When mapped out constructively, a strategic marketing plan can stimulate growth for your organization by boosting conversion rates and eliminating any efforts that haven’t worked as they were expected to. In order to build out a successful plan, five key elements should be considered. In this blog, we’ll discuss these marketing elements and what they consist of.
To begin, let’s take a closer look at what a strategic marketing plan is:
What Is a Strategic Marketing Plan?
Your marketing strategy is a long-term roadmap that brings a forward-thinking approach to your organization’s overall game plan. A strategic marketing plan aims to achieve sustainable success over your competitors by getting to know who your customers are and how you can cater to their wants and needs. In short, it’s the way you differentiate yourself from the competition.
Five Key Elements of a Strategic Marketing Plan
You need to know your organization’s data before figuring out how to be better than the other guys. The five elements of your strategic marketing plan will help you identify the factors to make you stand out as you begin to create content and build a brand that speaks to your audience.
1. Goals, Mission, and Vision
What are the essential goals you want to accomplish?
Sure, you should list these easily, but that isn’t going to be enough to set your business apart. Your strategic marketing plan needs to identify exactly how its components will help your business realize its goals, mission, and vision.
2. Targeting and Positioning
Strategy should speak to your business’s strengths and match the needs of the customers you’re trying to target. Aim to send messages to the market segments that will bring the most profit to your business by offering products and services that meet their needs and solve their pain points. Your marketing strategy should make the most of your strengths and match them to the needs of the people you’re trying to target.
3. Marketing Tactics
Which channels will you use for marketing your brand? Will you stick with traditional marketing, take an all-digital route, or mix up these elements to procure a pathway that’s unique to your business? (Hint: your strategic marketing plan should never be solely analog in this day and age).
Analyze the digital marketing activities available to you so you can implement the ones that make the most sense for your operation. Be sure to employ marketing automation wherever you can because that will help you manage leads and nurture prospects while freeing up your staff to work on other aspects of procuring your business.
4. Measuring and Evaluating
How do you measure your growth? Are you evaluating if your strategy is even working?
Identify the primary key performance indicators (KPIs) you’re interested in, build baseline stats, so you know where you’re starting from, and continually analyze and measure the results of your campaign as it gets underway. Remember, your strategic marketing plan isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it situation; it needs to be continuously monitored so you can pivot any parts of it that aren’t working best for your business.
5. Refinement
Speaking of making pivots, the fifth element of your strategic marketing plan is refinement. How will you ensure your marketing plan is refined over time? As you begin to gain insights into your various campaigns and content creations, you’ll start to paint a picture of what your customers look like. This data will help you make changes to your strategic marketing plan in ways that better address your audience’s needs and expectations.
Successful Strategic Marketing Plans from ZGM
If you need help making sure your marketing strategies are on point for success, you need Zero Gravity Marketing (ZGM) by your side. Contact us today to learn more about how we can bring your brand to the next level today!
