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What is a Marketing Strategy?

Marketing strategy is the long-term course of action design to optimize and deliver your brand’s message to various stakeholders resulting in achieving a sustainable competitive advantage.

Does my brand need a Marketing Strategy?

If your brand is going to invest into marketing, you need a strategy. The marketing resources available today are vast, dynamic and ever-changing. The days of simply advertising your products or services to a local crowd via flyers and brochures are quickly disappearing. The Internet allows you to deliver your brand message at an unprecedented speed to a global market. With digital technology, potential customers are receiving your marketing messages instantly on their mobile devices from anywhere in the world. Are you taking advantage of these possibilities and maximizing your efforts? One of the biggest challenges for any marketing strategy is how to best integrate traditional marketing approaches with the fast-moving digital age. Every successful brand has found the way to accomplish this…have you?

Traditional Media

The traditional methods of marketing still exist for a very good reason…they still work. Yet with today’s digital age, it’s important to know where you should be spending your hard earned dollars on marketing. There is no foolproof equation for where your money should be invested or a perfect list of marketing channels you should be using.

Should you print flyers or brochures, and hand them out to everyone walking down the street? Maybe you would rather hire someone to stand on the street corner shaking a sign with your company info on it. These traditional marketing techniques are still being used because they still have success in marketing. Newspaper, magazine, radio and TV advertising are also still major players in the marketing field. Each has benefits and downfalls but carefully calculated investments which integrate into a comprehensive marketing strategy, can ensure that you’re not only achieving effective results but also results that are effective and have positive ROI. Some say that traditional media is a dying medium. It is true that with the emergence of the latest and greatest in digital media and marketing channels, certain types of traditional media are seeing less use. However, when designing your brand’s marketing strategy, ignoring the possible benefits of using traditional media such as print advertising, radio and television could prove detrimental to the success of your brand.

Emerging Media

As emerging media channels (mainly digital) are popping up faster than weeds in your garden, it has become almost impossible to evaluate their potential value when ranking them as a viable and effective marketing investment. The digital age of marketing has very quickly swept traditional media channels aside and taken the place as the way to market your product or service. Social Media & Social Media Optimization (SMO), Digital ROI, analytics, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), behavioral re-targeting, SMS marketing, mobile advertising and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are the top keywords during any brands marketing meetings. Many of these tools offer promises of hard data, in-depth analytical reporting and easily calculated ROI, previously not available with traditional media sources. The unprecedented ability to communicate instantly with an almost infinite number of people via the Internet has opened a virtual Pandora’s box of marketing tools. The capabilities of these new emerging media channels are vast and the latest and greatest trend comes and goes as fast as the tide. The best rules to remember when deciding on your digital marketing strategy are, less-is-more and quality-over-quantity. It’s generally considered better to have two social media profiles, which are well managed with good quality, dynamic and informative content, rather than six poorly managed profiles with dated and incorrect information.

Website

There are many facets to consider when connecting your business with a website. The first and most important questions are. Does your brand need a website? If your brand already has a website, are you maximizing your it’s effectiveness? In the digital age, an online presence is essential. Yet, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a website. Many (mainly small/medium businesses) have been able to manage their online presence with only social media channels. If your brand does have a website, are you selling your products or services online? Is your website mobile friendly, and/or is it using a responsive website design? How about multiple languages? Does your website have an easily navigable user interface? Websites are so much more than just something to put into your budget. While providing information about your product or service, it’s also the digital face of your brand, presented instantaneously to millions of people globally. This technology has allowed many companies to exist purely in a virtual world, void of a traditional storefront.

Is your brand utilizing your website effectively? Each and every business differs with their purpose for a website. Having a solid understanding of your markets, and potential clientele is necessary to ensure you make a proper decision on how you need to utilize your website to maximize your results.

Summary

Each for-profit brand has the same basic goal. Sell their products or services to potential customers at a profit. This, however, doesn’t mean that every brand will, and can, use the same marketing strategy to achieve the intended result. You wouldn’t market a pest control company the same way you would a local café. Your brand needs to evaluate who your potential clients or customers are, then use a range of marketing techniques to ensure your message is being seen by the same people. You also need to be aware of the ever-changing nature of clients and their needs and wants. The same customer, who visits you today, may not be the same customer who visits you next week or next year. Your marketing strategy needs to be fluid, dynamic and ready to adapt to the ever-changing business environment.

• What are the basic steps involved in developing my brand’s marketing strategy?
• How much do I need to budget for marketing?
• Does my company need a website?
• Which Social Media networks are right for my brand?
• Should I use an agency or should I hire someone to manage my marketing?

Want some help answering these questions? Contact Me and let’s talk marketing.