Is a Marketing Strategy missing from your business?

Incredibly 74% of SME business owners don't have any sort of dedicated written or documented marketing strategy or plan.

In our experience too many businesses approach marketing in a haphazard fashion, rather than in a structured and rational way. They tend to undertake tactics ‘on the fly’ without stopping to think about whether they make sense - and often without the tracking and analysis needed to measure their performance.

Many businesses, even when they have a marketing department, remain very tactically focused implementing a marketing mix that is based on past experience, or the latest fads. They often fail to see why creating a marketing strategy is key to ensuring your marketing activity delivers real and substantive value.

So what does a Marketing Strategy consist of?

Marketing strategy is the critical element of the marketing planning process. Very simply a good marketing strategy provides your business with a framework for your marketing activity. It provides a ‘road map’ to ensure your marketing is continually optimised and drives better results.

A properly researched and crafted strategy built on key insights and real data makes the implementation of different marketing initiatives straight-forward and your marketing spend justifiable.

Importantly, an effective marketing strategy is realistic, is easy to understand and can be practically implemented. It’s not something that changes each and every year - you review it regularly but it only changes when something significant influences the marketplace or your business goals change.

Every productive Marketing Strategy:

• Sets the marketing objectives/goals
• Defines issues and barriers to success
• Details the markets and audiences to be targeted
• Gleans insights from any available market intelligence
• Ascertains the potential size of the market(s)
• Defines competitor landscape and builds audience profiles
• Reassesses client perceptions through audits
• Outlines the approach needed to engage each audience
• Details the positioning and stance needed for the brand
• Outlines probable tactics to be employed

Your Marketing Strategy provides the focus and big ideas needed to get prospects and customers to engage with your business, the tools needed to get them to really consider your products or services, and then supports your sales team with the right content to convert prospects into customers.

Importantly it provides the ongoing communication structure to nurture them, turning them from a one-off client into a happy customer that will purchase from you regularly and happily recommend your services.

With strategic marketing you are investing in customers not sales. Sales, profit and growth are the outcome of winning and nurturing customers.

MC+Co is an integrated marketing agency that delivers marketing strategy and planning for business of all sizes across Essex, London, Kent and the South East. If you would like to talk to us about developing a marketing strategy for your business please call +44 (0) 1277 366898.