There are nine major steps required to develop a well-crafted, strategic marketing plan: set your marketing goals, conduct a marketing audit, conduct market research, analyze the research, identify your target audience, determine a budget, develop specific marketing strategies, develop an implementation schedule for …

THE MARKETING STRATEGY PROCESS

Having a strong marketing strategy process in place helps to ensure that your marketing activities remain aligned with your business goals, maximizing the business return from your marketing efforts.

The picture on the left shows the process for developing and aligning marketing strategies.

These are the steps you should follow to create and execute a winning marketing strategy.

For help in following this 7-step marketing strategy program, check out my eBook “The 7-Step Easy Marketing Strategy Process." 

I also offer a hands-on marketing planning workshop where you will learn how to implement this 7-step process to create an effective, data-driven marketing plan.

Below we briefly review each step in turn.

7 STEPS TO A STRONG MARKETING STRATEGY

1. UNDERSTAND YOUR CUSTOMER

Develop a clear picture of your target customer using market research and analysis.

Understand their pain points and the benefits of your solution.

2. ANALYZE THE MARKET

Some basic market research should allow you to find market data such as total available market, market growth (historical numbers and projections), market trends, etc.

3. ANALYZE THE COMPETITION

Ask yourself what other choices your target customers have to solve their pain point. Research and assess the strengths and weaknesses of each. Take a look at this article for more info on competitive marketing strategy.

4. RESEARCH DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS

What is the best way to deliver your product or service to your target customers? This will impact your sales strategy and your financials, as well as your marketing mix.

5. DEFINE YOUR MARKETING MIX

Check out this article about defining your marketing mix: Product, Price, Place and promotion.

6. ANALYZE THE FINANCIALS

Put together your marketing budget and evaluate projected marketing ROI, customer acquisition costs, etc.

7. REVIEW AND REVISE

Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing strategy, and revise or extend as needed.

IMPLEMENTING THE MARKETING STRATEGY PROCESS

How do you make this marketing strategy process work for you? Our ebook will step you through the process and how to apply it to your business, with workbooks and checklists that you can use as you go. You can download the ebook as well as other useful marketing templates in our Seven Steps Marketing Store here.

For help in developing a marketing strategy, check out this article on marketing strategy planning.