Each new year brings new and innovative demands to any marketing strategy. Nowadays, digital marketing is where it’s at. It is important that your marketing strategy keep up with today’s technological advancements. However, some of the tried and true staples of a marketing strategy still hold clout. For example, marketing plans should still answer the same questions: who your company is, what your company sells, who your customers are, and how you intend to promote or market what you sell to your customers without deviating from who you are as a company.
Marketing Situation Analysis
By the time you get to developing your marketing plan, your company should already have conducted a situation analysis. The situation analysis phase includes research and analysis of:
- Target Markets – Knowing the demographics of which customers would be most likely to purchase your product is essential to a solid business and marketing strategy.
- Competitors – Identifying key competitors in the industry is essential to creating a well-rounded marketing strategy.
- Business Challenges – Every company has challenges that can pose issues in product launch and marketing efforts. Identifying potential challenges opens avenues to prevent issues with execution.
- Differentiators – Determining what sets your company apart from your competitors can help your marketing efforts and product position.
The 4 P’s
If you haven’t heard of the 4 P’s, we’re surprised. When it comes to developing a marketing plan, it is often easiest to start with the 4 P’s:
- Product – the goods or services sold by a company
- Price – how much your goods or services cost and any pricing strategies in place
- Place – business location and/or where your goods or services will be sold
- Promotion – any and all marketing channels to be used to market goods or services
Target Markets
Your situation analysis should provide an outline of your target markets. Your marketing plan should explore current and potential target markets. Within your target markets, your marketing plan should then dive deeper and create market segments which identify the type of consumers most likely to purchase your product.
When researching your target markets, it is helpful to create buyer personas for each group of consumers. A buyer persona is a personification of your ideal consumer. Creating individual personas provides opportunities to analyze demographics, behaviors, pain points, and goals.
The Follow Through
The final piece of any marketing plan lays out the marketing channels to be implemented in order to reach your goals. The channels can include:
- Advertising
- Grass Roots Efforts
- Trade Shows
- Social Media
- Content Creation
- Website Optimization
In Marketing Strategy: Integrating Inbound, Experiential, & Outbound, we explain how to implement an integrated marketing strategy. By integrating Inbound Marketing, Experiential Marketing, and Outbound Marketing strategies, it becomes easier to track ROI, increase your consumer base, and bring more revenue to your bottom line.
Exposyour can help your company develop a marketing strategy that sells. Contact us at http://www.exposyour.com/contact-us/.
