Marketing Strategy Ideas
Your marketing strategy helps you map out your company's marketing goals and your plan for achieving them, and takes into account any anticipated moves of your competitors in the marketplace. A marketing strategy should include a section that describes your target market, one that talks about how you differentiate your product or service in the marketplace, another that describes your marketing mix, and one that outlines an action plan for allocating your resources.
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Determining Your Target Market
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A key part of your marketing strategy is determining your target market, and there are several ideas you can use to do this. Talk to industry trade groups, small business organizations and your local Chamber of Commerce about target markets in industries that are similar to yours. Conduct online research related to your industry, and search for demographic and psychographic information such as household income, media use and technology preferences for your target market. For example, if your business is in the healthcare industry, use specific search terms to conduct your research like "healthcare," "statistics," "target market" and "demographics."
Understanding Your Key Differentiators
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Determining how your product or service is different from your competitors' products and services is an important part of your marketing strategy. One idea for helping you identify your differentiating factors is to answer the question "How does my product or service solve the problems my target customers have?" Write a list of your product's features and benefits. Features describe what a product does. For example, a feature for a dietary supplement might be "low sugar." Benefits describe what your product does for the customer. For the dietary supplement example, a benefit would be "lose weight and feel great without the sugar crash."
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Figuring Out Your Marketing Mix
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The marketing mix is composed of the "four P's" of price, product, place and promotion. First, describe the pricing strategy for your product. Next, identify key product attributes. Then, identify the distribution channels for your product. Lastly, communicate the tactics you will use to promote your product. Use your marketing mix to help you understand strengths and weaknesses of your product.
Developing Your Marketing Strategy and Plan
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There are several ideas you can use to help you write your marketing plan and strategy. First, describe your marketing strategy goals and objectives. Write a section about your target market, using the ideas you implemented in Step 2. State your key differentiating factors and marketing mix elements. Communicate which marketing tactics for your marketing strategy, and include a timeline for each tactic. It's always a good idea to communicate how you will measure and test the return on investment for each of your marketing tactics, too.
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