’t work and that is often the nature of marketing. However, if you are really clear in what you are trying to do, really clear on your messaging and your audience, then everything just becomes much easier and you’ll see better results.     

If you want to know more about how to plan your marketing or how to implement tactics successfully, check out my courses, which are all available on demand. Click here https://acorn-marketing.co.uk to find out more.