Marketing strategy – 7 practical tips to start now!
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 5:08 am
Communication is part of life in society and we have always sought ways to improve our way of establishing contact and thus nurturing healthier relationships; whether in our personal or professional lives. When it comes to promoting your business, whether to sell a product or promote the provision of a service, marketing strategies have been a great ally in achieving good results.
In this context, we have prepared practical content here with what we understand to be the first 7 steps to start your successful marketing strategy!
Marketing Strategy – 7 Tips at your fingertips
1 – Make an Annual Plan
Making an annual plan does not mean setting actions whatsapp names in stone; quite the opposite, when you make an annual plan, preferably with quarterly actions, you establish short, medium and long- term goals and can test campaigns and change the course of things if the expected results are not being achieved.
Annual planning allows you to test and monitor the steps, enabling you to change the course of ongoing actions, and this 'correction' will be faster and more efficient if there is a pre-defined plan . After all, goals will be set in it, even if you are not tied to them, because when you have a clear objective, it is possible to set new goals to achieve the final objective.
2 – Do Competitor Research
Some call it “stalking your competitor” which for us is conceptually different from doing research.
Knowing people's opinions and satisfaction, when we have the same persona as our competitor, is important to understand what our customers don't offer ; and thus make this our differentiator: providing the customer with what they want, which our competitor doesn't offer. However, this is just one parameter to be researched.
It is essential to know your competitors, both direct and indirect. Even if it is a superficial research at first, a little knowledge on this point always helps. And, whenever possible, develop more detailed research.
The digital ecosystem allows anyone to conduct research, through forms and other tools, over time, both about your business and your competitors. This “form” is usually established during planning when the objective of actions and campaigns is outlined. To know what to ask in the form, if this is the chosen method, you need to know the objective of your research.
3 – Know your Persona
To know what language you will use, which networks to publish on and through which channels you will strengthen your relationship with your client, as well as which is the best place, tool or action that will be most efficient in capturing qualified leads, you first need to know your persona. For this, we suggest the tool known as the fantastic persona generator. We have a material that explains the difference between target audience , ICP and Persona , it is worth checking it out.
4 – Know your business
When we know our business, we know what we sell and, recognizing the value of our product and/or service, we sell more naturally. Nowadays, people are interested and engaged in pieces that reflect the brand's truth ; this is what generates identification and attracts consumers.
Nowadays, people are much more connected to what they perceive to be done truthfully; which does not mean that your communication should be done in an amateurish or unproduced way. But it also does not mean that only highly produced content will work. Here we are talking about being truthful; whether it is a piece recorded with your own cell phone so as not to miss the 'time' of an event that is relevant and relatable to your business, or elaborate and structured campaigns.
In communication, anything goes, as long as it is done truthfully and, ideally, it should be at least part of a plan. And to get to know your business well, let's move on to the next step.
5 – Talk to your sales team
You may not have a marketing department, but you certainly have a sales team. No matter how small it is, talk to them. This team, which is on the front line of your business , is the one that best understands your business and your customers' pain points. In other words, the person responsible for the sales team should be part of the marketing planning meeting. Trust us, their contribution will be valuable!
6 – Digital Marketing Strategy
Once you have done your planning, researched your competitors and defined your persona, you now have a basis for your digital marketing strategy. Try to understand which tools, platforms, social networks and digital media are connected to the profile of your business and your persona.
There’s no point in trying to use everything and publish everywhere. That’s not strategic or integrated communication; it’s a bit of desperation. For example, if you’ve identified that your persona doesn’t watch videos on TikTok , why waste time and energy producing content on this social network? That’s why research and planning are so important.
The communication strategy should be designed with a focus on the customer experience. Your product or service is a solution to a problem that your customer has, right? How are you going to sell it to them? To answer this question, you think about the customer, not your product . So, reversing the logic of the Tik Tok example a little, if the manager understands that the Tik Tok App does not identify with your brand, but your persona is there, you should use it in your strategy. Because the focus is the customer!
Use planning as a basis for chronologically designing your communication and marketing strategy. This way, you can better visualize and monitor potential flaws along the way . In other words, you start with a few tools and channels and see where they are working and what needs to be improved. Correct them and keep monitoring!
7 – Integrated Communication & Content Marketing
Understanding the integrated communication strategy is actually the first step, but we left it for last so that the “step by step” would be more didactic.
How, where and when to work on integrated communication is part of your planning; these are two steps that merge into one. For example, a specific launch campaign should have integrated digital and traditional marketing actions for a specific period, where, beforehand, there was prior nurturing – in the digital environment; and, afterwards, a relationship will be maintained, also in the digital ecosystem to optimize resources.
Ultimately, the integrated communication strategy is very powerful, but you need to know how to use it. Where is it established and how will it be implemented? In planning! Understanding is the first step, developing is the step that merges with planning.
The central tool of communication today is content marketing. The focus is on the customer, not the product, remember? And the customer doesn't want to be bombarded with ads. They want to know why they should buy from you and not from your competitor. In a world of commodities, your differential is no longer in the product, it's in your positioning in society. The consumer profile has changed and, depending on who your target audience is, price and quality are no longer sales "weapons." That's why it was also said that you need to know your persona; to know how to communicate with them. What's more, the content needs to be of quality, because disguised ads will repel rather than attract. In other words, if the content is not relevant, it loses its value.
In this context, we have prepared practical content here with what we understand to be the first 7 steps to start your successful marketing strategy!
Marketing Strategy – 7 Tips at your fingertips
1 – Make an Annual Plan
Making an annual plan does not mean setting actions whatsapp names in stone; quite the opposite, when you make an annual plan, preferably with quarterly actions, you establish short, medium and long- term goals and can test campaigns and change the course of things if the expected results are not being achieved.
Annual planning allows you to test and monitor the steps, enabling you to change the course of ongoing actions, and this 'correction' will be faster and more efficient if there is a pre-defined plan . After all, goals will be set in it, even if you are not tied to them, because when you have a clear objective, it is possible to set new goals to achieve the final objective.
2 – Do Competitor Research
Some call it “stalking your competitor” which for us is conceptually different from doing research.
Knowing people's opinions and satisfaction, when we have the same persona as our competitor, is important to understand what our customers don't offer ; and thus make this our differentiator: providing the customer with what they want, which our competitor doesn't offer. However, this is just one parameter to be researched.
It is essential to know your competitors, both direct and indirect. Even if it is a superficial research at first, a little knowledge on this point always helps. And, whenever possible, develop more detailed research.
The digital ecosystem allows anyone to conduct research, through forms and other tools, over time, both about your business and your competitors. This “form” is usually established during planning when the objective of actions and campaigns is outlined. To know what to ask in the form, if this is the chosen method, you need to know the objective of your research.
3 – Know your Persona
To know what language you will use, which networks to publish on and through which channels you will strengthen your relationship with your client, as well as which is the best place, tool or action that will be most efficient in capturing qualified leads, you first need to know your persona. For this, we suggest the tool known as the fantastic persona generator. We have a material that explains the difference between target audience , ICP and Persona , it is worth checking it out.
4 – Know your business
When we know our business, we know what we sell and, recognizing the value of our product and/or service, we sell more naturally. Nowadays, people are interested and engaged in pieces that reflect the brand's truth ; this is what generates identification and attracts consumers.
Nowadays, people are much more connected to what they perceive to be done truthfully; which does not mean that your communication should be done in an amateurish or unproduced way. But it also does not mean that only highly produced content will work. Here we are talking about being truthful; whether it is a piece recorded with your own cell phone so as not to miss the 'time' of an event that is relevant and relatable to your business, or elaborate and structured campaigns.
In communication, anything goes, as long as it is done truthfully and, ideally, it should be at least part of a plan. And to get to know your business well, let's move on to the next step.
5 – Talk to your sales team
You may not have a marketing department, but you certainly have a sales team. No matter how small it is, talk to them. This team, which is on the front line of your business , is the one that best understands your business and your customers' pain points. In other words, the person responsible for the sales team should be part of the marketing planning meeting. Trust us, their contribution will be valuable!
6 – Digital Marketing Strategy
Once you have done your planning, researched your competitors and defined your persona, you now have a basis for your digital marketing strategy. Try to understand which tools, platforms, social networks and digital media are connected to the profile of your business and your persona.
There’s no point in trying to use everything and publish everywhere. That’s not strategic or integrated communication; it’s a bit of desperation. For example, if you’ve identified that your persona doesn’t watch videos on TikTok , why waste time and energy producing content on this social network? That’s why research and planning are so important.
The communication strategy should be designed with a focus on the customer experience. Your product or service is a solution to a problem that your customer has, right? How are you going to sell it to them? To answer this question, you think about the customer, not your product . So, reversing the logic of the Tik Tok example a little, if the manager understands that the Tik Tok App does not identify with your brand, but your persona is there, you should use it in your strategy. Because the focus is the customer!
Use planning as a basis for chronologically designing your communication and marketing strategy. This way, you can better visualize and monitor potential flaws along the way . In other words, you start with a few tools and channels and see where they are working and what needs to be improved. Correct them and keep monitoring!
7 – Integrated Communication & Content Marketing
Understanding the integrated communication strategy is actually the first step, but we left it for last so that the “step by step” would be more didactic.
How, where and when to work on integrated communication is part of your planning; these are two steps that merge into one. For example, a specific launch campaign should have integrated digital and traditional marketing actions for a specific period, where, beforehand, there was prior nurturing – in the digital environment; and, afterwards, a relationship will be maintained, also in the digital ecosystem to optimize resources.
Ultimately, the integrated communication strategy is very powerful, but you need to know how to use it. Where is it established and how will it be implemented? In planning! Understanding is the first step, developing is the step that merges with planning.
The central tool of communication today is content marketing. The focus is on the customer, not the product, remember? And the customer doesn't want to be bombarded with ads. They want to know why they should buy from you and not from your competitor. In a world of commodities, your differential is no longer in the product, it's in your positioning in society. The consumer profile has changed and, depending on who your target audience is, price and quality are no longer sales "weapons." That's why it was also said that you need to know your persona; to know how to communicate with them. What's more, the content needs to be of quality, because disguised ads will repel rather than attract. In other words, if the content is not relevant, it loses its value.