What Does Marketing Strategy Mean? – All You Need to Know, Latest Trends & More   

A marketing strategy is a detailed plan that you devise to dictate what tactics you will use to achieve certain marketing-related goals.

In today’s day and age, digital marketing strategies are much more prevalent compared to strategies that involve traditional marketing methods. 

It’s important that you’re aware of all the facets of a marketing strategy so that you can devise an effective one for your brand. 

What Does Marketing Strategy Mean?

A marketing strategy is a plan that dictates the tactics and techniques you will use to achieve specific goals for your brand. 

These goals can be anything from improving conversion rates to increasing brand awareness. 

A marketing strategy takes into account the aspects where your brand is doing well and aspects that need improvement. It then dictates how the former can be further improved and the latter can be changed or altered to produce better results. 

Check out everything there is to know about marketing and marketing strategies.

What’s the Difference Between a Marketing Strategy And a Marketing Tactic? 

We often see these two terms being used interchangeably and it makes us cringe since they’re two completely separate things. 

A marketing strategy is an overall plan that defines how your brand hopes to achieve the goals that it has set for itself. On the other hand, a marketing tactic is an actionable step that you will take to achieve one of those goals. 

Essentially, a marketing strategy consists of multiple marketing tactics that work to achieve a specific marketing-related goal for a brand. 

What’s the Difference Between a Marketing Strategy And a Marketing Plan? 

Another term that people often use interchangeably with a marketing strategy is a marketing plan. 

They are not the same thing. 

A marketing plan is an overarching plan that you have for your brand. It consists of all the goals that you hope to achieve for your brand and the different marketing strategies you will use to achieve those goals. 

Hence, a marketing plan consists of multiple marketing strategies. Each strategy loosely connects to one another in order to sustain a large marketing operation for your business. 

A marketing strategy, as we explained earlier, dictates the steps your brand will take in order to achieve particular goals. Hence, each strategy is typically defined to achieve one or a couple of goals such as increasing brand recognition, lead generation, etc. 

A marketing strategy typically consists of three components: 

• The goal that you want to achieve 
• A policy or approach that is defined to dictate how that goal will be achieved 
• A defined set of actions that the business will take in order to facilitate that approach 

Oftentimes when you develop a marketing strategy with your marketing team, things can become overwhelming. If that happens, you can always refer back to these three points to bring things back into perspective. 

Want to know the different components of marketing strategy? CLICK HERE.

What is a Digital Marketing Strategy?

A digital marketing strategy describes the set of actions that your brand will take in order to market itself effectively in the digital space. 

It involves developing an online presence through the use of digital marketing tactics such as SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, paid ads, and more. 

The usual goal of a digital marketing strategy is to increase a brand’s presence online so that it attracts new customers. 

How to Create a Successful Marketing Strategy (Step-by-Step Guide) 

There are a few simple steps you can take to develop an initial marketing strategy for your brand. It’s important to have marketing goals laid out as well as approaches that you hope to take to achieve those marketing goals. 

We always recommend new business owners spend a hefty amount of time developing their marketing plans and strategies. Nothing good ever comes from jumping straight into implementation without having a strategy defined for it. 

Follow these steps to develop a marketing strategy: 

Step 1: Conduct Market Research 

First off, you have to define who your target audience is and what the different market segments within that target audience are. 

It can be a good idea to develop buyer personas which are a description of the ideal buyer for your brand. 

You can define a buyer persona by defining different traits of the ideal buyer for your brand such as: 

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Geographical location
4. Job
5. Income 
6. Interests 

And more. 

When you have a clear idea of what type of people would be interested in your brand, it can help you define a clear marketing strategy for them. You’ll know exactly the type of brand content that will resonate with them and you’ll have an easier time intriguing them. 

Step 2: Identify Goals 

The goals of your marketing strategy should reflect the overall business goals of your brand. 

For example, if you have a business goal to reach annual revenue of $200,000, then a goal of your marketing strategy should be to increase conversions by 10% by the end of the month. 

This goal would help your brand stay on track to achieve the former business goal. 

It can be a good idea to go over what your business goals are so that it can help you identify the minor goals for your brand marketing strategy. 

Step 3: Identify the Tools Needed And Buy Them 

You may need certain digital marketing tools to help conduct different marketing campaigns. 

A good marketing strategy lists all of the tools that would be needed for it. Hence, based on what type of campaigns you want to run as part of your marketing strategy, you should list the tools that you will need. 

For example, if one of the goals of your marketing strategy is to increase the number of subscribers to your email newsletter, you may need email marketing software for it. 

You should define which email marketing tool you want to buy and use that could give you a competitive advantage within the target market. 

Step 4: Develop Your Content 

When you have defined a target market, you’ll have a better idea of what type of content they will be more responsive to. 

What are some of the examples of targeted markets?

For example, if your product or service is geared towards teenagers, then poppy, flashy content will be much more effective. Content that evokes an emotional response will resonate a lot more compared to informational content. 

On the other hand, if your product or service is aimed toward middle-aged individuals, then informational content might be a lot better. 

You must define what type of content would work best for your brand and then proceed to create that content. 

Step 5: Identify the Best Approaches And Channels to Distribute Your Content 

Next, you must define what type of platforms would work best for you to distribute your content. 

Again, your target customers will help you define this as you must figure out which channels they frequent most. 

For example, if you target millennials, you’d find success on platforms like Twitter and Instagram. These are the platforms that millennials frequent most. 

Platforms like Twitter present the issue of a character limit. It can be difficult to explain the unique value proposition through key brand messaging with a character limit. It’s made especially more difficult if you have to include a link to your website as well. 

To solve this problem, you can use a link shortener such as Pixelfy to shorten the link to your brand website or online store.

To learn what is a channel marketing strategy, click here.

Wrapping Things Up…

Your marketing strategy outlines the policy and approaches your business will take in order to achieve certain marketing goals. 

If you define it properly, it can easily help you achieve a sustainable competitive advantage within your particular niche. 

We encourage you to spend a significant amount of time refining your marketing strategy. A strong foundation is something that can be the key factor in achieving a competitive advantage within your industry. 

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