Marketing Strategy Defined: Finding Yours for Small Business
By: Linda James Bennett At Shinyobjectmarketing.Com
Tags: Business Strategy, Small Business, Marketing Strategies, Copywriting, Business Coaching

How are you going to sell your products and services? Once you’ve come up with a wonderful business idea, the next question is, what is my marketing strategy? What is the marketing strategy that I can employ to sell my services?

With your degree, certification, or license, you’re now qualified to help your clients, but how do you bring them through the door? Most schools don’t spend enough time teaching the current marketing strategies to succeed in business. You find yourself falling back on your instincts or seeking answers from others in your field.

How did you get an unlimited supply of clients? It feels like the secret to the universe, finding an endless supply of clients.

Marketing Strategy Defined

Marketing strategies are all the company’s goals and objectives combined into a single comprehensive plan. The strategy details the overall position of the company. Typical areas within the marketing strategy:

Analyze the market

Analyze the competition

Determine market position

Establish a marketing budget

Understand customer

Identify potential customers

Within your strategies, you’ll share the company’s value proposition, essential brand messaging, discover your ideal customer’s characteristics, and how to appeal to them.

Unlike your marketing plan, the marketing strategy is your overall big-picture company messaging. At the same time, your marketing plans focus on the logistics of specific campaigns.

An example of a big-picture strategy is Walmart with its “everyday low prices” as their slogan and marketing efforts revolve around that idea. Every marketing campaign utilities its over-arching strategy in all its messaging sales efforts. Walmart started by establishing itself outside the city limits, so they didn’t have to compete head-to-head with other major retailers. They banked on the theory that consumers would travel a short distance for a discount.

They were right!

A company’s business goals shape its strategy.

Marketing Techniques

The marketing strategy describes the ‘what’ while the marketing plan describes the ‘how.’ Unfortunately, many people try to achieve the ‘how’ without first determining what the ‘what’ is. marketbusinesnews.com

Let’s assume you’ve decided on your ‘what’ [you know your marketing strategy]

Your target markets

What your ideal customer wants

What you stand for

What your position is the marketplace

Identified potential clients

Now, how will you reach them? How will you attract them to you? And how will you let them know you even exist?

This is sometimes called ‘growth hacking.’ You’re using techniques that other successful companies have done to grow their business. Essentially, you’re walking in their footprints to achieve the same or nearly as possible — results.

The Next Steps

Your next steps are to work on:

Analyze the market

Analyze the competition

Determine market position

Establish a marketing budget

Understand customer

Identify potential customers

Nail these, and then we’ll talk about them. This is the foundation for all your next steps.

In summary: Testimonials are fun. Having a solid strategy is where many small businesses mess up. They haven’t done a thorough job of creating a marketing strategy. I understand; it’s so much easier to ready, fire, aim, but then you have to clean it up. The good news, taking action, and having to clean up the mess is better than sitting and pondering until you’re old and gray.

We’ll talk more about marketing strategy in the next articles.

If you’d like to chat about your next project, reach out at Linda@shinyobjectmarketing.com

Linda James Bennett; day 23 of 365 writing an article every day and making you a shiny object in the world.