Marketing strategy
development
Let’s face it, you can’t just buy all available advertising and hope that in a year everyone will become your customer. At best, you’ll end up with huge marketing expenses and widespread annoyance caused by omnipresent ads.
To sell a lot and effectively, you need to know to whom, when, and what to offer. These are exactly the tasks that a marketing strategy should solve. A day of planning is always more valuable than a month of chaotic work.
Sales start with market analysis. Are there even any funds available for the product you want to sell?
First of all, you need to assess the overall market capacity. In other words, you need to understand how many people and how much money they are willing to spend on your product or service. And, of course, how many competitors are vying for the same money. If there are no competitors in your market, it means you’ve either come up with a brilliant idea or a completely unviable one.
After we’ve assessed the size of the “pie” and the “slice” we want to take, we can move on to competitor analysis. It’s important to understand their market position and why they hold it, as well as to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their product. A Chinese proverb perfectly captures this principle: “Look at your competitor and figure out how to do the same, but cheaper or better at the same price.”
Competitor analysis also provides complete information about the effectiveness of marketing channels in this market. Competitors have been refining their marketing strategies for years, keeping what works and abandoning what doesn’t. You can use this information and publicly available data to build your own marketing strategy. There’s no point in repeating someone else’s mistakes.
Target audience, market positioning, and promotion channels
After analyzing the market and competitors, we can move on to the target audience and market positioning. There are several important questions we need to answer:
“Who are we selling to,” “What are we selling,” “What problem does the product solve for the customer,” and “Why will the customer choose our product instead of going to a competitor.” The first question identifies your target audience, while the other three define your market positioning.
Moreover, the answers to these questions will determine which marketing channels to use, where to find the target audience, what content to create, and what message to convey. All of this will build the right perception of the product among potential customers and, most importantly, clarify which current problems of the consumer will be solved.
Lead handling and customer base expansion strategy
We already know who our audience is, and how and through which channels to reach them. But here comes the most interesting part: selling to and retaining the customer. That’s why it’s important to consider the following in your marketing strategy:
How the sale will actually take place. It should be made as comfortable as possible.
What to do after the sale: how to turn a customer into a repeat client and increase their loyalty
How to track sales statistics, customer satisfaction, and other important data for decision-making
Which mechanisms to use for the subsequent analysis and improvement of a marketing strategy
Developing a marketing strategy is not a one-time action. It’s a continuous process of improvement and searching for the optimal approach. That’s why working on a marketing strategy consists of six stages (the last one has no time limits or predefined outcomes).
Goal setting
Until you clearly define what you want to achieve, you won’t achieve it.
Market analysis
We gather all available information about the market landscape.
Target audience analysis
The more information gathered at this stage, the more effective the campaign will be.
Marketing strategy development and launch
At this stage, you need to develop hypotheses and marketing concepts based on previous analyses.
Testing and analysis
It is important to set up a system of metrics that will indicate the achievement of the goals from the first step.
Marketing strategy optimization
Strengthen the strong and eliminate the weak (or improve it if it makes sense).
Project promotion with and without a marketing strategy: a clear comparison
- Campaign launch timelines and costs;
- Required budget;
- Effectiveness;
|
Comparison criterion
|
1
Quick launch + - |
| Budget needed for research and strategy development + | |
| With Strategy, Without Strateg | |
| Large budget needed for experiments and testing + | |
| Efficient budget allocation + | |
| High effectiveness from day one + | |
| Relevant statistics and analytics + | |
| Possibility for refinement and optimization + |
Here the choice is quite simple. Either you develop several hypotheses and start testing them immediately at your own expense, or you first plan a promotion strategy and launch with more efficient use of your advertising budget.
But it’s important to remember two points. First, without detailed analysis, you might never identify the marketing channel that works best for you. Second, advertising without proper positioning can actually do more harm than good.
Why you shouldn’t skimp on a marketing strategy
Marketing is generally one of the biggest expenses in a business. It’s doubly frustrating when large marketing budgets are spent on ineffective sales channels. As the saying goes, there’s nothing worse than persistently and professionally doing useless things.
Only a thoroughly thought-out marketing strategy can reduce advertising expenses. Surely, it’s better to focus on a few marketing hypotheses with a high chance of success than to buy all available advertising in the hope that it might interest someone.
Marketing requires spending throughout the life of a business, and even if a pre-developed strategy makes your advertising just 1% more effective, over time it will pay off many times over. In reality, however, the difference in effectiveness is much greater.
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