Reader Note: This blog is the first installment in our Developing Strategic Marketing Plans series.
You can read the second article about the importance of marketing workshops in strategic planning here and the third article that discusses how to turn strategy into action here.
Your organization has communicated its business goals and, as the marketing director or brand manager, you have a laundry list of ideas for how to achieve them. But you must also maximize and substantiate ROI on a set annual budget. So, where do you start? What messaging will truly resonate with your audience? Are you missing an opportunity with a niche audience? What channels do you prioritize, and what will move the needle the most? Investing in marketing strategy before jumping to tactics is the most important thing you can do to answer those questions.
WHAT IS MARKETING STRATEGY?
Marketing Strategy is the key to the success of the world’s top brands. It consists of a long-term plan to achieve business goals by understanding the needs of its customers and identifying genuine opportunities to cultivate. A marketing strategy encompasses everything from determining who your customers are, and the messages and prime touch points along the customer journey in which the customer is apt to take actions your brand seeks, to determining the channels required to reach those customers and how you will measure success. It’s essentially a road map that makes sure all moving parts are working toward the same goal.
BUT WHY START WITH MARKETING STRATEGY?
Working in a silo will not achieve company-wide goals. When you make an investment in developing a marketing strategy, you’re bringing together and getting alignment across all stakeholders in your organization. Your departmental leadership will have unique viewpoints and insights based on their roles and responsibilities, some of which you are unaware of but undoubtedly link to your cog in the organization. With all perspectives in mind, you can ensure you identify all opportunities to achieve your goals. A clearly defined and broadly shared vision of success is the foundation you build from.
Developing a formal marketing strategy also allows you to get early buy-in across your organization. It’s much harder for an organization to go astray when you’re all in agreement on who your audience is and what you’re trying to achieve. A marketing strategy helps everyone stay focused on specific communication objectives and not get distracted with one-off ideas that are exciting but don’t help you efficiently achieve your goal (but still eat up precious budget and resources).
To set yourself up for success you’ll need to know what to measure and how you’ll measure it. Strategy development also gives stakeholders the opportunity to discuss and agree upon KPIs, which is integral to substantiating ROI within your organization. This is critical when working with marketing agency partners who will be charged with helping you achieve your goals.
AGENCY PARTNERSHIPS
While you know your business from the inside out, agencies, like your customers, know your organization from the outside in. Bringing in outside perspective and fresh thinking from people that study and understand your business and industry can be instrumental in unlocking valuable new opportunities. Partnering with a marketing agency not only gives you access to the perspective of experts who are trained to problem solve from the lens of the customer, but also skilled creative professionals who will help align the look, feel, and tone of your marketing communications with your strategic foundation.
Agencies are constantly keeping up on industry and marketing trends and typically have access to a variety of resources through their relationships with industry research and media partners. Media outlets/companies often conduct quantitative and qualitative surveys of their audience – your current and potential customers – that help advertisers like you gain insights into the minds, needs, and wants of their target audiences.
Agencies like Rhea + Kaiser conduct ongoing campaign analytics, optimize where needed, and deliver measurable results to continuously track and analyze your marketing strategy and success over time.
Contact Rhea + Kaiser to help your brand identify and activate the marketing strategy that will achieve your business goals by reaching out to our Business Development Director.
Check out our other blog posts on marketing strategy, including the importance of workshops and how to turn strategy into action.