The strategic marketing process identifies the target audience, invests to stay competitive, develops and promotes content to accomplish business goals. A marketing plan allows marketers to identify their industry position, know the competitors, under target audience, satisfy user’s needs and expand business brand awareness.
The process of creating a strategic marketing plan begins with a market-product focus. The next step is goal-setting. The company needs to identify which customers fit into each segment and which marketing techniques will be most effective for each group. Once the strategic marketing planning is defined, the company can develop measurable goals to meet the objectives.
What makes a strategic marketing planning process?
- The vision, mission, goals, and objectives of a business
- The opportunities, strengths, drawbacks impacting your business brand marketing
- Target audience and their requirements
- Tools, technologies, and other sources supporting your plan and marketing efforts
- Metrics determining the efficiency of marketing efforts, and the quality of customer interaction
Let us get started:
Define your mission, goals, and objectives:
Marketers and stakeholders should work together to define the mission, goals, and objectives that drive the strategic marketing process. A mission statement should state the organization’s purpose and how it benefits the customers. Moreover, the style of defining it could be either formal or informal.
Digital marketing techniques keep evolving. However, the underlying goals and objectives should lie strong and flexible to keep the pace of changing requirements. Following this, plan your goals and objectives considering the SMART approach, i.e., Specific, Measurable, Aspirational, Realistic, and Time-bound.
Know about your position in the industry
As a second step, know your industry position and how well you are positioned with the existing customers.
In this respect, here below, we will define SWOT analysis strategy:
1. Strengths possessed relative to your competitors
2. Weaknesses impeding progress
3. Opportunities enhancing your potential to open new business streams and earn more
4. Threats (technological, political, economical) obstructing organizational development
Focusing on current and potential customers’ viewpoints gives rise to new requirements. Fulfilling them on time changes customers’ perceptions and builds an ideal brand reputation for your organization.
Marketing tactics:
In 1960, E. J. McCarthy created marketing tactics that are even relevant today. They are as follows:
1. Product: Services your product offers for customer requirements.
2. Price: Product’s cost and the value it gives to the customers
3. Promotion: Marketing efforts to promote your product
4. Place: Various channels, both physical and digital, to create sales
The right mix of the above-stated 4 Ps of marketing is based on the market segments. Also, it helps set baselines for the following:
- Marketing assets needed
- Priority marketing campaigns
- Best marketing opportunities to optimize
- Finance for implementing the marketing process.
Execute the process
Content creation initiates in this stage. In addition, important information relating to brand reach, performance metrics, and qualified leads have to be collected and validated during this stage.
Enhance the plan:
Constant evaluation and modification help maintain up-to-date strategic marketing processes. Google Analytics serves as an effective source to measure your marketing progress. Also, it will help you gauge the success rate according to the defined mission, goals, and objectives.
A periodic analysis of marketing strategy helps to know the return on investment, content performance, and audience engagement.
Additional ideas to gear up for an effective marketing program:
- Consider proper data insights to forecast and decide the marketing essentials. Also, enhance your marketing research and pay attention to customers’ feedback.
- All the components have to be clearly defined, whether timelines, goals, benchmarks, etc.
- Do not set high-value goals. Ensure you have the required funding before doing so. Lack of resources due to underfunding might cause the marketing plan off track, which is not welcoming.
Conclusion
A good marketing plan summarizes marketing goals and objectives. Commitment, setting up required resources, open communication, and collaborative effort are essential requirements to realize the marketing plan.
A good strategy will help your business reach milestones. A marketing plan is not just a written copy to be preserved on the shelves but also a subject guiding efforts and evaluating success. To turn a marketing plan into reality, you require interest and dedication as a marketing planner is a map of the goals and strategies of a company.
