Writing a marketing strategy is not an easy task, which is why professional marketers have teams of people that help them organize and produce strong strategies.
A strategic marketing plan is more than just an advertisement or statement of goals. It’s something that has underlying messages and concepts that make up the whole thing.
It takes time to write one correctly, so don’t try to do it all by yourself! Get some assistance from colleagues and other professionals, and use the parts you like to further your own writing career.
Businesses are made every day who no longer have a strategic marketing plan, and those businesses often fail.
So what makes a good marketing strategy? Let's discuss!
Disclaimer: The following article will talk about how to write a marketing strategy for business purposes, but there is also another type of marketing strategy called a promotional tactic. This article will not go into detail about these types of strategies, as they are simpler versions of strategical ones.
Writing a marketing strategy is not just about telling people what you are going to do and sticking to that plan, it’s also about making sure those actions make sense for your business and your market.
Your strategies should be tied to some kind of goal or objective, and should address the most important factors in the future success of your company.
For example, if one of your goals is to increase sales, then your marketing strategy may include developing more effective advertising campaigns, offering greater discounts, or creating new products or services.
If one of your objectives is to gain media coverage, then different tactics can include publishing articles online with rich content, writing press releases, or finding ways to reward social media followers or newsletter subscribers.
You will want to test which methods work for you, but no matter the method chosen, clearly defined steps are essential for successful execution.
And don’t forget to keep up-to-date! Even though you may have planned out all of your strategies at the start, you will need to reevaluate them from time to time.
As your business changes and grows, so does your marketing strategy.
It is very important to provide clear, descriptive examples when defining your strategy. What strategies have worked for you in the past can be used as templates for what will work for your business now.
By using these templates as a basis, you can make changes or additions to them to create new strategies that are more focused on achieving your goals.
There are many ways to organize a marketing strategy, so do not feel limited by this example’s structure.
A marketing strategy without details is pointless! Too many companies that have a lack of formal strategies are wasting money through the over-the-top use of advertising, throwing away their profits.
Companies that advertise directly to consumers will spend enough to make your mouth water but they can’t measure if their ads were read or actioned on. This is why most brands have indirect ways to reach out to customers such as via social media or word-of-mouth.
By having a clear market segment, goal, and message, you can create more targeted content that reaches your intended audience. What about potential new markets? You could target them too with slight tweaks to your messages and strategies!
Your marketing strategy should be two things: definite and measurable.
As we have discussed before, being creative is an integral part of marketing. But creating engaging messages that people will read and responding to comments and reactions are also important parts of your job as a marketer.
As you know by now, marketers spend a lot of time thinking about how they can be more creative with their strategies. However, what many don’t realize is that being more practical or tactical is just as significant if not more so than being creative.
That is why it is very valuable to prioritize using evidence and reasoning when formulating strategies. This article will talk more in depth about some ways to develop this ability for yourself.
As mentioned before, developing a strong marketing strategy is more than just having a flashy poster or catchy slogan. It’s about creating an organized way to implement campaigns that are consistent with your company’s brand and vision.
A good strategic outline includes different levels such as product lines, departments, regions, etc. By breaking down the mission into these components, it becomes much easier to create effective campaigns that fit within the organization and achieve results.
Level one is typically advertising or promotional material like billboards, flyers, and advertisements. These types of materials usually focus on spreading awareness of a specific product or service. While they may seem straightforward, there are many ways companies use creative design to appeal to their audience and influence buying decisions.
Level two is designing products according to internal and external research. This can include looking at past competitors’ designs to see what worked for them and how to improve upon those ideas.
Level three is implementing these theories through rigorous testing. Whether it be changing around the color palette or altering the formula for a particular product, experimenting with variations is essential in achieving success.
As we have discussed before, creating a marketing strategy is not a simple task. It takes time to hone your writing skills and create interesting content that people will want to read.
Your strategies should be written consistently, of quality, and targeted towards the audience you intend to reach. If you are trying too hard, then your message may sound forced or even annoying.
It is very important to establish a tone for your business and stick to it. Yours can’t contain excessive use of jargon, clichéd phrases, and/or motivational quotes that have been said thousands of times before. Your messages must tell a story!
Take some time to review your current strategies and determine if they are working well. If so, great! Keep doing what you're doing, but add an new element into place or take something out.
If not, evaluate whether these things need to be done in order (finding competition), changing up the messaging (telling your audience differently), adding new features (products or services), or taking away ones that are no longer needed (no-hassle ways to close).
Whatever changes are made, make sure they are natural transitions from what has already happened under your company's brand and image. You do not need to rebrand, but making small tweaks to keep things fresh is always good practice.
After reading through all of these tips, you may be thinking how we got here! Having enough content is always a good thing but it can get tricky when marketing strategies are in need of an update.
If your mind starts racing as you try to determine what brands to invest in, what messages to promote and what channels to use, then it’s time to reevaluate your strategy.
It’s totally normal to feel overwhelmed after reading this article, even more so now that you have some ideas on how to revamp yours.
Writing a marketing strategy is not a once-and-for-all thing, it must be revisited constantly. You should strive to add new components to your strategic plan every few months!
This way, you will always have something to work with, so that you can continually improve your business.
You should also keep an eye on how well those strategies are working – if one isn’t bringing in the profits, then drop or modify what you were doing before and try another tactic.
That is just the truth of marketing – sometimes you need to give up your dreams and start over until they bear fruit.
