Effective marketing begins with a considered, well-informed marketing strategy. In order to put the marketing concept into practice, you need a marketing strategy. A marketing strategy is a business’s overall approach for reaching prospective leads and turning them into customers. Marketing planning aims to achieve marketing strategy and It includes the actions to be taken to implement the marketing strategy.
Strategic marketing planning involves setting goals and objectives, analyzing internal and external business factors, product planning, implementation, and tracking your progress.
An effective marketing strategy covers the following steps:
Understand customers: Understand customer needs, pains & requirements and benefits of your solution.
Analyze market: Analyze, understand & evaluate the market for your product or service. Find out the market size, market trends etc.
Analyze competition: Analyze the existing competitors as well as potential competitors, and also any indirect competitors.
Define marketing mix: Define strategies about product, price, place, promotion etc.
Financial Analysis: Evaluate and forecast the financials based on sales forecasting to the target market. Evaluate projected marketing ROI, customer acquisition costs, etc.
- Execution (Marketing Plan): Identify how and when you will launch your plan.
- Review and revise: Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing strategy, and revise or extend as needed.