What's the Value in Marketing Strategy?
If you're running a small business, your time is precious. You need to get the most out of each hour of the day, and not waste time on activities that don’t add value to your business. One activity not to ignore is planning your marketing for the year.
The value in marketing planning is twofold. It gets you to do some vital business thinking about your product/service, competition, competitive advantages, and strategies to reach your target market. It also helps you document your strategy, and evaluate what works, what is the best return on investment, and what marketing activities you might want to change.
At the high level, you want to think strategically, and identify:
What you’re selling (product or service) – while this might seem silly – of course you know what your product or service is, it is important to succinctly describe your product or service to help in introductions to potential clients, customers, or investors.
Who your target market is – what’s the demographic of your target customers? What industry, type of company, type of role will you target?
What sets you apart? Your differentiators and competitive advantages that will grab the attention of that target market.
Armed with your understanding of the market, your differentiators, and your target market, you have all you need to develop an effective marketing strategy. Now on to the implementation!
