5 Reasons Every Business Needs a Marketing Strategy.
All over the world, businesses are built on systems and structures. These systems and structures guide the growth and sustainability of such businesses. One of the most important systems for any business in the world is Marketing.
Firms and establishments of all kinds and sizes are developing marketing strategies to keep their businesses afloat and sustainable too.
But most often, the idea of marketing and marketing strategy remains a far-fetched idea for some startups and mid-weight companies.
In this article, we take a look at some reasons why every business needs a marketing strategy.
What is a Marketing Strategy?
Just as a Business Plan is, a Marketing Strategy is the full-blown detailed plan created particularly for achieving the marketing objectives of the organization. Marketing objectives lay out what your business seeks to achieve in the sales market.
So, a marketing strategy would provide a blueprint for attaining a goal such as the number of customers you intend to have over a certain period, the growth rate of sales, and how you want the consumers to view your brand. The marketing strategy is the building block of a marketing plan. It is designed after detailed marketing research.
A marketing strategy helps an organization to concentrate its scarce resources on the best possible opportunities to increase sales.
Marketing strategy is a plan to reach and engage your target audience. It involves understanding your customers, identifying unique selling points, and choosing the right channels to promote your product or service. Effective strategies align with business goals, adapt to market changes, and build a brand presence to drive success.
Why Your Business Needs a Marketing Strategy
The sustainability of your business relies greatly on what you can do as part of your marketing activities and how your customer inflow grows over the periods.
Find below, 5 reasons why your business needs a marketing strategy to stay afloat.
5.Helps to determine appropriate prices
Price is everything in marketing. Part of a marketing strategy is setting the right price for your product or service based on what you learned in your market research. If you learned that customers want a high-end product in your category, your pricing strategy might require you to sell at prices that create a high-end perceived value.
If your target customer is bargain conscious and is willing to accept fewer bells and whistles on your product in exchange for paying less, your pricing strategy will require you to sell at or below the competition’s price. While price discrimination may do the trick with some customers, others equate high prices to product quality and effectiveness.
Your price can rake in customers or drive off customers. So a marketing strategy is important in identifying where to peg your price.
4. Marketing strategy provides an organization with an edge over its competitors.
Having a thought out and informed strategy helps filter out the distractions of less effective tools, tactics, and personas so you can stay competitive in your market. In a market plan, research conducted helps to carve a niche for yourself.
Once you find your niche, the marketing strategy is then tailored to outwit or perform better than the existing competitors. Abiding by the guidelines of your marketing strategy helps your marketing team stay focused on your brand’s mission, vision, values, and goals. Remember, the sales fight is not won without a strategy!
Marketing strategy provides a competitive edge by helping an organization:
- Differentiate: It highlights unique features, making the brand stand out.
- Target Effectively: Identifying and catering to the right audience improves efficiency.
- Optimize Resources: Focused efforts save time and resources.
- Build Brand Equity: Consistent strategies enhance brand reputation and recognition.
- Adapt to Market Changes: Agility in adjusting strategies keeps the brand relevant in dynamic markets.
3. It increases your efficiency and increases the impact
When you have a marketing strategy, your departments can better work with each other, because they are all working from the same plan. Thus, everyone knows what their roles are and they strive to meet their target. Resources are therefore well-managed with high output. When the advertising unit understands the market, crafting appealing and persuasive messages would be easy.
Your salespeople will talk with the people responsible for managing your image to determine if they can offer discounts, coupons, or rebates without damaging your brand. So rather than draining the coffers of your company experimenting with what does not work (because you do not have a well-researched strategy), the economic power is centred on a strategy that brings results.
2. You have a yardstick for measuring success
There is no way you can manage what you do not measure. Market assessment and sales growth go hand-in-hand. A marketing strategy will help you define what success looks like for your company and how you can measure that success. The goals you set within your marketing strategy will inform when you can confidently say your company is doing well or is not.
You will know which activities were successful for you and which need tweaking for the future. As a result of the existing plan that contains the target and the means to achieve that target, it becomes easy to do an appraisal and re-strategize where necessary. A marketing strategy would therefore assist you to determine the changing trends of the market and readjust in a competitive environment.
1.Gives you knowledge of who your customers are
There is no market if there is no customer. Who are you selling to? What does the person desire? Why would the person desire Product “A” over “B”? How many people out there would readily accept my product or service? How would you pull those who may not be open ready to accept your product over to the side?
These questions are answered in the steps of preparing a marketing strategy and arms you with knowledge of your customers. Marketing strategy defines your target customer/market so that you know exactly who needs your business.
Your messaging (advertisements and hypes) is more meaningful to the right people (whom you already know) in the right time and context. Make it easier for your customers, clients, or patients to make their next step or decision! Hence, you can tailor your products and services to suit them.
Eventually, sales would constantly be high because your goods or services find favour with the market. The company builds a lasting long-term customer base to keep you in a flourishing business.
Conclusion
The essence of a marketing strategy can only be downplayed. Today’s business world presents lots of challenges and competitions. So, the best way to keep afloat is for you to have a strategy and stick to it.
When you have a clear understanding of who you are as a company, who you seek to satisfy on the market, and the smart way to satisfy your customer, you exude confidence and professionalism.
We hope this article on why every business must have a marketing strategy, was helpful to you. If you’d like to get help with developing marketing strategies for your business, you can contact us here.