“Strategy” is an often overused buzzword during marketing and business planning discussions. If you are fuzzy about what “marketing strategy” is, this article will define and explain the components.
Simply put, marketing strategy is your game plan for achieving your goals. It’s “why” you want to achieve a particular objective, “how” you will do it, “what” it will cost, “who” will do it, and “when” will it get done.
Your small business marketing strategy should explain what objectives should be accomplished, which industries and markets you are going to do this in, and how you are going to accomplish this taking into consideration your limited resources, your environment, and your competition. A well developed strategy contains a number of components:
- Scope – how many industries and markets you will focus on and how many products and services you will offer to those industries and markets
- Goals and Objectives – what you hope to accomplish with each product or service in each market. These must be specifics such as growth by X%, increase profits by $Y, or return on investment of X%
- How you use resources – you will always be constrained – by budget, time, staff, knowledge of subject matter, government regulations, etc – so you can only do a finite number of activities to achieve your goals. How can you best utilize what you have to get where you want?
- Identifying a competitive advantage – numerous articles have been written on how to sustain a competitive advantage. Many academics have argued that in today’s information age, gaining a sustainable competitive advantage is virtually impossible. Competitors can easily look at what you do and imitate you, perhaps even improve on your current processes and beat you at your own game. This tends to be where ‘branding’ and ‘positioning’ come into play. Because so many products and services are virtually identical, marketing’s job is to make them sound different and more attractive than your competitor’s offering (without, of course, making false or fraudulent claims!)
- Synergy – this involves coordinating all your activities around your core corporate philosophy – that mission that drives your firm and makes the whole greater than each part would be by itself.
To create a solid small business marketing strategy requires a bit of planning. You don’t just wake up one morning and know all the answers.
Join our weekly Marketing Success mailing list and receive our free 43-page Small Business Marketing Plan guide. 
