In marketing, strategy is everything. You need to meticulously design a winning plan of action for successful business results. Just like in a war situation, everything boils down to the art of planning and directing overall military operations and manoeuvres in a battle. If you don’t plan well, you will lose the war. Similarly, in order to have a competitive advantage in business, you need to plan to win.
An organization’s strategy combines all of its marketing goals into one comprehensive plan. A good marketing strategy should be drawn from market research and focus on the product mix in order to better serve customers and achieve maximum profit to sustain the business. According to Wikipedia, marketing strategy is the foundation of a marketing plan.
A marketing strategy aims to increase sales and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. It includes all basic, short-term and long-term activities of a company. Strategic planning typically begins with a scan of the business environment, both internal and external. The external environment includes technological, economic, cultural, political and legal aspects.
Tweet this: If you don’t plan well, you will lose the war.
With set goals, a marketing strategy details what specific actions will be taken over time to achieve the objectives. Plans can be extended to cover many years, with sub-plans for each year. A marketing strategy describes how a firm will achieve the stated goals in a way which is consistent with the company vision and mission. It usually involves monitoring, to assess progress, and prepare for contingencies if problems arise.
In this blog, I will highlight five essential pillars to marketing strategy.
Define Your Product or Service Offering
You need to know your product or service very well. Understanding who your brand is and where you rank within your industry, can better position you against your competitors. You need to help your clients in ways your competitors can’t.
You need to differentiate your product or service. Understand what your customers really like to buy. Evaluate which ones are the most viable to promote. Your brand essence should set you apart from the competition.
Understand Your Target Market
You need to know and understand your target market. This helps you to better serve them. You need to understand their likes or dislikes so you can tailor make your product or service offering to better suit their needs. Customer satisfaction should be at the centre of marketing strategy. After all, it is the customers whom the entire marketing strategy will be directed at.
The most effective ideal buyers represent a blend of functional and emotional elements.
You don’t need to rely on demographic information only for modeling and segmentation but also less discrete factors like consumer behavior and preferences.
Know Your Competitors Very Well
The world of business is characterized by competition. Even if there are no direct competitors for your product or service, there is always competition of some kind. You need to understand why a potential customer should spend money on you instead of your competitors. What is your competitive advantage or unique selling proposition?
Ultimately, it’s about shared values. Your clients will choose you over competitors because of your track record with customer experience, transparency, quality etc. These are factors that make your company distinct. Shared values breed competitive advantage.
Develop Awareness With Consistency
It is difficult for a potential client to buy your product or service if they don’t even know or have any clue that it exists. You must take advertising and promotion seriously and be consistent. The world is full of advertising noise that’s too loud for customers. You need to formulate ways to make them listen to you instead of your competitors.
Advertising is an important part of marketing strategy. It focuses on telling consumers about the products or services, their benefits and why they should make a purchasing decision.
Employ Technological Methods
Effective marketing strategy aims at reaching potential customers at the right place and time. It focuses on the use of different media channels to convey a compelling message which persuades customers to act. Most customers spend their time online. It is imperative to use social media platforms to reach your customers.
To maximize customer reach through SEO (search engine optimization), you can use different digital marketing tools. SEO uses specialized tactics to optimize your website rankings so your customers can easily find you.
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