About 50% of businesses are using marketing tactics without developing a marketing strategy. How will you know you’re accomplishing your goals (or where you’re falling flat) without a plan?
Instead of the working blind, consider taking the time to start building a marketing strategy.
Not sure where to start? Here are six easy tips that can get you on the right track.
With these tips, you can learn how to make a good marketing strategy from scratch. No two businesses are the same. You need a strategy with your unique customers, brand, and goals in mind.
With these tips, you can develop a strategy that will attract new clients, boost sales, and help your business grow! Get started with these tips today.
1. Determine Your Goals
Before you can start building a marketing strategy, you’ll need to know which tools and tactics to use. Before that, you’ll need to determine your goals. Otherwise, you won’t have a clear idea of the direction you’re headed in.
Consider creating SMART goals for your business and marketing team. SMART stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Results-driven
- Timely
For example, maybe you want to increase sales for Product X by the end of 2021’s second quarter. Perhaps you want to attract 1,000 new followers on Instagram by the end of the year. Either way, establishing your SMART goals will help inform your entire marketing strategy.
When establishing your goals, think about the milestones you want your business to reach in a year. What about five years?
Your goals might include:
- Generating more brand awareness
- Becoming a thought leader in the industry
- Boosting leads, sales, and conversions
- Improving your ROI
- Attracting more website traffic
- Developing brand recognition, trust, and authority
If you want to increase sales for a specific product, you can create a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign for that item.
To become a thought leader, consider creating blog posts and webinars. Combining different marketing tactics can help you improve your year-over-year ROI.
Now that you know your goals, you can start accomplishing them!
2. Know Your Value
Why should your target audience choose your business over another? When creating a marketing strategy, try to see everything from the consumer’s point of view.
One way to stand out is to consider your unique value proposition. What do you have to offer that no one else can? What makes your business unique and worth trusting?
It’s important to focus your attention on your value when first building a marketing strategy for your business. This unique value will become the heart of your branding and marketing message.
It’s also essential to make sure you differentiate yourself from the competition. Otherwise, consumers might choose someone they already know and trust instead.
3. Understand Your Brand
Customers will have a hard time recognizing you if you fade into the background. Does your visual brand help you stand out from competitors? If not, it’s time for an upgrade.
Consider the visual elements of your brand like your logo, fonts, color scheme, and imagery. What about your tone and voice? Could someone recognize your brand’s personality from a video or blog post?
Brand consistency across all marketing platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%. A unique color, on the other hand, boosts recognition by up to 80%.
Unfortunately, it takes five to seven impressions before consumers even start remembering your brand. Without consistency, they might confuse your business with another.
Is your content customized with your customers in mind? About 82% of consumers feel better about a brand after reading customized content. Customization will help you forge a strong connection with your customers.
Once you establish your brand, create a brand guide for your team to keep everyone on the same page.
4. Meet Your Customers
Who are your customers? Are they local or international? What demographics do they fall under?
Consider age, gender, location, household income, and other key details. Do your customers fall into different groups? Consider creating buyer personas.
Personas will help you differentiate your customers. Then, you can create fresh content for each persona. Otherwise, you might fail to appeal to the customer’s unique needs.
For example, a college student probably has different priorities than a single dad.
If you don’t know much about your customers, their preferences, problems, and behaviors, create a survey.
A survey will help you gather valuable data about your target audience. Then, you can use that data to start building a marketing strategy based on real information.
5. Find the Competition
Did you complete a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis for your business? You can use a SWOT analysis when creating a marketing strategy, too.
Who are your competitors? What value are they offering customers? What strategies are they using to reach customers and grow their business?
Learning more about the competition will help you take a unique approach to your marketing. It can also help you pinpoint mistakes you’ll want to avoid.
Are there any opportunities in the industry you can exploit? What areas are your competitors failing to consider? Are your customers experiencing a frustration you can fix?
Focusing on the competition will help you recognize ways you can stand out in your marketing strategy.
6. Choose Your Tactics
Now that you have a better understanding of what you need, you can start developing a list of tactics you want to use within your marketing strategy.
For example, search engine optimization (SEO) can help you generate more website traffic, leads, and conversions. It can also help you become a thought leader. SEO will help you rank higher on search engines.
A higher ranking will help you appear in front of more customers.
As part of SEO, you’ll need to create unique, high-quality content with your customers in mind.
Don’t forget to update your website. Make sure it’s sleek, mobile-optimized, and easy to use.
Other great marketing methods include PPC, email marketing, pim marketing, events, and advertising. Consider your budget to determine which methods work. Which will help you accomplish your goals?
Start Off Strong: 6 Steps to Creating a Results-Driven Marketing Strategy
Don’t fall behind the competition. Instead, give yourself a strong start with a well-thought-out marketing strategy. With these tips, you can start building a marketing strategy designed to help you succeed!
Searching for more tips that will boost your business? Explore our latest business guides today.
