Marketing strategy is something that many businesses forget about and it does not benefit their performance. It is a key point to fulfil if you want to run a profitable and successful business. Find out what types of marketing strategies there are and the different stages of building a marketing strategy in a modern business!
Marketing strategy - what is it and what does it involve?
Every entrepreneur should know what a marketing strategy is. The term refers to all activities aimed at gaining profit and creating a corporate image as efficiently as possible. For the processes to be effective, the assumptions of the marketing strategy must be planned in detail. They should be an integral part of the overall operation of the company and the planning of all processes.
A strategy, otherwise known as a marketing concept, involves writing down all the principles of the business to help maximise profits. It should also include descriptions of the actions needed to deal with any failures. It also helps to pursue the company's goals and supports it in its continuous development. It is therefore crucial in building brand effectiveness.
Elements of marketing strategies
When creating a marketing strategy, it is important to remember that the more detailed and in-depth it is, the better results can be achieved through it. Careful elaboration allows you not only to map out the paths your company needs to take, but also to see the overall market in which it needs to move. What are the elements of a core marketing strategy?
Above all, the strategy must not lack a detailed description and analysis of the company. To this end, it is worth conducting a SWOT study. This makes it possible to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the company, as well as the opportunities and threats facing it. When describing the company, as much information as possible should be included - both descriptive and numerical. It is worth focusing on the brand's mission, communication channels with customers and colleagues or the resources available to the company.
Another essential element is the definition of the company's target audience. Who a company targets is of key importance in planning marketing activities and beyond. In order to best define one's audience, a number of factors need to be taken into account, including age, location, lifestyle or the media and technologies consumers use. This helps to decide where best to advertise the company's offering.
Another point of a content marketing strategy is to carry out an analysis of the market of which the company is a part. It is worth focusing on the activities of the competition and paying attention to how other companies aim to maximise profits. You need to analyse their marketing activities and which of them are producing the desired results. Just knowing which businesses can be counted among one's competitors is already valuable. It allows the entrepreneur to know whose activities are worth watching.
The last of the most important elements needed to be written down are the objectives of the marketing strategy. These can only be established after analysing the above components, i.e. after assessing one's own resources and the activities of competitors. The company's objectives may include specific methods for communicating with customers or how and where to advertise products or services. At this stage, it is also worth compiling a list of principles and values to guide the brand and the company's activities. 
What types of marketing strategies are there?
Quite a few entrepreneurs are asking themselves what marketing strategies are. It must be admitted that their number is enormous and, with the development of advertising, it is increasing all the time. One of the best-known divisions of strategies is that proposed by the American economist Igor Ansoff. He distinguished between such types of strategy as market penetration, market development, product development and diversification.
A market penetration strategy consists of focusing on the distribution of products or services that the company has in its current offering. Activities are aimed at extending the company's processes to the same extent as before. Sales increases can be achieved by, among other things, attracting new consumers with promotions or advertising products in a way that arouses a need in the recipients.
Market development is a strategy to reach a completely new market with products. Expanding distribution locations is supposed to increase sales, but it is usually a gradual process and its effects are only noticeable after some time. Sometimes products have to be slightly modified to fit a new area (e.g. another country), but this is by definition a process that does not interfere with the service, only with the expansion of its distribution.
Product development, on the other hand, is about introducing new products, but targeting primarily the existing customer base. For example, a cookware company might expand its range to include cutlery, so that people interested in furnishing their kitchen can buy both in one place. This is a strategy that requires considerable commitment and resources. First and foremost, it is important to maintain the good quality of your products and at least on the level of those that are already popular. The wider the range, the easier it is to reach more buyers.
The diversification strategy combines the previous two, as it involves implementing a new offering in a new market. It requires a company to create a completely new product and start distributing it in a previously unexplored market. In this case, the company is faced not only with major costs, but also with creating its operations completely from scratch. Of course, it still has to carry out its existing sales and promotional activities throughout this time. 
Where should the marketing strategy start?
In order to create a draft marketing strategy, it is first necessary to identify the company's objectives and conduct a market analysis. For example, the company's aim may be to reach a larger audience through its social media activities. In order to develop a strategy, it is necessary to analyse how your competitors are operating their channels and whether this is successful for them. Consideration should be given to how to improve your own processes in this area.
However, it is not possible to copy the actions of other brands, but only to be inspired by them and see what types of actions can be successful. When building a marketing strategy, it is useful to set yourself clear and specific goals, e.g. numerical ones. This could be the number of new followers on Facebook or the number of reactions under posts. Concretes are needed in order to be able to assess whether the activities are making sense and to raise the bar over time.
Marketing strategy - what should it contain?
A compulsory element of the marketing strategy is the definition of the objectives to be achieved. On the basis of these and an analysis of the competition or your own target group, a marketing plan is built up, including the individual activities that are to lead to these goals. This is because, in addition to the objectives of the marketing strategy, the document also needs to include data on the target audience for specific products as well as information on how competing brands are marketing themselves.
The strategy must not fail to identify the capabilities of the business, including, for example, the funds available for marketing activities. It must also include all the pillars and values that guide those working in the business. Identifying such principles helps in the subsequent planning of individual marketing activities. Brand values can include, for example, the acceptance of diversity or ethical production of products. In this way, the subsequent actions of the business have a better chance of being consistent and, therefore, more credible in the eyes of customers.
How to create an optimal marketing strategy?
Optimal development of a marketing strategy is only possible if you go through all the steps necessary to write down a complete strategy thoroughly. It is therefore necessary to start with an in-depth analysis of the market, the competition and one's own activities. The entrepreneur must find out what trends are currently prevailing in the market in which he or she operates, what processes are successful and what is worth investing in. The analysis allows you to accurately determine your place in the industry. This in turn proves useful in planning advertising and production activities.
It is necessary to research one's own customer group, e.g. through surveys or an analysis of previous orders. When defining a company's consumer group, it is also important to answer questions about their needs - what do they expect from the market, what advertising content might interest them? Every entrepreneur should define his or her offer and assess how much money he or she wants to spend on marketing it. Every detail, even the smallest one, should be written down so that the strategy is complete and optimal. 
Tools for creating a marketing strategy
To make the creation of a marketing strategy more efficient, it is worth using the tools available to streamline processes. One of the most important is SWOT. It is a way to analyse your own business. Once its results are known, the marketing communication strategy is much easier to plan.
To better identify your own company and structures, it is worth using the brand identity prism. With this tool, it is necessary to consider, among other things, consumer relations or image issues. In addition, when creating a strategy, it is also worth considering the tools that will be used to implement the company's marketing objectives, such as individual social media channels or radio/television commercials.
Marketing strategy - how to measure effectiveness?
You already know how to create a marketing strategy, but how do you then check whether it is having the desired effect? The best way is to keep statistics and record data from your shop website or social media channels. If marketing strategies are successful, the number of hits on the website increases, as does the number of reactions, comments or purchases themselves. Thanks to the wide range of analyses available on site administration panels, it is possible to observe the changing values over time. The more visitors become customers, the better.
In companies, it is useful to appoint people to monitor and report on the results of marketing campaigns. Reports can be presented, for example, in the form of a multimedia presentation. By showing graphs and figures, employees know what they need to work on, what works and what could be improved in the future.
Statistics are easily visible on social media channels. There, it is possible to quickly check how many people were reached by, for example, an advert, how many people clicked on it, or how many users viewed the latest reel or liked a post. It is also possible to monitor how many new accounts have had the opportunity to see the company's profile and what percentage of the people watching the accounts are observers or not. With statistics on social media, it is also possible to get to know your audience better. Graphs show what age and gender the users are.
Furthermore, the best indicator of whether a strategy is working is the sales results. If the number of sales is increasing, it means that the marketing plan is going well and having the desired effect.
Why create a marketing strategy?
A company's marketing strategy is very important for a number of reasons, and one of the most important is that it helps to create an image for the company in the community of consumers. Thanks to well-thought-out marketing activities, the vendor inscribes itself in the consciousness of consumers, becomes recognisable, its brand starts to matter in the market, and all this makes the customer eager to reach for its services.
A good strategy and marketing plan in a company helps to achieve the stated objectives because they are written down and properly defined. The strategy acts as a motivator for the entrepreneur and drives the business to act and achieve its objectives. When the company's market is properly analysed, businesses are able to stand out from the competition, which realistically increases profits from the sale of goods and services. The better the planned marketing strategy, the greater the profit for the business.
When all the employees of a company are familiar with the assumptions written in the strategy, their actions are consistent and allow them to work together towards specific goals. This reduces the risk of conflict and ensures effective operation even in large, multi-person companies. The work on creating a strategy makes it possible to avoid many mistakes, which, for example, can be observed in competitors. The process of creating a marketing plan is the time to exclude processes that have not worked, for example, in a similar company. This saves money and time.
If you want to get to know your competitors in the industry and build marketing that will help you attract as many customers as possible, then it is essential that you prepare a marketing strategy. This is a lead-building tool that can be used creatively today, for example on the internet. Even with a high-quality product and potential, a business can fail if you don't steer it in a thoughtful way.
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