Marketing Strategy Essentials

Marketing Strategy Essentials

Its important to note that marketing is not a standalone, one-off activity. Marketing is made up of multiple components that are necessary throughout each and every stage of a business activities. From prospecting through to after sales with this process taking months to years having a strategy in place is essential.

Marketing strategy is defined as the business’s overall game plan for reaching prospective leads and turning them into customers of the products or services the business provides. Generally, it involves the company’s value proposition, key brand messaging, data on target customer demographics, and other high-level elements.

A methodically designed plan created to outline and guide marketing activities with the aim of achieving specific outcomes is a marketing strategy. It provides  the foundation upon which all marketing decisions are made. The ultimate function of a marketing strategy is to focus your marketing objectives and campaigns and keep these efforts aligned with the wider company goals.

Internal and external factors have to be taken into consideration in any good marketing strategy.

• Internal factors include the marketing mix, performance analysis, budgetary constraints, etc.
• External factors are elements like customer experience, competitor analysis, the socio-economic environment, and so on.

For many companies who don’t fully embrace the strategic marketing process, that’s why many marketing strategies are partially reactive and planned.

The Five Major Components of a Marketing Strategy?

1. Target audience

Your target audience describes the “people” who are most likely to identify with your products or services. So that you can convert leads profitably it’s important that you confidently establish your ideal audience .

Mass marketing brands target anyone and everyone, and is only typically achievable for those businesses that sell products that are universally needed. Most businesses concentrate on specific, niche groups of people or target several different audiences. The process of market segmentation is required to define, redefine, or re-establish your ideal target audience.

There are four main types of market segmentation: Demographic (age, income, gender, marital status, etc.) , Geographic (location, culture, urbanicity, climate, language) , Psychographic (values, lifestyles, likes, dislikes,  opinions, etc.) and Behavioural (actions made within a website, in-app, in-store)

By conducting interviews, creating online surveys, looking at census data,  exploring social media analytics, analysing the actions that customers and prospects make will help you collect demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioural information.

Buyer personas can be created once you have dynamically segmented your customers and prospects’ data. A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer, created by utilising your data. Implementing market segmentation and creating buyer personas provides a real-world context for your business. We often find that being able to find a “name” for each of your buying personas helps make the process infinitely more successful.

2. Goals & Objectives

• A goal is something long term that you want to achieve and is a broad, overarching statement
• An objective is more specific, precise and involves the action or actions that will be taken in order to achieve the overall goal.

SWOT analysis when completed correctly is a great way to dive deeper into your company (as well as the wider market environment) and identify some actionable goals and objectives. Please be aware that when done badly at best it amounts to SWAG Stupid Wild Arse Guesses

Conducting a SWOT analysis allows you to identify your business and/or marketing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Providing a clear picture of where you very good, where improvements needed, your potential opportunities and the challenges that you will need to tackle.

What you want to achieve and the objectives you need to attain can be as extensive or as minimal as you like ( months or years)

For any business, regardless of company size, budget or offerings, having strong goals and objectives is very important.

A key thing to remember here is to ensure that your goals and objectives are S.M.A.R.T.:

• S: Specific
• M: Measurable
• A: Achievable
• R: Relevant/realistic
• T: Time-bound

The overall aim of setting goals and objectives in your marketing strategy is to achieve business targets as seamlessly as possible. So, whether it’s focusing on revenue, acquiring new users, improving profitability, growing your brand or venturing into new markets etc

3. Competitor analysis

Competitor analysis is a process where you research competitors that are a potential threat to your business and analyse their

• products / services
• sales and marketing strategies,
• social media presence,
• website, etc.

When competitor analysis is completed accurately and in detail it enables you to get a clear idea of where you sit in the market compared to others and provides a benchmark against which you can measure your business’s growth.

The more intimately you know your competition, the easier it will be to identify potential opportunities and areas in which you can out flank them. We have been into many businesses who have said “We don’t have any competitors” are in the majority of cases incorrect. Even with the most niche product or service, there will always be some form of competition. It may not be direct, but it could simply be alternative areas where potential customers are spending their money 

It’s important for you to project the qualities that make your product / service different and why customers and prospects should choose you over other market options – this is the element of “differentiation”

A thorough, usable, relevant competitor analysis takes more than just a quick search on Google. There are a number of specific steps that are required.

4. Content creation

Great authoritative, unique and educational content creation is a truly significant part of modern marketing especially within this digital world. Today’s marketing is than just brash promotional tactics and in your face advertisements. Nowadays great content marketing shows your target audience that you are trustworthy, knowledgeable, and can provide the value and solutions they’re searching for.

In 2020 Hubspot research showed that, in 2020, 70% of marketers claimed to be actively investing in content marketing. So for those companies with dedicated marketing departments or a dedicated marketing employee, this is interesting that they are spending time on content marketing. The reason they are doing this is because the content on a companies website now operates as more than just a slogan or a promotional article. Content marketing has become a key part of the business strategy that functions to project thought leadership.

Content marketing comes in many forms, including blogs, case studies, infographics, webinars, videos, guides, podcasts. Content marketing is growing year-on-year, but it isn’t sufficient to just create content about anything. There is a massive difference between valuable content and content that’s there just for the sake of it. Writing or media that’s poorly targeted or inadequately researched is less likely to convert leads and could come across as a waste of time.

To ensure that the content you create is worthwhile, valuable to your target audience and competitive on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) create a Search Insights Report (S.I.R.). There are four key stages with creating an SIR

1. Focus topic selection: these should be based on the product or service you provide and they act as your main keywords (for example, with Blue Dolphin, one of our main topics is ‘Website Design’ and another is ‘Marketing and Sales Strategy’.

2. Content competitor identification: Importantly these are the brands who rank on SERPs for the same keywords as you not your normal, physical (actual) competitors. For example when I search for “Marketing and Sales Strategy” in Google, I potentially won’t see direct competitors (those who offer a similar product or service). I will see companies that write about the topic of marketing and sales strategy.

How To Tip to find your content competitors, go to your search engine and type in

• “[focus topic] + blogs”,
• “[focus topic] + websites”,
• “[focus topic] + tips”,
• “[focus topic] + examples”.

3. Content competitor evaluation: Analyse content competitors using a keyword research tool so you can see the terms they’re ranking for that your website potentially is not. There are many great tools available such as Moz , Ahrefs, and SEMrush. Currently available for free based on a limited number of keyword searches is a tool called The Hoth.  Add your content competitors to the keyword research tool and you will gain a long list of topic-specific keywords.

• Every relevant keyword can be a potential piece of content so long as there isn’t an overwhelming amount of competition
• To evaluate keyword competition look at the Monthly Search Volume (MSV).
  • A score between fifty to thousand monthly searches is good / achievable.
  • If you’re trying to rank for a keyword that has an MSV of twenty five thousand then it will be significantly more difficult.

Take my example of website design. The keywords that appear in my keyword research tool are: “website design ideas”, “website designs”, “how to design a website”, and their MSV is between 50 – 1000, so it would be sensible to create content using these keywords:

The Difference Between Target Audience & Target Market?

The terms ‘target audience’ and ‘target market’ are often used interchangeably, and many business people unknowingly assume that they are the same thing.

Target Audience

It is vital to know exactly who you plan to target, before constructing a solid marketing strategy.

Accurately identifying and establishing your target audience is important as it will impact many important marketing decisions

• Pricing – are you bargain bucket, mid price mediocrity, rip off high or reassuringly expensive
• Branding  – how will you position your products or services
• What messages you are planning to use – what are the issues of importance and value, that a customer will respond to
• The marketing channels you choose to promote your products or services on – website, email marketing, social media

The more defined your target audience is, the better your marketing strategy will be as you’ll be able to create all of the messaging, brand marketing content, and ads with your target audience in mind.

Its important to bear in mind that as time progresses, and you gather more insight, you will continue to gain a deeper understanding of your target audience and who exactly falls into this group. In marketing things change so you need to be able to learn and adapt to change as circumstances change. For example you might find you need to go after a different group of customers to those you originally set out to reach.

Amazon, have established themselves over the last 26 years as the best e-commerce trader, this has earned them the ability to target everyone and anyone they want. Your target audience simply cannot be everyone

Target Audience – Chooser / User / Payer

• The target audience is whoever the business expects to purchase their product or service.
• The framework of Chooser, User, Payer can be used to provide clarification
  • Chooser – is the person who decides which supplier is chosen i.e. we buy from supplier A rather than supplier B e.g. the buyer
  • User – the person who then ultimately uses the item
  • Payer – the Financial Director or person who ultimately pays the bill
• If we use the earlier example of Chainsaws, the product itself is aimed at those directly involved in tree and wood management i.e. cutting down trees and branches. Now i some cases they aren’t going to be the ones making the actual purchase. In some circumstances, the advertising and marketing efforts need to be directed at the target audience, which is made up of the owners of landscape companies, buyers in the city councils and larger forestry companies  who are involved in making the purchase.

Your target audience can also be a subset of your target market; these are people you are trying to reach as part of a particular marketing communication or promotion. For example, a chainsaw manufacturer will make product that cuts trees. As these trees are of a wide size range, it might not be necessary to target your entire market. Instead, your target audience can be made up of those who are cutting down trees over 0.5metre  in diameter.

A target market is a specific group of consumers identified as the focus for a company’s marketing efforts and sales efforts. It is a subset of the overall market for a product or service that the company has decided to aim its marketing and sales efforts towards.

To describe a target market, you need to consider several factors such as demographics, behaviors, values, motivations, and pain points. By understanding these factors, you can create a detailed profile of your ideal customer and tailor your marketing efforts to effectively reach and appeal to them.

Additionally, a target market can be segmented into smaller groups based on shared characteristics such as age, gender, income, location, and other defining factors. This allows for a more targeted and personalized approach to marketing, resulting in a higher return on investment (ROI).

In summary, the target market is a crucial aspect of the marketing strategy, as it defines who the company is trying to sell to, what their needs and wants are, and how the company can best reach and serve them.

The Importance of a Defined Target Audience

Having a defined target audience is a vital element of your marketing strategy. It enables those involved in marketing to:

• Perfectly tailor content within each campaign to appeal to the emotions and interests of the target audience
• Understand the language used by the target audience, including the phrases and terms that might resonate with them
  • Technical terminology is fine if it is exactly what the respondent would expect
• Position their messaging in a way that connects with the audience’s problems, desires, and motivations . This is sometimes referred to as identifying the customers pain
• Establish where the target audience spends their time both in the physical world and on line. This ensures that messaging can be placed in the most effective locations
• Understand what is expected of their products or services for current and future purposes.

Marketing Strategy Essentials

Marketing Strategy Essentials – The Sales Funnel

The sales funnel is sometimes referred to as the marketing funnel or the buyer’s journey. The sales funnel is essentially the path taken by a potential consumer that leads them to the purchase of your product or service.

The idea is that the marketing activities are implemented to draw as many leads as possible into the funnel. Each of these leads are simply nurtured through the different stages and as a business you ultimately end up converting some of them into customers.

In a perfect world, the funnel would be more of a cylinder, meaning that every lead converts into a customer. Unfortunately, in the real world of marketing and sales, this is never the case, hence the reason to narrowing the funnel.

What Does The Sales Funnel Have To Do With Marketing Strategy?

A high priority for marketers should be to create a well thought out sales funnel. For the business completing this process provides great insight into the potential customers thought process, challenges, and decisions that are being made. Your communication with each consumer should be very different based on their stage in your sales funnel.

Having an understanding of your sales funnel will also highlight the points at which your target audience are dropping out and failing to convert. This valuable information will allow you to put a plan in place that helps prevent potential losses.

Each stage of the customer journey requires a different approach from the marketing activities if they want to move customers smoothly down the funnel. The last thing you want to do is incorrectly message customers at the wrong time.

So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at a typical five-stage experience that your customer might take with your brand. From the initial awareness stage to becoming a loyal, paying customer:

1. Awareness

It is likely that your target audience has never heard of your company before, or of the products or services you offer at this very first stage.

This is the point where your prospective customers are realising they have a problem and educating themselves around it through research.

At this initial stage online search through “Google”, is the first point of call and customers find themselves typing various things into the search bar in order to find help. Therefore with online search being so critical its important that

Marketing Strategy Essentials – PEST Analysis

PEST is an acronym that stands for Political, Economic, Social, and Technological (analysis). PEST analysis is used to assess these four external factors in relation to your own company.

In order for your marketing strategy to run smoothly and be as successful as possible, it is vital to understand any opportunities and/or threats in both the current market and the wider environment. Carrying out a thorough PEST analysis will enable you to better understand the market trends and conditions, as well as helping to identify the expected constraints on your strategy.

You only have to think about Covid and Brexit to see how two of these factors can massively impact on your business.

Political Factors

Whilst we cant control tax policies, tariff & trade restrictions, employment laws, environmental regulations, consumer protection laws, , copyright, advertising regulations, political stability of a country, etc. The best thing you can do is to make yourself aware of anything that could impact your marketing performance and adhere to the rules to avoid any major penalties or backlash.

Economic Factors

Understanding the current economic climate is important for marketers in order to have a better grasp of the factors that affect consumer buying power these factors include, Economic growth indicators, inflation rate, interest rates, exchange rates, fiscal policies, unemployment trends, etc.

These factors have a direct impact on the cost of your products or services. At the time of writing container shipping costs have increased by a factor of 5 so from paying £2000 for a container costs are over £10,000. By factoring in the economics of your target market when developing your marketing strategy, you can be prepared for any ramifications as a result of an economic change.

Social Factors

Since the issues of the Coronavirus there have been many social factors that have impacted on business. Traditionally social factors included cultural aspects, age distribution, career attitudes, health consciousness, population growth rate, social classes, etc.

By digging deep into the social factors impacting your target audience, (remember this can equate to chooser, user , payer) a business can identify how a consumer’s needs are shaped and what brings them to the market to make a purchase.

Technological Factors

Technology has a huge impact on businesses on so many levels and can either be an addition that is welcomed or shunned. Think about how businesses have developed over Covid and from a basic level have had to embrace Zoom and Teams.  When developing your marketing strategy, it’s important to be aware and keep up-to-date with all the latest technological advancements that might improve your operations and add value to your customers.

PEST analysis can be extended to become the ‘PESTEL’ analysis, incorporating ‘Environmental’ and ‘Legal’ factors

Environmental factors – Avoid Greenwash

Environmental factors and sustainability are more dominant now than they have ever been. B2B and B2C consumers are more educated on environmental matters and the impact that global production and trade can have on the wider environment.

Environmental factors such as sustainability, waste management, recycling procedures, etc, of their production and distribution, all have to to be considered. This ultimately impacts on the business and various aspects of their marketing strategies.

Legal factors

The law remains an important aspect of any business in order to facilitate successful and ethical trade, although legal factors often overlap with political factors. Trading internationally can bring about issues as many countries have their own sets of rules and regulations, however, many countries abide by the same or similar legal regulations. By not considering legal factors when creating your marketing strategy, you run the risk of harming, or even destroying, the entire brand. A recent example of this is CE Marking post Brexit.

The UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) marking is a new UK product marking that is used for goods being placed on the market in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). It covers most goods which previously required the CE marking, known as ‘new approach’ goods

Marketing Strategy Essentials – SWOT Analysis

The acronym SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This established method of analysis is the primary way that businesses position themselves and determine how aligned they are with their vision, goals, growth objectives, and success KPI’s. A SWOT analysis can be used for any number of different things such as a marketing project, a sales campaign, a new business case

Internal aspects of your business, which are essentially the things you have control over are referred to as your strengths and weaknesses.

External elements that you cannot control, like the actions of your competitors or the condition of the wider market are considered as opportunities and threats

SWOT analysis when completed correctly offers business insights that focus on both internal and external impacting factors. Conducting this type of analysis in detail and honestly heightens your chances of success and reduces the likelihood of failure. When completed as a token exercise it can be converted into SWAG Stupid Wild Arse Guesses ( Thanks to Professor Malcolm McDonald for the SWAG version)

How to conduct a SWOT Analysis for your business

• Strengths – what do you do well
• Weaknesses – what do you need to improve
• Opportunities – what are your goals
• Threats – what challenges do you face

Strengths

Your strengths are the areas that your company excels in; things that you do especially well. It’s what makes you unique, it’s what makes you thrive, it’s the things that give you an edge over your competitors. Think of your

• People – are your technical people the best in class, are your fabricators multi skilled and passionate about what they do, do your customer service people always go the extra mile etc
• Assets – do you have unique equipment and technology
• Processes – do you have the systems and processes in place that you have the ability to offer repeatability
• Communications – how well do you communicate with customers, staff, suppliers etc.

Some strengths are clear to see; if you have very high traffic to your website, chances are that you’re doing something right. But is this high traffic volume useful or is it just visitors who will never purchase. Evaluation and asking questions will illuminate areas where your business excels, and why:

• Do you have a clear unique selling point (USP)? I.e., what separates you from your competitors? Do you actually know what differentiates you. When we have conducted research on behalf of clients we have found in many cases that there assumptions are totally inaccurate.
• Do you have strong internal resources? I.e., skilled, knowledgeable, experienced staff, substantial networks, reputation, etc.
• What are your assets? I.e., capital, intellectual property, equipment, technology, patents, etc. This is important especially if there are low barriers to entry for your competitors
• Do you have a loyal customer base? In fact do you know who your customers are. Can you easily identify your top twenty percent most profitable customers
• What are your clear competitive advantages?
• Is your business adaptable to a changing economic climate or for growing social trends?

Weaknesses

Factors that are holding the business back, stopping you from reaching your full potential or stifling projects are referred to as weaknesses

Some weaknesses are out of your control which is unfortunate, but some are easily fixed. Similar to strengths, it’s not always easy to identify your weaknesses. Your business may be going downhill and perhaps there’s no obvious reason why. That’s why you need to ask yourself these critical questions and shed some light on the elusive issues that are holding you back:

• Is your company limited in terms of resources such as equipment, money, or employees, etc.?
• Are there clear aspects of the business process that needs improvement or radical change?
• Do you have any intellectual property if so how relevant is it?
• Are your competitors out-performing you, if so, in any particular area? (better performing products or services, exceptional customer service, etc.)
• Do you have any USP’s, if so are they clear, too samey, or too niche?

Marketing Strategy Essentials

Marketing strategy essentials vary depending on the specific business, industry, and target market. However, there are several key elements that are generally considered essential in developing an effective marketing strategy.

1. Target Market Identification: Clearly define your target audience based on demographics, psychographics, and behaviour. Understand their needs, preferences, and pain points.
2. Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Determine and communicate what sets your product or service apart from competitors. Highlight the unique benefits or features that solve customers’ problems or fulfill their desires.
3. Competitive Analysis: Analyse your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and market positioning. Identify opportunities to differentiate yourself and gain a competitive advantage.
4. Goals and Objectives: Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) marketing goals aligned with your overall business objectives. Examples may include increasing sales, market share, or brand awareness.
5. Marketing Mix: Develop a comprehensive marketing mix or 4Ps (product, price, place, promotion) strategy. Define your product or service offering, pricing strategy, distribution channels, and promotional activities.
6. Branding: Create a strong brand identity that reflects your values, mission, and value proposition. Consistently communicate your brand message through visual elements, tone of voice, and customer experiences.
7. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): Develop a coordinated and consistent approach to communicate with your target audience across various channels, such as advertising, public relations, social media, content marketing, and direct marketing.
8. Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Implement strategies and technologies to build and maintain strong relationships with customers. Focus on personalised experiences, customer loyalty programs, and feedback mechanisms.
9. Market Research and Analytics: Conduct market research to gather insights about your target audience, competitors, and industry trends. Utilise data analytics to track and measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
10. Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation: Regularly monitor and evaluate the performance of your marketing activities. Make data-driven decisions, adjust strategies as needed, and stay agile in response to market changes.

Remember that these essentials provide a general framework, but each business should tailor their marketing strategy to their specific circumstances and goals. For more information on marketing click here