The importance of marketing strategies

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Understanding a marketing strategy will allow you to implement it effectively and in a way that is geared toward achieving both short- and long-term goals. You will even be able to implement it assertively within your own marketing and sales departments .

Do you want to learn more about this topic? Then, keep reading! In this post you will see:

What is a marketing strategy?

Concepts and models to shape a marketing strategy
Successful applications of a marketing strategy
Why should you use narrative design in your strategy?
What is a marketing strategy?
A marketing strategy is what allows you to achieve your various some of the important considerations objectives when you want to place or position your product or service on the market.

It's important to understand that you can also have more than one strategy, depending on your audience and the various goals your business is working towards.

Words like "strategy" and "objective" are often confused. Ideally, the marketing department should define and establish a concrete objective before initiating a strategy. And if the sales team is also involved in this planning process, even better!

Only after a goal is clearly defined is it possible to work on a strategy. Common business goals may include:

Grow your audience;
Improve dialogue;
Increase sales;
Retain more customers;
Improve profitability.
Business objectives will encounter various obstacles, and it is critical to identify them so that marketing strategies can work to overcome them.

In some cases, a single marketing strategy can also be used to work on more than one objective.

For example, when you want to increase the size of your audience on social media, you can improve the dialogue between consumers and brands while increasing sales.

Starbucks, for example, did a great job of growing their audience through the use of hashtag campaigns.

Starbucks Hashtag Campaign
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola boosted engagement and sales through its “Share a Coke” campaign.

share a coke campaign
Source: MarketingMag
Whenever we tell a story in a marketing strategy, we have to make sure that there is a deeper reason than simply offering a brand's products at a particular time. It is essential to create a perspective of both short- and long-term success.

Most marketers will agree that there are only two ways to sell things. Of course, it is possible to implement various strategies along the way, but it boils down to two ways.

The first is an activity that triggers an immediate response, known as activation . People see a promotion or product and take action. It doesn't depend on a long-term relationship or memories.
The second is about brand building and focusing on long-term growth . The idea is to take advantage of people's memories and trends that are changing in one way or another.
The reality is that both have the ability to influence consumer behavior . They can influence consumers now, as well as behaviors that will continue in the next week or month, or even in a few years.

The importance of marketing strategies
Although there is a certain tendency towards "short-termism" in today's consumerism, there is still room for long-term marketing strategies.

Many businesses focus on the here and now. What can be done to sell right now? What is the best way to get a quick payoff?

Sales enablement is about seeing what will make a particular customer make a purchase.

There are already active leads out there that are interested in buying. This means that with the right strategy, you can push them through the sales funnel quickly and effectively.

However, once you've made the sale, what reason will they have to come back for more?

If you used a short-term sales strategy, you may have closed the deal. But, on the next approach, the person may be attracted to another company's short-term strategy because you did not establish a strong, lasting connection.

That’s why a long-term approach is crucial and should focus more on your business narrative rather than a quick product pitch.

Building a marketing strategy
There are specific steps to building a marketing strategy that allows you to focus on long-term growth. These are:

Define your goals
You need to do a lot of planning, leading to clear goals, to ensure that challenges, trends and all relevant information are taken into account.

Establish metrics
Metrics to explore how a strategy is developing are essential to tracking progress. Indicators can include budget and financial data, such as expenses and ROI , as well as other, more marketing-related numbers, such as followers and site visitors.

Define your audience
It is essential to know who the campaign is directed at to ensure that we create a connection through the marketing strategy.

It's more than just knowing an age range and basic details. Create a buyer persona that lays out the goals of the "average" customer, as well as the pain points they need to address.

Build a narrative
Explain what your unique value proposition is not only with your product/service but with your brand. Be creative with your approach and deliver a memorable customer experience.

Create unique content
Provide content that focuses on your customer, not you. Make sure you demonstrate that you understand their pain points and expectations and explain how you will deliver on the promises you made.

Launch exciting campaigns
Be innovative and generate excitement around your brand. Every campaign you launch should follow your strategy, target a specific audience and have a concrete objective.

Align your teams
Your marketing goals can only be achieved when you align your teams to work toward the same objectives.

Marketing and sales cannot operate independently. If you want to achieve long-term success, you need to make sure that everyone is working together and that the message is the same across all departments.

Optimize
Work to continue improving the way you deliver content and interact with your audience.

Casper is a great example of a company that launched a campaign that was revolutionary. Not only was it the first direct-to-consumer mattress company, but it was innovative in its approach.

When it started, it only had one mattress. And since people like to try different mattresses before buying, Casper needed to change this consumer behavior.

This change in perspective was achieved through different campaigns. The first one was in the New York subway . Different illustrations showed how the Casper mattress fit into the lives of different people.

People were excited by the idea of ​​what Casper was offering. They dreamed big and challenged their customers to do the same.