How to create the ultimate marketing strategy

What exactly is a marketing strategy?

To put it simply, it’s a document containing a clear plan of action, with a rationale behind why the choices have been made.

Philip Kotler, my favourite marketing guru, explains that: “A marketing strategy outlines which customers it will serve and how it will create value. It contains the marketing mix, the four Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion which are the tools used to implement the strategy.”

Is it important to write a Marketing Strategy?

You may be asking yourself this question and the answer is YES!

Having a strategy can be really helpful, especially if you have a wider team or outsource part of your business, because it will help them see the bigger picture and understand how their role makes an impact within the business.

You could think of your marketing strategy as a set of instructions for flat-pack furniture; it will explain how you plan to move forward with your business.

Writing your Marketing Strategy:

Now let’s understand the main steps you need to take to format the ultimate marketing strategy!

1. Carry out research to confirm there’s a need

This is the foundation of your marketing strategy.

Here, you will identify whether there is a need for the business you are creating.

Make sure your business idea can be more than just a hobby. While many successful business ideas do originate from hobbies, you need to make sure you actually have a customer who is whiling to pay for your product/service.

In order to find this out, you should conduct both primary and secondary research.

Primary research would include:

• Questions asked directly to your chosen target audience, which could include online surveys or asking people directly.

  One key tip to remember: resist the temptation to ask friends and family - they may either be too enthusiastic about your idea or they’re actually not your target customer.

Secondary research would include:

• Competitor analysis.

Doing this will allow you to make a start in identifying your target audience getting the most from your business services.

2. Confirm what the product/service is going to be

Now you are going to use the feedback from the research collected to progress your idea and hammer down the additional details.

You may need to adapt your idea to fit customers’ needs more precisely.

Write down what the product/service is going to look like:

Is it a product?

• List the number of internal parts, dimensions, and materials. Include details about product packaging - are you going to be sending it by post? Then consider the postal capabilities.

Is it a service?

Here are some questions to consider:

• Where does it take place?

• What does it include/not include?

• How does the customer know when it has ended?

• How is it invoiced?

At this stage, you really want to get as much clarification as possible, as it’ll make the next steps a lot easier!

3. Identify your target market

You may have considered your target audience briefly in step 1, however adapting your idea in step 2 may have changed your target audience.

Hopefully, offering this offers clarity to narrow down who your target audience really is.

At this stage, you will need to create an Avatar, also known as a customer profile.

Here you will figure out everything about your target audience.

If you click the link below it will take you to my Online Resource Hub giving you access to some downloadables:

• 5 reasons why you should narrow down your target audience

• 5 simple steps to reveal your ideal target audience.

For additional business support, be sure to visit Victoria's website and connect with her on Enterprise Nation.