Who doesn’t want to reach out to the maximum number of customers and earn maximum leads? So, today each business heavily relies on marketing tactics.
Strategic marketing, if I break down the term, literally means using strategy to market your product or services.
More elaborately, it means the use of certain techniques of business in a certain manner that your product/service comes across to your target customer as something unique and different from your competitors. It is the use of smart marketing to showcase your product’s strengths and create a conversion.
The idea of strategic marketing is to change how things process in your present organization’s marketing tactics such that the appeal to the consumers is very fresh and direct.
The use of creative ideas and a whole marketing mix is used to basically bring about a change in all the engagements happening across customers and the company.
It requires first understanding the fundamental framework of the company, then its goals and aspirations. Later, you design a new methodology to gain the traction required.
Valentin Radu, CEO, Founder, Blogger, Speaker, and Podcaster at Omniconvert, talked to the Icy Whiz team and advocated data-driven flexible strategies for long-term success. Here is what he said:
“Marketing strategies need to be both flexible and informed by real data. At Omniconvert, we’ve seen firsthand how consumer behaviors are quickly evolving, driven by new technologies and broad societal changes.
Our approach is centered on tapping into customer data to guide our marketing efforts. By doing so, we’re continually experimenting and discovering what truly appeals to our audience, which is crucial for achieving long-term success.
For us, making our communications and products as personalized as possible has been essential in increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Today’s businesses need to focus on staying relevant, quick to respond, and strong enough to adapt to constant changes, not just on outdoing the competition.”
Let Me Explain to You the Phases Involved in the Strategic Marketing Planning Process
Strategic marketing involves a step-by-step process to achieve your end goal. It basically provides a direction for the company’s entire work and also the execution of operations and processes.
You first consider your demographics, customer base, working environment, and the competitive advantage that you have, and then form a specifically curated marketing plan.
Let’s discuss the four phases in which this is done.
1. Planning Phase
The primary analysis is across all sectors of the company and its marketing strategy. This involves the technological aspects, strengths, and weaknesses along with other factors required to prepare the final marketing plan.
- Goal Setting– Once you have a complete analysis of the present day, you can now formulate a goal based on your long-term and short-term targets. This will include accounting for all the resources required to market your product/service in a manner that buying or availing of them becomes a non-negotiable scenario for your customers.
- The Four P’s– Everything is now onboard. The next step is to focus on the four P’s which are price, place, product, and promotion. Strategies of where, when, what, and how have to be discussed basically with option B always, in case anything backfires.
We interviewed Marco Genaro Palma, Freelance CMO and SEO Consultant, GenaroPalma.com, and talked about his approach to strategic marketing in today’s dynamic business landscape. Here is what he had to say:
“Today’s consumers are increasingly concerned about sustainability and corporate responsibility. Brands that prioritize environmentally friendly practices, ethical sourcing, and transparency in their marketing efforts are likely to resonate more with consumers.
This not only helps in building a positive brand image but also aligns with the values of a growing segment of the market that prioritizes sustainability.”
2. Implementation Phase
This is like an action phase. You bring on board all the resources required for achieving your end goal, make the final schedules and timelines, and start processing the same. All tasks have to be allocated now, and small targets have to be finished quickly to achieve the final stage.
3. Evaluation Phase
This is when everything is running and in place. Here, you need to go and see all that needs to be fixed in the pipeline. If there is any bottleneck, you fix that situation. You make the last-minute edits, and spontaneous hits and trials at this stage to make sure the working of the entire marketing plan is smooth.
In an interview with the Icy Whiz team, Neil Hodgson-Coyle, COO at TechNews180, believed using memorable experiential approaches can benefit your marketing strategy. Here is an excerpt from the interview:
“In today’s business landscape, strategic marketing requires using memorable experiential approaches that engage with consumer behavior and utilize technological advancements.
For example, this involves creating immersive experiences like pop-up events, interactive installations, or virtual reality journeys that deeply engage customers in our brand narrative.
Such initiatives foster stronger connections and drive long-term loyalty by offering special interactions that go beyond traditional advertising. This way, companies can surge in growth and stay competitive with improved brand affinity.”
Various New Marketing Strategies Can Be Followed for Higher Growth
Anything targeted has a better reach, and so is valid with anything limited to a particular company, place, or work.
Niche specialization has thus become a very important aspect of strategic marketing. As there will be no geographical or marketing limitations due to the huge presence and use of new communications technology.
All the marketing has to be everywhere. This implies not limiting your marketing to online or offline, but making it available everywhere or anywhere the customer might look. In this era of advancement in digitalization focus on 360-degree marketing. Emphasise increased visibility and cover all untouched areas.
If you are providing your customer with bread, try to provide him with butter and jam as well. More technically, try to provide bundles of both product and service so that he/she does not have to wander elsewhere to get their work done.
Provide them with a complete solution on the door and they will choose you over other players in this manner.
Say you’re providing a service serving a set of customers X. Eventually, you realize that a set of customers Y can also use your service. But now you’re skeptical about selling this to Y without diluting the brand image you built by selling to X.
In such a case you use sub-branding. Sub-branding involves the use of a parent brand and with it, you make sub-brand labels and serve newer markets.
It’s time for you to make suitable changes in your business models to stay relevant and utilize the present technology to achieve better and more efficient results.
Artificial intelligence is also making a lot of processes very easy. So, explore what changes can be brought about in your organization’s work and bring them along for better customer reach and better sales.
The Icy Whiz team interviewed Robert Bolder, Founder of VPS Server, on this. With his expertise in marketing strategies, he shared some valuable insights. Here is what he said:
“The dynamic nature of customer behavior necessitates a shift in strategic marketing towards consumer-centric approaches. It becomes crucial to comprehend the preferences, needs, and pain points of the consumer.
By utilizing data analytics and market research, brands may predict changes in consumer behavior and adjust their marketing strategies appropriately.
Agile approaches make it possible to quickly adjust campaigns to shifting trends and keep them relevant. Furthermore, targeted marketing campaigns create stronger bonds with customers, increasing advocacy and brand loyalty.
By putting the customer at the center of strategic choices, businesses may successfully navigate changing market environments and hold onto a competitive edge.”
Strategic marketing is the new way to ensure that your company’s goals in marketing are fully met. It is a means to ensure that you are thriving and flourishing continuously in your working environment.
All decisions in marketing are made in a way that your strategy to achieve the end goal is fulfilled completely and done in a planned and organized manner.
We have seen the world is getting ahead every day, with innovations in the field of digital media and marketing. So to keep a good marketing strategy we have to keep up with the times and make changes in our marketing plans. It’s essential to stay relevant and ensure that our mission and values are met.
Guest Author: Saket Kumar
Last Updated on May 12, 2024 by Pragya
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