The key to a successful marketing strategy
A marketing strategy is necessary for any company, regardless of turnover and niche. This is the foundation for building a business. Unfortunately, not all entrepreneurs and marketers understand the importance of developing a marketing strategy, that’s why they lose profits, and sometimes the whole business. In this blog, we want to share useful tips that will come in handy on the way to building a marketing strategy.
What is a marketing strategy?
Any company develops a promotion methodology for consistent and understandable business development, trying to find the “key” to the mind of the client. The presence of a marketing strategy and a well-developed movement plan allows you to implement such important objectives:
Identify what customers need;
Identify possible distinguishing features of the product or service;
Develop a position on advertising the brand and its benefits;
Present your business on the market, based on the needs and expectations of the audience;
Turn potential customers into real ones.
Features of defining a marketing strategy.
The marketing strategy should take into account not only the plans and desires of the management, but also the risks, alternate development directions, and the procedure for dealing with crises. It reflects the plans of the company and is the basis for further actions. To make a marketing strategy work, you need to take into account the social status of the potential audience, the values of the company, and the main messages about the brand. Also form a company mission, which must be unique. This will help specialists to constantly keep the goal in sight and not deviate from the intended course of its implementation.
Types of marketing strategies.
The marketing strategy that a company chooses reflects its model of behavior - to consumers, competitors, pricing policy, promotion channels, etc.
Therefore, there are several types of strategies:
Positioning (positioning of the company in the market);
Competitive (model of work with competitors);
People (relationships with consumers, identifying their needs);
Product (development/production of a product, work with an assortment);
Price (pricing policy);
Place (bringing the product to the consumer);
Promotion (choosing channels for advertising and attracting consumers).
Stages of developing a marketing strategy.
The development of any strategy consists of three main stages:
Analysis and plan
Organization of activities
Control
You can use the Deming Cycle, or PDCA (Plan-do-control-action). This is a cyclic model of management and decision-making: after the end of the last stage, they move on to the first - and so on in a circle.
Let's take a closer look at the development steps.
Plan (plan)
At this stage:
Analyze the market, competitors, product, and target audience;
Set goals and objectives of the company;
Plan actions for each direction (production/purchase of goods, assortment, sales channels, pricing policy, finance, etc.).
SWOT analysis is used as a strategic analysis tool. With this analysis, you will identify the strengths and weaknesses of the business, the threats and obstacles, and the company's opportunities.
Factors of the external and internal environment are divided into four categories:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
The next step is to build and calculate the SWOT matrix. Ideally, it is compiled based on analytics data over the past few years. By analyzing the initial situation, you understand where to go next, and prescribe an action plan.
Do (organization of activities)
You move from plan to action. For example, you are developing a product or expanding the range as part of a product strategy; working with sales channels, launching loyalty programs as part of a promotion strategy, etc.
Check (control)
The control stage helps to determine whether you have chosen the right business strategies, and how effective the work tools are. You can look at the indicators and check whether the profit has increased, which goals have been achieved and which ones have not.
Act (changes and new planning)
At this stage you:
Conduct a marketing audit;
Evaluate the activity;
Identify problems;
Make changes.
The marketer gives recommendations for correcting the shortcomings and again proceeds to plan. This is how the cycle of work on the marketing strategy of the company is formed.
The final word
Marketing strategy is an important part of brand promotion. It requires the selection of an audience, its analysis, and the creation of unique content. A marketing strategy can exist online and offline, and should also communicate the merits of all the company's products and services. To achieve the maximum effect, it is necessary to involve specialists - they will be able not only to monitor the work of the team but also to make important additions to the process. Only then marketing activities will bring a result that is useful for the brand.
Written By Diana Kultishova
Sources:
https://healthcaresuccess.com/blog/medical-advertising-agency/the-7-ps-of-marketing.html