WTF Is Marketing Strategy Anyway?
Are you under the impression that marketing strategy is a dark art? Do you come out in a cold sweat when asked what your marketing strategy is? Marketing strategy, at its core, is simply a plan to achieve specific goals. Yet, the word ‘strategy’ often feels scary!
Despite having a marketing degree AND working in brand management for over a decade, even I’d panic, afraid my answer wouldn’t be groundbreaking or clever enough. The word ‘strategy’ threw me.
That was until about ten years ago when I came across Mark Ritson’s Mini MBA in Marketing. That course was a light-bulb moment and changed everything for me. I finally realised that marketing strategy is NOT rocket science. In fact, the simpler and more logical, the better.
“A strategy is any plan you make to achieve a goal.”
Vocabulary.com
Strategy Before Tactics
Because of missing bandwidth or fear of not knowing where to start with creating a strategy, it’s so tempting to dive in with marketing tactics – but as Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, wisely said:
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Mr Tzu’s words highlight that strategy comes first – your plan is your foundation, and tactics are the tools to execute it.
Take it from me – having strategic plans gets far better results than simply taking a punt. A plan creates consistency, advantage over competitors and ensures your investment isn’t wasted. But where on earth to begin?!
A killer marketing strategy isn’t about jazzy jargon or marketing buzzwords. It’s about stepping back, taking things step by step, and putting the puzzle pieces together, one by one.
- Unearth – Dig Deep First
Start by understanding your customers, your market, and your brand. Who are you serving? What are their pain points? What makes your business uniquely qualified to solve them? You need a clear picture of the challenge you’re addressing and the opportunities ahead before deciding how to connect with the markets and audiences you strategically choose to pursue.
The second goal of this stage is targeting – deciding which customer clusters will be most fruitful for your business to focus on. Trying to appeal to everyone risks spreading yourself too thin, diluting your efforts, and making your strategy less effective. By narrowing your focus, you can ensure your resources are used where they will make the greatest impact.
Targeting is as much about who NOT to focus on as it is about who to include. Once you get laser-focused on your ideal customers, you can craft a brand message that resonates deeply with them and channel your energy into engaging them effectively.
Think of it like zebras! If you create distinct clusters (distinct like a zebra’s stripes), you’ll know exactly what to look for when planning your messaging and activity. So, who to choose? The answer lies in balancing who is easiest to reach and engage, with who will be the most profitable.
- Forage – Gather Your Intel
Once you’ve unearthed the foundations, it’s time to dig deeper. Foraging is all about gathering the insights needed to set your brand apart and meet your audience’s needs.
Consider:
- What is your competitor’s positioning? (Then you can position your brand as distinct and better!)
- What do your customers say about their challenges and aspirations? (So you can position your brand as the solution!)
- Where did your customers find you? (To help you choose the priority channels to market through).
- A simple question to your customers – “What three words would you use to describe [your business’s name]?” (To unlock golden nuggets for use in your brand messaging).
If you are sceptical about market research, this may be because it takes time and resources and you want to get cracking! But also there is an unhelpful misconception that Apple doesn’t do market research. This seems to give businesses a licence to “build it and they will come”.
The more helpful reality is that Apple subscribes to the wisdom of Henry Ford, when he said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” So Apple didn’t ask their audience if they needed an iPhone. Instead, they listened to their customers to discover their needs, pain points and aspirations. They then created a brand and continually evolving solutions to address them. Which makes perfect sense!
As Seth Godin puts it:
“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.”
Seth Godin
So, the forage stage includes understanding your audience on a deeper level so you can meet their needs rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all solution. By leveraging insights like customer feedback, competitor analysis, and market trends, you’ll identify how your offering aligns with what your customers truly value.
3. Hatch – Bring Your Brand to Life
With the targeting decisions made, the insights you’ve gathered, and the clear picture of what your brand offers, it’s time to plan how to get your brand out there!
Craft your messaging, map out the customer journey, and carefully choose your marketing channels.
Don’t forget the basics…
- Create comms that resonate with those it aims to connect with.
- Focus on fewer, bigger, better activities and campaigns that maximise your energy and resources.
- Make sure of consistency across all customer touchpoints.
- Oh, and remember… simplicity and focus are key.
- Nurture – Measure and Deliver
The best strategy is worthless if it’s not executed properly. This is the stage where you deliver consistently, measure what works, and tweak as needed. Whether it’s tracking lead conversions or monitoring customer satisfaction, make sure you’ve built in ways to measure success and test, learn and tweak along the way, with a firm eye on the original plan.
The strategy is the roadmap that guides the way, and every decision you make should be through the lens of the plan you made to achieve your goal.
So Remember…
Marketing strategy isn’t smoke and mirrors! It’s a logical, step-by-step approach to achieving your business goals. Unearth, Forage, Hatch, Nurture – these four steps uncomplicate the process, as the best strategy is about clarity, focus, and execution.
As with any roadmap, your strategy might need adjustment along the way, but it’s your guide to ensure you’re investing time, energy, and resources wisely. By starting with the basics, your customers, your market, and your brand, you can create a killer strategy that delivers real results.
The next time someone asks about your marketing strategy, you won’t break into a cold sweat. Instead, you’ll confidently share your logical, focused plan to grow your business. Because marketing strategy is NOT rocket science – it’s simply good sense.
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Jen Bayford is Co-founder of Growth Animals, the B Corp-certified marketing company, on a mission to help SMEs harness the power of their brands and create powerful marketing strategies that maximise profitability and impact.
