Strategy made simple - Part 2
Picking up from where I left off last time, here's the last six of Image 7 Group's 10 essential elements to a simple marketing strategy.
Essential Element #5 - Your Target Market
Define your target markets then rank them according to their ability to achieve the goals outlined earlier. Which markets have the highest profit potential? The least competition? Most need your expertise? Next, define your ideal customer profile by their job description and what they think their needs are. Document who your buyer is and who your buyer's influencers are. Last, develop a market penetration strategy that tables issues like priority, market segment and product or service. Also describe how you will leverage sales between market segments and from product to product.
Essential Element #6 - Your Competition
Using the data collected earlier, outline how each of your competitor's pricing structure compares with yours, their competitive strengths and weaknesses, and how you plan to compete with them.
Essential Element #7 - Your Sales Model
Outline how your company makes a sale (e.g. field team, channel via partners or resellers, or some combination of these), how your territories are structured, the sales process, and what tools will be needed to achieve your sales objectives.
Essential Element #8 - Your Marketing Mix
Now it's time to develop a mix of marketing activities that will support your goals and marketing communications (marcom) strategy. It's easier if you list the activities under section headings such as Branding, Marketing Communications, Internal Communications PR, Media Relations and Promotion. Give a brief description of each activity and include details about how you will implement the activity over the life of your strategic plan.
Essential Element #9 - Your Marketing Team
Document your organisational structure, with a brief description of the responsibilities of the key positions or people required to turn your plan into reality. Also include any activities to be implemented by external service providers.
Essential Element #10 - Your Marketing Budget
Now you can use the calendar you prepared when working on your marketing mix and your Marketing Team decisions to develop an itemised, monthly budget.
Only after you've researched, developed, and digested this essential information are you ready to start the implementation of your marketing campaign. The time you spend at the front end putting together a powerful plan will pay dividends in the long run.
Just one last word of advice. All good plans need tweaking along the way. You learn new facts, markets change ... all sorts of things happen which are beyond your control. But stick to your plan. All your hard work could come undone if you make unwarranted changes without consulting the big picture.
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