Building Strategies for Marketing That Works
Marketing is the planning and action of activities that include promotion and resulting in the selling of products or services.
Marketing includes elements of:
- Public relations
- Advertising and market research
- Understanding your competition for strategic positioning in the chosen market segment
- Social and digital engagements
- Content creation
- Marketing messages
What is the difference between branding and marketing?
| Branding is the Business | Marketing is the Customer |
|
Brand is the Why |
Marketing is the How |
| Branding is Long Term | Marketing is Short Term |
| Branding is the Big Picture | Marketing is Focused on Campaigns and Promotions |
| Branding is Stragegic | Marketing is Tactical |
| Branding begins inside your Company | Marketing begins with your Consumer |
| What problem does your Business solve? | How can we tell our Customers how we can solve their problems? |
Your marketing strategy is the road map you will use on a day-to-day basis to let potential customer know that your business exists. Marketing messages should be clear to your customers and highlight the problem that you solve for them. Marketing efforts are normally campaign driven and should take your potential customers on a journey with your business.
The first step to creating your marketing plan is getting clear on what your business and marketing objectives are. Once you have defined what you want to achieve its much easier to put a plan in place to achieve those goals and objectives.
Before you can start to market effectively you need to understand who you are selling too. Who is your ideal customer? Where are you likely to find them? What platform would you use to let them know your business exists? Understanding your customers perceived needs and wants will help you not to waste marketing spend and make sure that you make more sales.
Once you know who you want to sell too it’s a good idea to do a competitor analysis. Who offers the same services as you? What are your differences and similarities? I would compare 5 local and 5 international companies. This allows you to have full oversight of what you are not doing and how you can position yourself more effectively in the marketplace. When know what our competitors are doing and not doing it’s much easier to create a USP (Unique selling point) for your customer base.
Once you know who your competitors are you will be able to work out what your USP (Unique Selling point) is. What makes your business better than the rest? Cheap pricing is not a USP. What is the secret sauce to make your competitors customers come to you?
Once you know who you are selling too chose the social and traditional platforms you will use and then plan your media in advance. Create a monthly content calendar and schedule your marketing material for success.
To assist you in creating a marketing plan that works I have created this step-by-step workbook to help you to create your marketing plan.
Download our Marketing Strategy Template below.
