Skip to main content

A Beginner's Guide To Marketing Strategy

Marketing StrategyWhatever your business - whether you’ve invented the latest must-have technology or you’re providing a service to a niche market, a clear marketing strategy is essential to your success. However ground-breaking your business is, if you’re not sure which direction you want to take, you could find yourself going nowhere.

Let’s look at the vital elements that businesses of any size should include in their strategic marketing plan.

Create A Mission Statement

The mission statement summarises the goals and values of an organisation and answers the question “what business are we in?” It reflects the core purpose of the business and helps staff focus on company strategy in order to attain the business’s goals.

The following example from internet retailer Amazon has evolved over the years to reflect their expanding customer base, and increased business offerings; however, customer focus remains at the core of their strategy.
“We seek to be Earth’s most customer-centric company for four primary customer sets: consumers, sellers, enterprises and content creators”.
Define Your Target Market

Knowing your target audience, and how to appeal to it, is crucial to success. Once you’ve identified your ideal customer, evaluate the demographics of that customer base so that you can identify how best to attract business. After all, if your target market consists of home-owners and professionals, there’s no point marketing your business to students.

Know Your Competition

By analysing your competitors, you identify their strengths, weaknesses and market share. Keeping an eye on the competition will allow you to respond to any threats to your business, and also to focus on the factors that set you apart. So, if your company offers something unique, make sure it’s included in your marketing strategy.

Price

There are many different models for price setting; which one you choose may depend on your overall marketing strategy. For example, technology manufacturers often adopt a skimming pricing strategy when launching new products. This means selling products at a high price in order to recoup investment costs. The strategy often appeals to “early adopters” who are less price sensitive than other consumers. Once investment costs are recouped, other pricing strategies can be adopted in order to increase market share.

Cost-based pricing provides a useful indicator of the minimum price required to make a profit, although it doesn’t account for customer demand. Despite this, calculating the full costs can establish a break-even point at different price levels. This can be useful when considering which pricing model to adopt; if you can’t cover your costs, it may be time to rethink your strategy.

Promotional And PR Activity

A good public relations strategy can not only generate publicity for your business, but also meet the needs of your stakeholders. Good PR can enhance a company’s reputation, attract employees and foster favourable customer relations.

A well placed media story about your product or organisation can gain you valuable free publicity, and help reduce advertising costs. And while the internet has opened up the channels of communication, keep an eye on the publicity generated via social media; one rogue tweet could spell PR disaster!

Do you have any tips for creating an effective marketing strategy? Leave your comments below.


Popular posts from this blog

A Super Funny Joke - The Boy And The Priest

A housewife takes a lover during the day, while her husband is at work. Unknown to her, her 9 year old son was hiding in the closet. Her husband came home unexpectedly, so she hid her lover in the closet. The boy now has company. Boy: Dark in here.. Man: Yes it is. Boy: I have a baseball. Man: That’s nice. Boy: Want to buy it? Man: No, thanks. Boy: My dad’s outside. Man: OK, how much? Boy: $250. In the next few weeks, it happens again that the boy and the mom’s lover are in the closet together. Boy: Dark in here. Man: Yes, it is. Boy: I have a baseball glove. Man: How much? Boy: $750. Man: Fine. A few days later, the father says to the boy, “Grab your glove. Let’s go outside and toss the baseball.” The boy say's, “I can’t. I sold them.” The father asks, “How much did you sell them for?” The son says, “$1,000.” The father says, “That’s terrible to overcharge your friends like that, that is way more than those two things cost. I’m going to

Locked Keys - Blonde Joke

A blonde walks into a gas station and says to the manager, "I have locked my keys in my car. Do you have a coat hanger or something I can stick through the window to unlock the door?" The manager gives the blonde a bent coat hanger. A few minutes later, he goes out to check on her. As her approaches the blonde working the hanger in the window, he notices another blonde inside the car, shouting "No, no! A little to the left."

Bon Appetit - Funny Joke

Santa was spending some of his hard-earned cash on a luxury cruise and was given a table with a Frenchman. At their first meal together, the Frenchman said, "Bon appetit!" "Santa Ji," said Santa. Before the next meal commenced the performance was repeated. "Bon appetit," said the Frenchman. "Santa Ji," replied Santa. After this continued for three days, Santa got fed up, and told a fellow traveller about it. "He tells me his name is Bon Appetit and I tell him my name is Santa, and then at the next meal, we start all over again." The fellow traveller laughed and explained to Santa that the Frenchman was not introducing himself and that 'Bon appetit' meant "Good appetite", or "I hope that you enjoy your meal!" Santa breathed a sigh of relief on receiving this information. Next morning, at breakfast, Santa greeted the Frenchman with a, "Bon appetite." The Frenchman nodded politely and said, "Sant