Building an Actionable Marketing Strategy
I used to hear it a lot in my corporate marketing days.
"Marketing is just a drag on the bottom line."
I don't hear it as much anymore. Because I’ve proven to large companies, small businesses, non-profits and solo-entrepreneurs that . . .
Marketing, done right, works.
But I still do hear from business owners that they are not sure their marketing is doing enough or if they are using the right tactics.
My first question is always, "What's your marketing strategy?"
Crickets. Blank stares.
A successful marketing plan starts with a great strategy. Most companies are doing what they think they should be doing: a website, emails, social media posts, sometimes a blog post, maybe a little PPC. All great tactics, but the "tactic of the month" becomes a drag on both the budget and the bottom line without a strategy in place.
A marketing strategy will help take your business to the next level. You can employ many tactics to achieve this goal; however, having an overarching marketing strategy separates successful companies from those that aren't.
Strategy is the foundation of your business. If you don't have a well-thought-out and executed plan, how will you know where to concentrate your efforts? You can't possibly be good at everything, so it's critical that you have a plan and someone to work the plan.
What is a marketing strategy?
In its simplest form, a marketing strategy includes what you want to communicate, how to share it, and to whom– with the end goal of moving someone with a need to buy your product or service.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. Are you trying to sell to anyone and everyone?
2. Are you struggling to stand out from your competition?
3. Are you unsure of what tactics even make sense for you right now?
A good way to think about marketing strategy is as a blueprint. Your business has a goal in mind - let's say adding 100 new customers over the next six months, and your marketing strategy will be the guide that outlines how you'll get there. You might use different marketing channels to get there, but you need a strategy first. Put another way, marketing without a strategy is like putting the window openings in the house without instructions on where they should go.
The difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan
Marketing strategies and plans are often used interchangeably, but they're not the same thing. A marketing strategy is a high-level framework that outlines how you'll achieve your business goals through various tactics. In contrast, a marketing plan will detail those tactics and budget allocations.
Eight Steps To Defining an Actionable Marketing Strategy
1. Take stock of your current marketing activities. Assess your online presence
I suggest starting with your online presence, as the most common first step in a buyer's journey is the online search. Your businesses’ digital presence either improves – or sinks - your search rankings. Does your website include your core message at the top? For which keywords is your website ranking? Are you using the most cost-effective keywords for your industry? How does your social media presence compare and are they giving you the most engagement? What are others saying about you online?
2. Competitor Review
Take some time to review your top 3-5 competitors. What is their message? How are customers finding them? Do they have a website? What is their social media presence? What keywords are they ranking for? How could you improve your service offering based on what your competitors are doing?
3. Define your most profitable customer
Talk to your accountant and review the data on your current customers. Pull a list of customers giving you the top 20% of your sales. But don't stop there. Chat with your customer service rep and use data to understand what customers seem to have the most issues with your product or service or who uses a lot of customer service time. Then chat with your sales team to find out which customers consistently refer others to your product or service. Customers who purchase from you, who require little hand-holding, and who provide good referrals define your ideal customer. Next, survey 5 to 10 of them to find out how they found you, why they do business with you, what you could do to serve them better. Now, use this information to create your ideal buyer persona (and your core message below) and focus on finding more of them.
4. Develop a core message that focuses on solving a problem.
Surprise! What you do is not about you. It's all about your customer. Your brand message, your story, is first and foremost letting your customer know that you understand their problem and you are the best one to fix it. Surveying your top customers can help direct your core message. The reputation review conducted during the Online Presence Audit is also helpful in developing your unique core message. That message needs to be consistent across every marketing tactic.
5. Understand your ideal customer's journey to you
How did your most profitable customer find you? Was it through an online search, your website, an email offer? How are you reaching them through every stage of the buyer's journey - - something my consultant network likes to describe as getting the customer to know, like, trust and buy from you, then buy again and refer you. Are you communicating with them at every one of these stages?
6. Use content as the voice of strategy
Content creation is the hardest job a marketer has to do, but when you plan your content with your hourglass in mind, it’s the highest payoff work you can do. Content has grown beyond just being a tactic—it touches all aspects of your marketing and your business. It powers the entire customer journey. Your audience expects to be able to find information about any product, service, or challenge they face simply by doing a Google search. And if you aren’t showing up, you won’t be found. There’s a pretty good chance they won’t move forward with you because you lack credibility in their eyes. People go with solutions they feel they can trust. You must use content as your voice of strategy, and the best way to do this is to produce content that focuses on education and building trust at every stage of the customer journey.
7. Develop a list of quarterly priorities and live by the calendar
Marketing needs to be viewed as a habit that’s ingrained in your daily routine. Planning for what needs to be done and when—is how you can stay focused on the activities that will give you the highest ROI. Start by creating a list of the highest impact items you need to fix or implement for each quarter. Then, live by the calendar. If you don’t schedule it, odds are it won’t happen. We build monthly themes in all of our marketing calendars around the foundational marketing projects, breaking them up, and spreading them out over the course of the year. If you commit to an annual calendar, you’re more likely to follow it on a consistent basis.
8. Measure What Matters
There are so many things you can measure: sales metrics, social metrics, content metrics, conversion metrics, growth metrics, the list goes on. And one of the hardest things is determining what you should be measuring. But you can’t measure what’s easy—you have to measure what matters. You can start by doing these 4 things:
1. Create metrics that serve your priority objectives—whether it’s your goal to increase customers by X or grow your audience by X, you need to define what metrics make sense for the goals that you’ve set.
2. Establish target goals for each objective—figure out how you’re going to gather the data you need to gauge whether or not you are on the right track.
3. Select the tools you’ll use to track your progress—dashboards are an everyday reality for marketers. As a business owner, you need to be able to see what’s happening day to day.
4. Use your results to make improvements—when you’re measuring the right things, you’ll start to see trends, why something happened, and what you might be able to do to make improvements.
Running your business without a fully fleshed out marketing strategy is like driving without a map. Maybe you make it to your destination, but you might find yourself taking quite a few detours along the way. You can save yourself a lot of trial and error by developing and implementing a marketing strategy and action plan.
Kris Winter is a marketing strategist and speaker translating complex marketing concepts into actionable takeaways for all audiences. Her passion is helping small businesses chart a clear communication path to their most profitable customers. Kris managed corporate marketing departments for 10 years before running her full-service marketing agency for 17 years. She is now leading marketing strategy for a financial institution and speaks nationally on marketing and small business development.
Contact Kris at kristine@kristinewinter.com