Five questions to kick start your marketing strategy

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next marketing strategy these five questions will help you prepare to design a strategy right for your organisation and its business needs. They apply equally well to a marketing communications strategy too.

What are your business goals?

It’s tempting to dive straight into tactics but before you do, it's crucial to define your business goals. These should always link to your organisation’s long term strategy or plan. For example is your organisation seeking to increase sales, reduce costs or generate more profit? Maybe it’s aiming to enter a new market or grow its market share. Understanding your organisation’s goals will ensure your marcomms strategy responds to its strategy.

Tip: Once you know the business goals, think about the barriers to achieving them. Maybe your brand suffers a lack of awareness. Maybe people know about your products or services but aren’t purchasing them. Establishing this will help influence the tactics you select.

Who are your target customers?

Understanding your target customers is the cornerstone of any successful marketing strategy. Who are you trying to reach? What do you know about them? What do they think about your brand? Where do they live? What do they do in their leisure time? This is where market research comes in.

Tip: Creating customer personas can be helpful. Include demographics (age, gender, location etc) and psychographics (interests, values, behaviour etc). This will help tailor your marketing strategy to resonate deeply with your intended customers and audience.

Where will you reach them?

Once you know who you’re targeting, the next step is to figure out how to reach them. This involves selecting the right channels and platforms. Put yourself in your customers shoes. Think about the social media platforms they use, the news outlets they consume, TV channels they watch, the influencers they follow and the other brands they love. Get specific. If you created personas add this information too. Once again research can be helpful here.

Tip: Diversify your channels. Use a mix of online and offline tactics to ensure you’re reaching your customers wherever they are. For instance, promote your events on social media while also leveraging PR and paid advertising.

How will you make your brand or product really appealing to them?

Your brand and products should resonate with your customer’s needs, interests, values and behaviour. This is your opportunity to be creative and make your marketing stand out.

Tip: Words and images are equally important. Put as much care and attention into the visual language as you put into the the tone of voice. And in today’s digital world, sound and video matter too.

How will you know if it’s working?

This is the moment to return to your business goals and think about what you could monitor to see if your marketing is working, and how to improve it over time. There are direct ways, like sales and revenue, to track effectiveness and indirect methods like web traffic, social engagement and media coverage. There is no one right way to do this so think about what works for you and your organisation. More data literate businesses will need a different approach to more qualitative cultures.

Tip: Key performance indicators (aka KPIs) should be specific and measurable. Regularly review your metrics to understand what’s working and what needs adjustment. Tools like Google Analytics, social media insights, and market research can provide valuable data.

Conclusion

These five questions will set you on the right path to developing a marketing strategy that not only meets your goals but also connects with your audience in meaningful ways.

Remember, a marketing strategy should be a dynamic document. It’s not something that’s set in stone. If something is working really well, do more of it. If something isn’t working, change your approach.

You can see how I put this into practice in my case studies of recent projects with St Paul’s Cathedral and the Museum of London.

And if you want to chat about how I can help you create a marketing strategy contact me for a free consultation. Let’s start crafting a plan that brings your vision to life.