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ONLINE MARKETING
The Two Words That Create a Marketing Strategy
By Neil Shellshear
Understanding what a marketing strategy is first, gives insight into the benefits of creating one.
What is a marketing strategy? According to the Oxford Dictionary, it’s defined as:
“A plan of action designed to promote and sell a product or service.”
Let’s have a think about this.
“A plan of action” Two keywords are in this definition and when it comes to any business that is looking to grow but is struggling to get additional sales or acquire more customers. It is simply because these two words being PLAN and ACTION may be lacking.
When it comes to the creation of a marketing strategy it can be looked at just as simply. Let us assume that all we need to do to create the strategy is to define those two keywords.
PLAN: This is the part of a strategy that provides a clear guide to what needs to be achieved.
For example, a bricks and mortar company want to engage their clients online. You need to understand the outcome you want to achieve, then work your way backwards to the current position and document what you will do, how you will do it and the timeline you want to keep to.
The plan could be to engage the team to ensure customers walking in are being informed of the online presence/promotions to get engagement and think of ways to have customers possibly signing up to loyalty type programs that could be redeemed online.
Make the plan clear and concise to ensure all levels of the team understand and possibly put an incentive against the plan to get internal engagement.
ACTION: Now we have a plan set out, the action part is just as important. How you do this can be simple or very complex depending on your plan. But to keep it simple we will use our example from above.
From day one, repetition is key when implementing a plan, especially with your staff. Each day, you recap on the outcomes of the day before in a quick meeting that keeps them engaged. With management, you can have a weekly “back and forward” meeting that offers up the progress of the plan along with what will be commencing or stopping during the timeline.
The final piece of the Action puzzle is gauging the success of the plan. You need to have mechanisms in place that keep you informed of the progress and position compared to your start and finish.
Breaking down a marketing strategy can be a simple approach like above or a very complex strategy with multiple channels and outcomes. When thinking about a marketing strategy for any type of industry or business, be sure to recap on two key points above.
It can be a great exercise for a business owner to complete and if you want to fast track with professional help, remember this, you can start a fire with two sticks but if you invest in matches, you will get a faster return on investment.
Don’t be afraid of outside help to grow your business.
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Neil Shellshear
Belatan Group
https://www.belatan.com/
Founder & Managing Director
Prior to founding Belatan Group, Neil has been building businesses with his proven strategy development and sales & marketing knowledge for over 15 years. Some of the businesses that he has developed are online eCommerce, fintech and financial services dealer groups.
Neil has also worked with a range of companies from online training companies to accountants, assisting them in their business plan development and implementation across various business functions.
His approach to business models and end to end customer engagement is one of structure and planned execution, ensuring streamlined growth that founders, shareholders and company boards are looking to achieve over the long term.
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