“Why marketing?” This is a question asked by business owners and managers who view marketing as a necessary evil, an expense that must incur to make sales. This question is simple: marketing is the key to sustainable, long-term business success. Businesses need to attract and retain customers to achieve success. This is accomplished through marketing initiatives that create awareness, build interest, generate preference, and spur action. Marketing must also create and maintain relationships with customers, which are essential for repeat business and customer loyalty. A well-executed marketing strategy will uncover the information you’ll need to create an effective marketing plan. If executed correctly, it will successfully support your business’s goals.
Here is the strategic marketing process:
Planning Phase
This is the essential step in your marketing strategy because it is the basis of your efforts. You need a set goal for your marketing. You can’t (or a consultant can’t) come up with a winning strategy without knowing the goal. It is challenging with this information to progress to the next steps. You won’t understand the purpose behind the marketing efforts, which makes it even harder to create a solid plan that helps you succeed.
Analysis Phase
The analysis phase involves looking at the competition and evaluating how your business will measure up in that industry by doing marketing research and competition analysis.
Market research will give you an understanding of your industry, an overview of the playing field, and where your business can fit in this mix. The information you discover should also validate your goals and objectives and let you know if they’re achievable.
A competitor analysis will teach you how your competition work, their place in the industry, and any gaps in the market where you can outperform them.
This is also the phase to study your target audience and create buyer personas. Then, aim to understand your customers’ needs, desires, interests, and where you’ll find them within the market.
This phase should explain how competitive you are and how competitive you’ll need to be in your final strategy to become a viable market competitor.
Development Phase
This stage involves taking the objectives from previous phases and defining your marketing mix. Your discoveries have shown you that there are currently not enough salons specializing in curly hair causing residents to look to neighboring cities for services. This information will help you create, price, market, and promote your hair salon to the correct audiences.
Implementation Phase
The final phase of the process is when you begin to act on your marketing efforts. For example, analytics should be set up to measure each promotional leg of your marketing strategy to make changes as necessary. The market is constantly evolving to new trends, and monitoring your plan’s ROI (Return On Investment) is critical.
If your business needs a marketing strategy, call Designer Marketing Solutions. We specialize in drafting and implementing campaigns backed by research for optimal results. Visit our website for more information.