How to Create a Marketing Strategy in 7 Easy Steps

How do you create a marketing strategy?

It’s a great question to ask. Research indicates that businesses that think strategically in their marketing see better results. Most brands know they need to evaluate their marketing more strategically.

However, creating a marketing strategy is more complicated than planning your next campaign. Knowing you want to get in better shape is good, but until you take steps to get in shape, all that knowledge is theoretical.

Never fear! The marketing experts from JSL Marketing & Web Design are here to walk you through how marketing strategy development should go and common pitfalls to be aware of.

Read on to Learn More About Marketing Strategies! 

Marketing Strategy Dos & Don’ts

Before we run through the process of creating a marketing strategy, let’s start with some ground rules to help guide you through the process.

Do….

 

• Consult With Multiple Members From Diverse Teams

• Take Time to Plan

• Have Fun

• Use Verified Data to Guide Your Strategy

 

Don’t…

 

• Feel Like Every Idea Needs to Be Perfect

• Only Consider What Has Been Done in the Past

• Create a Strategy Without Input From Other Teams

• Plan Tactics Like SEO or PPC Before You Have a Strategic Goal

 

How to Create a Marketing Strategy

Now that you have a framework to keep in your back pocket let’s discuss the actual process of creating a marketing strategy!

Look at Your Goals

The world’s best marketing strategy can fail if it doesn’t align with your goals. You must align your marketing strategy with existing business goals for the best results.

Most businesses immediately assume that improvements in revenue are always their topline goals, but that’s not always the case. There’s nothing wrong with focusing on increasing revenue by X percentage, but we caution against automatically assuming that should be your overarching goal.

Sometimes, businesses need to increase the average contract size of their core 50 customers. Sometimes increasing the average order size is a better business goal. Be sure that you know what your business’s goals are, whether it’s an increased number of leads, decreasing churn rate, or getting to the top of Google.

Without this info, your marketing strategy is destined to achieve lackluster results. 

Research Your Customers

Knowing your customers is the next step in developing a marketing strategy. Focus on understanding their firmographic info.  How many employees do they employ? What industries do they operate in? From there, analyze their pain points. Why do they frequent your business? What problem does your brand solve for them? What are their goals?

It can be helpful to consider this in terms of current and prospective customers. The makeup and goals of your current customer base might differ from your potential customers, which might necessitate different marketing for each customer base. If you have the time, defining multiple subsets of customers could be worthwhile!

Know Your Competitors

Your competitors are the next stop on this journey, so evaluating them makes sense. Your competitors are operating in the same space as you, marketing to the same customers, and will often have similar brand messages, so the more you know about them, the better.

However, knowing the differences between each competitor is an integral part of developing a marketing strategy. Understanding what value propositions, core competencies, and product offerings your competitors offer help you align your business accordingly. Maybe one competitor is the dominant player in your local industry, but their customer service is lacking due to the sheer volume of clients. Maybe another has a great product but positions itself as a high-end solution.

Knowing this, you might decide that your brand should position itself as a white-glove, cost-effective solution, contrasted against the less-personalized Competitor 1 and the more expensive Competitor 2. This differentiation will help you stand out from the competitors and educate potential customers on what you offer: good customer service at a reasonable price. Ideally, customers who want a higher-end solution will go with Competitor 2, and customers who don’t mind less-personalized customer service will go with Competitor 1.

Plan Objectives to Get There

You now have a solid goal and knowledge about your base and competitor, but you still need to get a plan.

You have an overarching goal in mind, and it’s time to plan the steps to get you to your end goal. It’s worth mentioning that this stage probably will see the most variation. A large business’s objectives to increase lead quality necessitate different actions than a small business looking to decrease churn. We can’t give you specifics since it will depend, but we encourage you to think through the following.

 

• What tactics should I use?

• Which teams are responsible for this?

• Are there internal milestones to pass before another stage can begin? How about external milestones?

• Are there seasonality trends to plan around? 

 

Set a Timeline

Your marketing strategy must be timebound. Determine when this strategy will be evaluated and then set your timeline. Every team should know when their objectives are due. Usually, we recommend that you set aside six weeks at least to focus on any campaign. (Usually, a full 3-month quarter is better.)

Launch

It’s time to go live! Now that all the planning is done, it’s time to put rubber on the road. In this step, the content is written, the social media posts are scheduled, and the SEO work is completed. It’s important to note that this marketing work will not produce an immediate result. Moving a client through the marketing funnel takes time, from awareness to consideration to purchase. That’s why it’s so important to set aside time in the future to …

Evaluate

A marketing strategy isn’t done when it launches. Every marketing strategy needs to be evaluated against its benchmark to ensure that it is meeting its goals. Set aside time to return to your marketing strategy and look at results. Maybe everything is working great; maybe you need to make some tweaks. Regardless, be sure that you are constantly double-checking and reevaluating your strategy’s results.

It’s alright to need to adjust. Market conditions are always dynamic; you must evaluate if changes are necessary. 

Plan Your Next Marketing Strategy with JSL

Interested in planning a marketing strategy? Call JSL Marketing & Web Design today! We’re an award-winning, Dallas-based, full-service marketing agency, and we’d love to help you with your strategic needs.

We always custom-tailor our marketing strategies to every client’s unique needs, so rest assured that every element of your marketing strategy will be designed to fit your business! We might recommend the following, depending on what we uncover in our conversations and audits.

 

• Email Marketing

• SEO

• Web Design

• Videography

• Social Media

• Content Marketing

• Brand Collateral

• Logo Design

• & More

 

Call JSL Marketing & Web Design today to plan your next marketing strategy!