What is a Marketing Strategy?
A marketing strategy is a plan of action that is developed to convert the target market into customers for the product or service that a business sells. In simple words, a marketing strategy is supposed to promote and sell its product offering. It is supposed to contain the company’s key marketing messages including vision and mission statement, value proposition, and data about the target market et cetera.
For these reasons, the marketing strategy is devised before the business is started so that you ascertain the market dynamics, know your competitors after having done the competitive analysis, and knowing your potential customers. This is called positioning your business.
Often times, people confuse the marketing strategy with marketing plans because these are merged together into one document, however, they are indeed interlinked. The former in a nutshell covers the overall scenario of what the business offers. Such a strategy also help shape the corporate value statements and other strategy documents.
Steps of developing a Marketing Strategy
Below are a few simple steps of developing a marketing strategy that will help you define your business goals and build a strong reputation for your products:
- Describe your business’s unique selling proposition which translates into highlighting the unique attribute that no other business possesses, it is what sets your product apart from competitors and helps maintain a competitive edge.
- Define your target market and get to know their needs and wants and segment the market accordingly, most importantly, know the life roles of people you are targeting for selling your products.
- Highlight the benefits that your product will offer and transform your target audience into customers and later on even repeat customers.
- Describe how you will position your product or service.
- Define your marketing methods of reaching out to your target market, be that direct marketing, social media promotion/digital marketing, or public relations. For instance, if your target market comprises of the millennials then the best way to approach them is through digital marketing mediums.
