Develop your Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy is your plan of action designed to promote and sell your product or service.

Earlier in this course we discussed the 5P’s of marketing, we are now going to consider your marketing strategy in more detail.

Your marketing strategy should cover the following:

1. A clear description of your target market/s. If you have more than one, they would be called market segments, splitting markets is called market segmentation. Each market segment should have a clear description who they are and their needs.
2. Clear details of your product/s, their unique selling points to that of any other product and how they meet the needs of the customer in that target market.
3. Price, how are you pricing your product/s.
4. Your tactical marketing plan – this should include both digital and traditional forms of marketing depending on your audience that you wish to reach. Your plan should include ways and actions that you are going to take to reach your target audience on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.

Your digital marketing plan should include:

1. An engaging website that is responsive up-to-date and represents your brand and company.
2. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a process of optimising your website so that it ranks higher in search engine results and people can find you before they find your competitors. It drives traffic to your website.
3. Content marketing uses interesting, creative, and original content to generate brand awareness, targets customers and generates leads.
4. Email marketing involves sending regular emails to your database of subscribers who have opted to receive your marketing emails informing them of any promotions, new products, or interesting information.
5. Social media marketing promotes your brand, products, and promotions on social media sites. It is great for creating awareness and generating leads for your business.
6. Pay per click (PPC) is paid advertising where you pay each time someone clicks on your advertisement that takes them to your website. A good example of PPC is Google AdWords.

An example of Google AdWords

A traditional marketing plan includes:

1. Advertising in magazines, radio, newspapers, TV adverts, flyers, and brochures.
2. Sales promotion through specials, coupons, discounts.
3. Personal selling: opportunities for you or your salespeople to visit and present your product to consumers or companies that will use your product.
4. Merchandising: if you have a product that is on the shelf, activities around specials, placement, visual appeal, and sales promotion.

You can find more useful resources on building your plan at Hub Spot Hubspot

Activity

Develop a rough copy of your marketing plan and then reflect and share the challenges that you had in developing your plan.