Let’s be honest: marketing strategies make the most impact today when it comes to brand growth and public-facing progress.
Those inspiring brands we notice and follow? Their success comes from smart, innovative marketing.
With an active marketing approach, you can make a big impact using advertising, educate through content, develop new solutions and build stronger relationships with your customers.
So, how do you create effective marketing strategies?
Prefer to listen, rather than read? Here’s the Podcast summary!
The truth about today’s marketing
It’s everything your business does today.
Marketing is just as much your adverts as it is the way your customer service team answer the phone. How can your website say you are superior providers when your return policy is making people unhappy?
Marketing is just as much your adverts as it is the way your customer service team answer the phone.
This is all marketing. Every bit.
It’s also why you can’t underestimate Marketing’s influence on the success or failure of your business. Your business needs to have short and long-term marketing strategies in place that everyone is contributing to if you want to experience business growth.
Every action your business takes, from the way it pays invoices or shares social media content, to the quality of your products and services speaks volumes about your brand – volumes that people notice and share around.
What is a marketing strategy?
Marketing Strategies involve using the 8 Marketing Ps to deliver a result.
- Product
- Price
- Promotion
- Place
- Positioning
- People
- Processes
- Physical Evidence
Each Marketing Strategy also needs to be SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Timely
These Marketing elements provide the framework of an effective marketing strategy that your team can execute on to deliver a result.
What’s an example of a Marketing Strategy?
This is a very condensed, summarised version of how my team approached this:
- SPECIFIC: Become known as “the message marketing agency” in Sydney and Australia.
- MEASURABLE: Tracking via Google Analytics, connecting keywords to active conversions.
- ATTAINABLE: Definitively achievable when new branding and business evolution.
- RELEVANT: Corresponds with business direction and target audience
- TIME: 12 month period
- PRODUCT: Re-evaluate content copywriting services to include more of a Marketing consultant aspect
- PRICE: Adopt a slightly more premium pricing model to reflect rebranded changes.
- PROMOTION: Testimonials, case studies, full content marketing roll-out, digital advertising.
- PLACE: Website, digital space, networking events, social media.
- POSITIONING: Seen as more than copywriters; we’re now Message Marketers.
- PEOPLE: Re-education of team. Re-establishment of the brand.
- PROCESS: All services now include a 4-part Message Marketing approach.
- PHYSICAL EVIDENCE: Website model, supporting collateral and awards.
This was the first building block of our corresponding marketing strategy to fulfil the original business goal. From here, we could put this into practise.
Remember – every business is different and how Marketing responds can vary.
However, you can see from the example the power and influence Marketing can have in taking active steps to change the face and substance of your business.
How to devise a Marketing Strategy?
Here are 10 steps on how to create Marketing Strategies.
(1) Start with your business vision and mission
This is because, if you can’t explain the “why” and “what” behind your business and brand, how can you start putting together the “how”? Without your Vision and Mission, your strategies and Marketing tactics will be sporadic and misguided.
(2) Next, identify your business goals
What do you have to do this year and in the next 5 to 10 years to progress towards delivering on your company’s Vision and Mission?
(3) Think about potential Marketing strategies
If the goal is an increase in revenue, how will Price and Promotion help you fulfil that goal? What can you do with your Product or Positioning to attract more customer dollars?
I always suggest starting this process alone first. See how many Marketing strategies you can come up with yourself. This way, you can remove any collective biases and group-think situations.
(4) Encourage your teams to come up with ideas
Set a deadline for this and tell them you’ll be getting everyone together to share their ideas.
(5) Collaborate and brainstorm
The amazing part about brainstorming as a group and amalgamating all the ideas is that everyone has buy-in and you can work together to take each strategy to the next level as a group. For example, someone suggests a strategy, and the group workshops it to make it even better.
Marketing is all about innovation and out-of-the-box thinking. So, don’t be afraid to do just that!
(6) Write a final list of Marketing strategies
This is an important step as it locks in what you’re all going to be working towards over the next year or few years.
(7) Make them “active”
A suggestion is to list them on a project board that’s highly visible and available for everyone to see. This will provide perspective – you and your team should be able to have an answer to: how is this task aligned with the strategy and aimed towards fulfilling that goal?
You and your team should be able to have an answer to: how is this task aligned with our marketing strategy and aimed towards fulfilling that business goal?
(8) Assign responsibilities
(9) Treat them as “living” strategies
(10) Monitor, control and adapt
Marketing isn’t a precise science and your Marketing Strategies should be reviewed and revisited often to see if they’re still relevant and effective.
How Can Melotti Media Help You?
Perhaps you’re time poor and spread thin, or writing may not be your expertise.
So, let us take care of your message marketing, copywriting and content marketing needs!
For more information or to speak to a quality marketing copywriter to get the results your business deserves, contact me now at chris@melottimedia.com.au.
Our Message Marketing services can sharpen your words into achieve your goals, today.
Christopher Melotti
Melotti Media | Copywriting & Message Marketing Bureau
www.melottimedia.com.au
