How to Create an Effective Marketing Strategy
Marketing is a core function of every organization, but in many cases, especially within smaller organizations, marketing strategies are not something tangible; they’re essentially a collection of actions that run on rinse and repeat: channels are selected, advertising is set up, messaging is developed based on someone’s gut, and staff is tasked with running with what they’ve got. They don’t know what they’re missing or how a marketing strategy would add value to the program they have already set up. And if it isn’t broken, why fix it?
The goal of this post is to help you envision what developing a marketing strategy entails and why doing so is important for your organization.
This post covers:
Discovery and Research - Stakeholder Interviews, Surveys, Digital Landscape Analysis, Communications Audit
Marketing Strategy Components - Audience Personas; Brand Strategy; Content Strategy; Channel Plan; Estimated Budget, Timeline and Tools
Operationalizing and Implementing the Marketing Strategy
Frequently Asked Questions
Phase One: Discovery and Research
Is research necessary? The answer is a definitive YES.
Effective marketing strategies are well informed and that starts with discovery and research on target audiences, mapping the full market landscape, and an analysis of competitors in the market.
However, I often find potential clients wondering about whether this phase of work is necessary – many times, people doing the work or present in the market feel like they have all the answers. While that may be true for some market intelligence, it’s more likely than not that additional information is needed to map the full landscape of the market and the full scope of audience needs.
The cost and time required to complete this phase depends on a number of factors including the number of research components involved and the scale of that research. For the components of work described below, discovery time typically ranges anywhere between six (6) weeks to four (4) months end-to-end. For information on pricing, please reach out to me to assess scope, as each discovery project varies in cost due to its specifics.
Research components that I find helpful in the discovery and research phase:
Stakeholder Interviews. This component includes speaking directly to key stakeholders inclusive of the target audience, internal and external leaders such as managers and board members, etc. can be extremely informative and helpful in developing in depth understanding of specific topic areas and issues, audience segments, and challenges and opportunities.
In-depth interviews allow for digging into mindset, perspective, and non-obvious factors that can have a significant impact. This component typically results in a report outlining findings and recommendations to inform the marketing strategy.
The client is typically responsible for identifying and sourcing stakeholders for interviews, but a consultant or agency can also support a client in doing so, if required. The number of interviews, the length of interviews, and the ease or difficulty in securing stakeholders for interviews informs the cost and timing for this component.
On a personal note, stakeholder interviews are my favorite component of research because they tend to be extremely helpful in shaping the direction of a marketing strategy. If a client has a smaller budget and can only invest in one component of research, this is the component I recommend investing in for the discovery phase.
Surveys. Surveys can be a quantitative and/or qualitative way to directly ask questions of your target audience. I recommend that clients have surveys in place to assess customer or stakeholder experience on an ongoing basis, and that they deploy longer surveys to stay informed about changing target audience needs and opinions on at least an annual basis.
In the scope of informing a marketing strategy, existing survey data can certainly be assessed to inform a marketing strategy, and if there are any gaps in that data or questions that remain outstanding, a new survey can be developed and deployed to fill in the gaps.
Survey development and fielding is typically time intensive, and the scope of this research component and who handles it (in house marketing staff vs. a consultant or agency) will inform cost and timing.
Digital Landscape Analysis. The digital landscape constitutes the online space inclusive of social media, search engines, and any publicly available information. There are two key components to analyzing the digital landscape of a specific issue/topic/subject:
Search engine landscape analysis - this component analyzes how people search for information within the online space that your brand or organization wants to show up in. A seed list of keywords is assembled to define a topic area, and then that list is used to extrapolate the relevant search universe using digital tools that mine historic search data. The relevant data is then categorized and analyzed to map the search landscape, and areas of opportunity are identified for both organic search and paid search campaigns.
Digital conversation analysis - this component analyzes publicly available posts on specific topics to identify trends in the online conversation. This analysis typically results in the identification of priority platforms and channels, an understanding of audience behavior and perceptions, and digital influencer identification.
Communications Audit. This component includes an analysis of the brand’s owned channels and marketing materials, inclusive of the website, social media, ads, and any other related collateral shared with target audiences. The brand’s message, presence, and effectiveness is assessed across the board. The client is responsible for sharing all relevant channels and materials with the consultant or agency conducting the audit.
Each research component typically results in its own report/deliverable to the client. In addition, once the discovery phase is complete, a synthesized report of findings across all research components can be produced as the one-stop shop for an overview of the most important findings and recommendations. These synthesized reports are helpful for reporting back to senior leadership.
By the end of this phase, both the client and consultant are well informed and empowered with the intelligence they need in order to develop the marketing strategy.
Phase Two: Marketing Strategy Development
The marketing strategy is the roadmap for how your organization will connect with your target audiences and persuade them to take the action you want them to take. The strategy sets the direction and acts as a north star for the organization, prioritizing channels, defining messaging and approach, and establishing a framework for intelligence, experimentation, and iteration. The strategy is then operationalized and implemented in evergreen, seasonal and/or milestone-based campaigns.
In terms of timing and cost, phase two of marketing strategy development can stretch from two (2) to six (6) months and timing is highly dependent on both the timing and scale of client feedback and changes. For information on pricing, please reach out to me to assess scope, as the components of a marketing strategy and client needs can cause the total time required and cost to vary.
Additionally, I’ve found that developing and delivering components of the marketing strategy over the course of the engagement (for example: a standalone content strategy, standalone channel plan, etc.) results in a better working relationship with the client, and a superior holistic marketing strategy by the end of the engagement.
Essential components of a marketing strategy:
Audience Personas. A persona is a fictional profile of someone from the target audience. Personas are a best practice to create and incorporate within marketing strategies to keep the work grounded in audience needs. Personas typically include the following information: demographics; goals, needs, and motivation; challenges; issues; and channels and platforms.
Brand Strategy. The strategic vision for the brand inclusive of mission, vision, and values; the brand’s value proposition for the audience; and the brand essence, the fundamental character of the brand. This work is taken and used to create the brand expression and graphic elements of the brand.
Content Strategy. This component defines the messaging by identifying the core pillars and themes that are applied together to add dimension, context, specificity, and cohesion to messaging and ultimately, the brand.
Channel Plan. This component includes marketing channel identification and prioritization and the associated approach and tactics recommended for each respective channel. Channels can be inclusive of traditional media, social media, search, email, website, and partnerships.
Budget, Timeline & Tools. An estimated program budget; recommended tools and apps; and a recommended timeline for implementation and execution of the strategy.
Operationalizing and Implementing the Marketing Strategy
The marketing strategy sets the direction for the organization’s marketing. It needs to be operationalized in order to be implemented successfully. Below are a few examples of this kind of work:
Brand Expression. This builds on the brand strategy work with the graphic expression of the brand and all related elements including style, font, colors, and brand parameters.
Content Marketing Plan. The application of the content strategy to the channel plan to produce an editorial plan and calendar.
Social Media Plan. This plan expands beyond the channel plan to build out the social media content strategy by channel, includes an editorial calendar and plan to begin creating content, and outlines ways of working and checklists to maximize efficiency for the team working on social media.
Advertising & Media Plan. This plan builds off of the channel plan to outline the specifics of where and how advertising and media spend will be allocated. It builds off of the content strategy and should include direction for ads by channel. It can incorporate a paid search plan that takes the direction of the digital landscape analysis and outlines the specifics of the campaign, keyword, and ad strategy by search engine.
Thought Leadership + Executive Communications Plan. A full plan for how the leaders of the organization can establish or pivot their thought leadership presence and editorial production to work towards the goals of the brand. Developing this plan requires interviews with the thought leader and results in positioning, a content strategy, and a social media strategy for the leader.
Frequently Asked Questions: Marketing Strategies
Is all of this necessary? The answer to that largely depends on what your goals are and what you are trying to do. The best way to determine the right approach for your situation is to have a consultation.
What if I need a marketing strategy sooner? That’s totally possible if there is research at hand that the consultant or team working on the marketing strategy can run with. If that’s not the case, I’d recommend proceeding with stakeholder interviews at a minimum, and working with whoever is developing your marketing strategy to set expectations about timing.
What I’ve outlined above is not a marketing strategy for a crisis situation. In those situations, a consultant can make an assessment and develop a plan to handle the situation. Once the dust settles and the immediate needs are met, I recommend going through the full discovery and research and marketing strategy development process to develop something robust that sets you up for maximum success.
Do I need a full blown marketing strategy to develop any of the operational or implementation components? Not necessarily, even though I would recommend that you have one. If your organization is already aligned on a marketing strategy, but you need one of the operational or implementation components, that can be developed based on the direction that has already been established.
Do I need to hire a consultant or an agency? If you don’t have someone on your team that has expertise developing marketing strategies for any place other than your organization, I’d recommend hiring a consultant or an agency. Someone who has done this for multiple clients will bring a deep knowledge base of expertise that can be applied to your marketing strategy which will ultimately benefit your organization.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions and feel free to reach out and discuss your needs by requesting a consultation.