From the course: Digital Marketing Foundations

How to develop a marketing strategy

From the course: Digital Marketing Foundations

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How to develop a marketing strategy

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- Developing a marketing strategy can feel overwhelming. But when you break it down, I trust that you'll come to recognize just how really straightforward it is. Marketing strategy describes how you intend to reach your target audience. And contrary to what many believe, marketing strategies aren't multi-page intensive documents that have a solution for everything. Marketing is always in motion. You'll constantly be moving from one idea to the next and iterating along the way, so it's better to have a plan that's flexible. Let me give you a high level overview. A great strategy starts with a well-defined and established foundation. You start by understanding what it is you're selling. What makes it unique? What's your value proposition? From there, it's a matter of identifying who you're selling to, and this is known as your target market. You'll need to gain an understanding of who they are, what motivates them, and how your product or service solves their problem. And you might think you already have this covered, but take a minute to think again, really think, "Who is your target market?" If you misidentify your target, this whole process can come crashing down. You can't market to everyone. You have to figure out how what you sell fits with the market that you're going after. And this means tweaking your value proposition, or your audience, until you've dialed in the right fit. And then we'll be ready to keep refining after the marketing cycle is up and running. Now, there's also the matter of looking at your competition, the size of the market you have access to, and how you stack up in the mix. This strategic approach will then have you layering in marketing channel selections alongside the customer journey so you can determine how to best persuade your prospects to buy. Marketing isn't just about the messaging, it's about the entire journey. It's about how a consumer feels while engaging with your brand, how convincing your solution to their problem is, how pleasant you make the experience, and so on. You want a marketing strategy that encompasses every touchpoint. Marketing is by no means quick or easy, and the results aren't going to be instantaneous, but if you apply yourself and work through evolving your strategy and revisiting it often, it'll start to click. Things will fall into place and you'll be moving your marketing efforts forward, piece by piece, until you really pick up momentum.

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