Competition helps in developing the marketing strategies and the latter is essential for augmenting business. Marketing strategy is different from the marketing plan.
Marketing strategy is the section of one’s business plan that outlines the overall game plan for finding clients and customers for one’s business. Sometimes marketing strategy is confused with a marketing plan, but they are different. Digital marketing services in Hyderabad do provide good services.
- Marketing strategy does focus on what one wants to achieve for the business and marketing efforts.
- The marketing plan details how a person will be able to achieve those goals.
A good marketing strategy incorporates what one knows about how the business fits into the market and the 5 Ps of marketing in order to develop the tactics as well as actions that will indeed achieve one’s marketing objectives.
When Is a Marketing Strategy Developed?
The marketing strategy is rather created before the start of one’s business.
It is not possible to effectively market the home business without understanding how it fits into the marketplace, one’s competition, how one will compete, and what one needs to achieve (i.e. sales numbers) to reach one’s financial goals.
The information one gathers in creating the marketing strategy is then used in order to create the marketing plan, and start one’s business.
How to Create a Marketing Strategy?
Before writing one’s marketing strategy, one needs to know how the product or service benefits others and how it is unique (unique selling proposition) to other businesses in the marketplace. Further, one needs to do market research in order to understand one’s competition, one’s target market, and other factors that will impact one’s ability to reach and entice people to one’s business. Digital marketing services in Hyderabad are on par with world services.
Once one’s research has been done, it is advisable to write one’s marketing strategy incorporating the 5 Ps of one’s marketing mix:
Product: What is one selling? What are the physical attributes of one’s product or the uniqueness of one’s service? How is one’s offer different from one’s competitors and what benefits does it provide one’s customer?
Price: What will it cost to get one’s product or service? How does it compare to one’s competition? What will be one’s profit margin be by selling at that price?
Place: Where will the products and services be available for purchase? This is beyond having a home office, and instead, are the places where consumers are able to purchase. If one is in multiple places, one should work to calculate the percentage of sales from each place. For example, what will the Internet marketing strategy be? What is the sales strategy? How will the transaction take place, what is the cost of getting the product or service to the consumer/client, and what will be the refund/return policy?
Promotion: How are you going to let the market know about the product or services? How will you tell them about the features and benefits that provide to entice them to check out what one offers? What marketing tactics will a person make use of and what do you anticipate will be the results of each method?
People: This is a newly added “P” to the marketing mix, and is important if other people are involved in helping one create or deliver the product or service. Who are these people (i.e. salespeople, virtual assistants) and what do they do (i.e. sales calls, customer service)? What is their level of training and/or experience in providing help to one’s business?
When writing the strategy, it is necessary to be specific making use of detailed steps, visuals, and budget projections. Keeping the brand (one’s promise to the customer) in mind so that one’s marketing strategy does fit with what one wants the customer to experience when doing business with oneself. Be sure to refer to the marketing strategy as one develops, assesses, or changes one’s marketing plan. Digital marketing services in Hyderabad do offer good marketing strategies.
What to Do With Your Marketing Strategy?
If one is using a business plan in order to get a loan or generate angel investors, the marketing strategy and marketing plan will indeed be essential elements to one’s success.
Along with a quality product or service, sources of financing also want to able to see that one understands and has a plan for reaching one’s market.
Similar to a business plan, marketing strategies can indeed be fluid, changing as needed to improve one’s results. The business is operational, one will need to assess and adjust the marketing strategy from time to time to account for changing market conditions, shifts in demand, and other factors that do impact one’s sales, as a result of one’s market research activities and performance of one’s business.