I know if you are currently working on the marketing of your business, you probably have this idea that you don’t need an actual marketing strategy because you can wing it, right? Hell NO! That’s a terrible plan. If you’ve been in marketing long enough, you will agree with me that marketing strategy is without question one of the crucial parts of your marketing journey.
Marketing is not a standalone or a one-off activity. Ideally, the best marketing is made out of several necessary components that eventually help grow your business endeavor. That’s all the way from short-term sales to long-term ones. With that in mind, let’s look at some of the reasons why a marketing strategy is vital in this journey.
Top 3 reasons why you need a marketing strategy
Customer knowledge
Try as we might; there’s no single business that’s all things to the people. And from a marketing perspective, there has to be a specific type of person who will eventually become your long-term customer. And when you have such an individual in mind, you get to understand their fears, wants, and needs, then show them the product or service that will cater to their needs or solve the problem. Through marketing strategy, you can define who this target customer is and how to approach such an individual through marketing.
Understand your business
One significant component of marketing strategy is determining who will benefit from your product or service, reasons for benefits, and how they will benefit. More importantly, you will also understand how your business is better than your competitors and why. When you define these elements, they help strengthen the reason for starting your business in the first place. Above all, you can now comfortably know the perfect way to stand out from your competitors.
Budget for your marketing
Do you have a well-calculated budget for your marketing, or is it a roughly estimated figure that you really don’t understand where and how you will use the funds? That figure that you have in mind could likely be a gross underestimation, or you’ve over-budgeted, and that will affect your business in one way or the other. The most apparent effect of improper budgeting is that you will likely not get the expected return. Your strategy will help determine the marketing channels you plan to use, define the marketing activities involved, and give you the overall goals. That’s enough to take your marketing to the next level.
Before you go
Well, there you have it! So whether you are new or a marketing expert, you can’t do it without laying out the marketing strategy. With a marketing strategy, every action you do, every activity you undertake will be geared towards helping your customers solve a particular problem using your product or service.
And that’s the heart of every business out there; to become the solution and not the problem. Undoubtedly, strategic planning builds brands and creates loyal customers in the process. So, what are you waiting for?
