You know you need a marketing strategy, but you may not be sure which elements are really necessary and which are just prolonging the process. What’s essential for an effective strategy?
Marketing strategies certainly can have an open-ended feel to them. After all, you can always do more, but you also have other things to do…such as run a business. When you’re developing your marketing strategy, here are a few components that are key to address:
Identify Your Target Audience: Identify who’s most likely to purchase your products or services, and learn as much as you can about them. Determine the gender, age, occupation and common hobbies for the people that will buy from you. Once you know the broad audience, drill down further to identify segments of that group, and develop some clear buyer personas. This will help you as you craft personalized messages to these smaller segments of your audience.
Know What Makes You Different: Unless you’re blazing a trail through a brand-new industry, you likely have a few competitors that do or produce something similar. What makes your brand unique? Clarify your values and your differentiation in the market, so that you can articulate a clear brand message.
Engage Your Audience: This is a huge topic, because it covers everything from developing content to how you distribute that content and use it to drive conversions. In short, you need a clear plan for how you’ll build brand awareness with your audience through content. You’ll need to determine which formats your audience prefers, and where they like to view content. Do they prefer live video on Facebook, or are they more likely to visit your site after receiving an email newsletter?
Measure Your Success: One of the most critical elements of a marketing strategy is a set of measurable goals that will confirm that you’re spending your marketing dollars in the right places. Take time to examine how your strategy is performing and refine as you go.
Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list. Executing a marketing strategy takes time, and you’re busy running a company. Turn your strategy over to SJC Marketing, where we specialize in creative, strategic plans for measurable growth.