Marketing strategy is a broad area of study that encompasses the entire marketing process. This article provides a definition and types of marketing strategies.
What Is Marketing Strategy?
A marketing strategy refers to the overall game plan of a business to reach potential consumers and convert them into customers for their products or services. It includes a company value proposition, key brand messages, demographic data on target customers, and other high-level elements.
In simple terms, business marketing strategies are a tool marketers use to articulate their campaigns and marketing models. It's how to get customers interested in your products and services.
Four steps are required to create an effective marketing strategy:
- Recognize who buys your products or services (who are your customers?).
- Learn how to persuade these people to buy or continue to buy your products or services.
- Understand who your competitors are and what they are doing to achieve the same goals
- Learn how to measure the success of your campaigns and marketing efforts.
Types of Marketing Strategies
There are many different types of marketing strategies that you can use depending on the needs of your business. Although we won't cover all types of marketing strategies today, here are some of the most important ones you'll likely come across:
1. Social media is a huge part of any business's marketing plan because it's a compelling way to drive traffic, build brand awareness, and leverage social selling discovery that takes over internet marketing.
According to recent data, about 54% of social media users use social platforms to search for brands and products, and 89% of consumers who follow a particular brand will buy from that brand.
With these numbers, you will be missing out on untold rewards if you are not using an effective social media marketing strategy.
2. Email: Anyone who's ever been told "email is dead" is completely wrong. Getting emails from your customers and browsers should be an essential part of your marketing strategy and an excellent way to continue the conversation with people who have expressed an interest in your brand.
There are plenty of email marketing tools available to help you in this area. However, you still need an effective marketing email strategy to produce consistent and compelling emails that convert readers into buyers.
3. Internal: It is all about attracting customers and increasing traffic to your website or products. Rather than using “disruptive” marketing techniques (such as TV advertising), inbound marketing is about generating leads using people who have demonstrated an interest in your products, services, or brand as a whole.
Email marketing is one type of inbound marketing strategy. If someone subscribes to your mailing list, they are probably at least somewhat interested in what you have to say. This enables you to take a softer approach to the market, as these potential customers are more likely to actually become sales.
Another inbound strategy could be blog posts. People will only see blog posts related to their search terms and interests, which means they have expressed a need that is at least somewhat related to what you're selling.
4. Content: this will likely overlap with an inbound strategy, but it's more specific. With content marketing strategies, you focus on creating content that attracts people and builds interest.
This will likely cover blog posts and white papers and can interfere with social media marketing. Effectively, any part of your marketing campaign that requires content requires an effective content marketing strategy.
5. Editing: An editorial approach is a particularly vital marketing strategy for advertising companies as it highlights the content formats, workflows, and channels you will use to achieve your marketing goals.
It's similar to the marketing strategies you'd expect to see in a news or media organization, and it can be critical for brand publishers or advertisers to focus their marketing efforts and ideas.
6. Marketing Communications Strategy: Your marketing communications strategy should primarily focus on your brand's message and value proposition. It all comes down to how you say what you want to say.
- Is your tone of voice, for example, serious or humorous?
- Are you marketing yourself as an expert in your field?
- What is the message you want to convey?
7. Digital: Digital marketing probably doesn't need much introduction... This strategy will include all your online marketing, SEO, lead generation in social media, performance marketing, and more...Effectively if online It should be covered by your digital market strategy.
8. Internal: Although inbound marketing will be less important to small and medium businesses, it can be a vital part of the marketing efforts of large companies. An internal email informing employees that they are eligible to become contributors or asking existing contributors to support a new initiative is an example of internal marketing strategy.
Internal marketing can also cover more normal issues, such as keeping employees informed of any changes to the company, brand, or internal procedures.
9. Public Relations Strategy: If you've been in business, you'll likely know how complicated PR strategies can be. Getting PR right not only ensures that you keep your customers happy, but it is also essential to protect your brand image in the eyes of stakeholders, the media, and even government bodies or other influential institutions.
Any large company should have a dedicated PR team responsible for the public image of the brand. In addition to its protection, good public relations can also provide invaluable word of mouth.
10. SEO Strategy: SEO should form a part of all different marketing strategies. However, you may find it helpful to have some of your marketing efforts explicitly dedicated to SEO, as this is likely to be your primary source of lead generation.
Search engine optimization is the art of using keywords and phrases to boost your visibility when users search for relevant terms on the Internet. Proper SEO is arguably the best way to drive traffic to your website and you should be at the forefront of your interests in all your digital marketing and content marketing strategies.
Of course, SEO goes beyond just keyword optimization and takes into account a plethora of other aspects to help you rise in search engine results pages (SERPs). Therefore, it is a good idea to have at least one member of your marketing team dedicated to the latest SEO trends so that you can rank first on Google.
Key elements of a successful marketing strategy
There are many elements to consider when developing your marketing strategy.
1. Fragmentation: your current and potential customers are divided into specific groups or segments characterized by their needs. Identifying these groups and their needs through market research and market reports, and then meeting those needs more successfully than your competitors, should be an essential component of your marketing strategy.
2. Targeting and Positioning: you should try to sell to the most profitable market segments for your company. It is critical that your product offering meets the needs of your targeted market. Watch to target the most profitable customers and define your target market.
You must create a marketing strategy that makes the most of your strengths and matches them with the needs of the customers you want to target. For example, if a certain group of customers is looking for quality first and foremost, then any marketing activity targeting them should draw attention to the high quality of your products or services.
3. Promotional Tactics: once you have created your marketing strategy, you must then define the marketing activity or activities that will ensure that your target market knows the products or services you offer, and why you meet their needs.
There are many ways to achieve this – such as different forms of advertising, exhibitions, PR, digital marketing, and an effective Point of Sale strategy. Try to limit your activities to those methods that you think will work best for your target market, to avoid distributing your budget too thinly.
4. Monitoring and Evaluation: it is the effectiveness of your strategy and it is an essential, but often overlooked element. This control not only helps you see how your strategy is performing in practice, but it can also help inform your future marketing strategy.
A simple approach is to ask each new client how they heard about your business. A deeper analysis can come from surveys, focus groups, and an examination of online customer behaviour.
5. Marketing Plan: once you have decided on your marketing strategy, create a marketing plan that outlines how you intend to implement that strategy and evaluate its success. The plan should be constantly reviewed and, if necessary, updated so that you can respond quickly to changes in customer needs and situations in your industry and in the broader economic climate.
You should also read about the key elements of a successful marketing strategy
How do you implement a marketing strategy?
When it comes to implementing a marketing strategy, there are a few things to keep in mind. First and foremost, it’s important to define your goals and objectives. Once you know what you’re looking to achieve, you can begin to develop specific marketing plans and tactics to achieve those objectives.
Another key aspect of any successful marketing campaign is effective communication. You need to make sure that your target audience knows about your products and services, and that they understand how to access and use them. In addition, you need to track and analyze your marketing efforts to determine what’s working and what needs improvement.
Finally, it’s important to be consistent and persistent with your marketing efforts. If you put in the hard work and stay the course, you’ll eventually see your campaign bear fruit