How To Make A Simple Marketing Strategy
When you understand what marketing really is, you’ll then need to turn that into a strategy.
We could simplify marketing into a few key questions:
Who are you trying to reach?
What do you want them to do?
How will you measure marketing’s impact on influencing that action?
We're going to look at putting together a framework, but keep in mind that everything we'll cover is much easier said than done!
Success in this area starts with putting together a solid strategy. Take a look at some interesting stats that might be worth keeping in mind here:
48% of marketers primarily focus on blogging; 24% on social media campaigns; 14% on email marketing
74% of marketers think their content is better than their competition...
BUT - 65% of marketers almost never conduct market research!
So, let's put together a strategy that helps you have something clear to follow that prepares you and gets your business to where you need to go through marketing!
Getting to Know Your Audience
First things first, as an entrepreneur, you're here to serve customers.
But figuring out exactly who those customers are, and what problems they need solved, is easier said than done.
Read here to learn more about how to do that!
Figuring Out What You Want Them to Do
Once you’ve determined who you need to reach, the next step is figuring out what will most likely move them towards making a purchase.
For some companies, it's as simple as convincing customers to buy something while they're at the store.
For others (for example, service-based companies), you might want to get leads (potential customers) to place a phone call for a demo or a consultation before they commit to purchasing.
It's also common for new businesses and online businesses to have actions you drive your audience toward before they'll ever purchase - such as signing up to a mailing list or becoming a social media follower.
Determining Your Tactics
Part of an effective strategy is narrowing the tactics you can implement to achieve your goals. There are a lot of types of marketing you can use - but you need to decide which ones work best for you based on your industry, niche, audience, and what those goals are.
Some common ones might include:
Blog posts
Email lists
Social media
Ads
Free resources (such as a free taster)
Consider following this process:
Know your audience - who are you trying to reach?
Where can you reach those people?
How can you reach those people in those places - what activities could be used to reach them (and do it at the right time)?
Execute!
Once you have a strategy, it’s time to put it into action.
So, you'll probably need:
The right skills. - once you know what to do, you need to know how to do it.
The right people!
The right tools - how are you physically going to get this done!
What Skills Do You Need?
Because there are a lot of different elements to marketing, you'll need different skills depending on what you want to specialise in.
But there are some basic skills that apply to everyone:
Verbal communication - as marketing is all about communication, you must be able to express your ideas clearly.
Writing - you’ll be doing a lot of writing, whether creating content like blogs, or writing emails to potential customers.
Research - the more focused and niche it can get, the better.
Analytics - understanding how to spot trends in data is essential to understanding what to change and how to pivot in the future.
Analytics and Impact Measurement
If you can’t measure the impact of your marketing activities, then you may as well not be doing anything at all.
Every action should always be connected to specific metrics, which should in turn be attached to a goal. This helps you refine what you focus on, so you know it's making sales and costs as little as possible!
So...
In conclusion, your strategy is INCREDIBLY important, but there are some simple and clear steps you can follow if you want to make a strategy that's coherent and that you can keep following for a long time.
That being said, we recommend regularly revising your strategy using your analytics so that you know what you should keep focusing on.
With so much to potentially do, and only so much time and budget as a start-up, you need to carefully pick what works for your business, industry, niche, and audience...
And if at first you struggle, don't worry too much! This is definitely one of those areas where practice makes perfect!
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About Seven
Hey friends! I’m Seven - I write about challenges and opportunities affecting leaders across business. I release a weekly newsletter and a podcast, helping folks understand the leadership journeys and challenges out there, so we can better understand our purpose, place, and potential. The goal: to learn about what it means to be a leader, to support leaders, to find leaders, and to discover the leader within.
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Lots of love, and here’s to your success!