Develop a marketing strategyEffective marketing starts with a considered, well-informed marketing strategy. A good marketing strategy helps you define your vision, mission and business goals, and outlines the steps you need to take to achieve these goals.Your marketing strategy affects the way you run your entire business, so it should be planned and developed in consultation with your team. It is a wide-reaching and comprehensive strategic planning tool that:describes your business and its products and servicesexplains the position and role of your products and services in the marketprofiles your customers and your competitionidentifies the marketing tactics you will useallows you to build a marketing plan and measure its effectiveness.A marketing strategy sets the overall direction and goals for your marketing, and is therefore different from a marketing plan, which outlines the specific actions you will take to implem ...view middle of the document...
Identify your business goalsTo develop your marketing strategy, identify your overarching business goals, so that you can then define a set of marketing goals to support them. Your business goals might include:increasing awareness of your products and servicesselling more products from a certain supplierreaching a new customer segment.State your marketing goalsDefine a set of specific marketing goals based on the business goals you listed above. These goals will motivate you and your team and help you benchmark your success.Examples of marketing goals include increased market penetration (selling more existing products to existing customers) or market development (selling existing products to new target markets). These marketing goals could be long-term and might take a few years to successfully achieve. However, they should be clear and measurable and have time frames for achievement.Make sure your overall strategies are also practical and measurable. A good marketing strategy will not be changed every year, but revised when your strategies have been achieved or your marketing goals have been met. Also, you may need to amend your strategy if your external market changes due to a new competitor or new technology, or if your products substantially change.Research your marketResearch is an essential part of your marketing strategy. You need to gather information about your market, such as its size, growth, social trends and demographics (population statistics such as age, gender and family type). It is important to keep an eye on your market so you are aware of any changes over time, so your strategy remains relevant and targeted.Profile your potential customersUse your market research to develop a profile of the customers you are targeting and identify their needs.The profile will reveal their buying patterns, including how they buy, where they buy and what they buy. Again, regularly review trends so you don't miss out on new opportunities or become irrelevant with your marketing message.While you try to find new customers, make sure your marketing strategy also allows you to maintain relationships with your existing customers.
