How to Create a Marketing Strategy

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A Marketing strategy is a must for any business. It will hold the details of how you expect to promote your business, nurture customers and reach the right audience.

However, a marketing strategy can seem daunting because it’s such a crucial part of your business and it can seem like a lot when looking at it from a distance.

This blog will show you the fundamentals and by the end, you’ll have put together a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Content Directory

  1. What is a Marketing Strategy
  2. The Parts of a Marketing Strategy
  3. The Process of Creating a Marketing Strategy
  4. Staying Flexible
  5. Next Steps

What is a Marketing Strategy

A marketing strategy is a plan that outlines how a business will achieve its marketing goals using online channels and tactics. It involves using digital platforms such as social media, email, and paid advertising to reach and engage a target audience, drive traffic, and convert visitors into customers.

The Parts of a Marketing Strategy

These are the components that go into building a full marketing strategy. Each section has its benefits, and they all work together to ensure the best possible outcomes for your marketing initiatives.

The Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is a foundational model that refers to the set of actions a company uses to promote its brand, products or service. The traditional marketing mix is made of 4 elements, known as the 4 Ps:

Product

  • What is it: the goods or services a business offers to its customers
  • Why it matters: A business must develop products that meet the needs and wants of its target market. This includes decisions about product design, features, quality, branding, and how the product stands out from competitors. This is called a unique selling point (USP).

Price

  • What is it: the amount of money customers pay to acquire the product.
  • Why it matters: Pricing strategies are crucial for balancing profitability with customer expectations. Businesses must consider factors such as production costs, competitor pricing, perceived value, and the target market’s willingness to pay.

Place

  • What it is: The channels through which the product is distributed and made available to customers.
  • Why it matters: It involves ensuring the product is in the right place at the right time. This can include physical stores, e-commerce platforms, or third-party retailers. The goal is to make it convenient for the target audience to purchase the product.

Promotion

  • What it is: The channels through which the product is distributed and made available to customers.
  • Why it matters: You would promote to generate desire from your customers. This can include physical stores, e-commerce platforms, or third-party retailers. The goal is to make it convenient for the target audience to purchase the product.

Marketing Goals

Your goals will be defined by what you want to achieve with your marketing efforts. Whether it’s to increase brand awareness, generate leads, increase website traffic or any other objective. You’ll want to have your goals set before you put the strategy together as they will inform how the rest of the strategy is made.

Goals should be specific. You can achieve this by working with SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) to help keep it clear.

These aren’t set in stone. Goals are made to be flexible, and you can always change whatever you need.

Target Audience and Audience Segmentation

A target audience is a specific group of people who are most likely to be interested in and benefit from your product or service.

Audience segmentation is the process of dividing a broad target audience into smaller, more specific groups based on shared characteristics like demographics, psychographics geographics, firmographics and behaviours.

Buyer Personas represent your ideal customers in those segments. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional character based on real data that includes age, gender, income, location, hobbies, values, interests and even behavioural traits.

This allows businesses to create personalised marketing strategies that cater to the unique needs, preferences, and behaviours of each segment. By delivering the right messages to the right segments, businesses can increase engagement, improve customer experiences and drive better results.

Marketing Budget

A marketing budget is a financial plan that outlines the amount of money a business allocates to its marketing efforts over a specific period, usually monthly, quarterly, or annually. It covers all expenses related to:

  • Promoting Products or Services
  • Advertising
  • Content Creation
  • Digital Marketing
  • Social media
  • Events

The goal of a marketing budget is to ensure that resources are effectively allocated to achieve the company’s marketing objectives, such as increasing brand awareness, driving sales, and engaging customers.

Research

Market Research is the process of gathering and analysing information about a market, including insights into customer needs, behaviours and preferences.

Competitive analysis is a type of market research where you review your competitors’ marketing presence and what their customers are saying to determine their strengths, weaknesses, strategies and market position.

Completing a comprehensive SWOT analysis can help identify opportunities and threats in the market, enabling you oversight to refine your own strategies and stay competitive. By studying competitors, you can gain insights into what works and what doesn’t in their industry, helping make more informed decisions.

Content Creation

This is the part of your strategy where you’ll create the content your audience is looking for. Your content should be valuable, relevant and consistent with your brand. You’ll develop brand messaging to keep consistency across all marketing channels.

Content includes blogging, videos, social media updates, infographics, podcasts and more. Creating content is a key component of your strategy, as it helps your business engage with its audience, build brand awareness and drive conversions.

Setting KPIs

Setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will allow you to measure the effectiveness of your strategy. KPIs aren’t static and need to be regularly reviewed and adjusted based on performance and changes in your business goals.

The Process of Building a Marketing Strategy

Now that you’ve defined all the parts of a marketing strategy, you’ll need to implement them. Here’s an overview of how you can take action step by step.

Competitor Analysis

First things first you’ll need to have a good idea of what the market looks like in your industry. Through market research, you’ll identify opportunities and reduce risks when launching new products or entering new markets.

The process typically starts by defining specific research objectives, such as understanding customer preferences, analysing competitors, or exploring potential demand for a new product. Once the goals are clear, businesses have 2 options:

  • Primary research (collecting first-hand data through surveys, interviews, or focus groups) 
  • Secondary research (using existing data like industry reports or competitor analysis).

Market research ensures that your strategy Is based on solid market data rather than assumptions.

With market research, you’ll be able to identify pain points or basically what your audience needs and how you’re going to solve it for them

Set Your Marketing Goals

Once you’ve completed your market research you’ll start to set some goals. These goals are what your marketing efforts are going to achieve.

To start setting goals ask yourself:

  • What specific outcome do I want the marketing to achieve?
  • Are my goals SMART?
  • How will these goals impact my business?
  • How will I adjust if my goals aren’t met?

Identify The Target Audience

When finding your target audience, you’ll need to consider the product or services you’re offering.

For example, CH4B gives business owners back time and reduces overwhelm using vetted expert partners, learning resources and business support and coaching. It can be used by any business but SMEs are the target audience because they’re most likely to need the services we offer.

Having already done competitor research you can start to imagine what kind of people would be interested in a business like yours.

Once you know who you’re targeting, segment the audience into smaller groups based on shared characteristics like demographics, behaviour, or interests.

Next, develop buyer personas—semi-fictional profiles representing each segment—detailing their specific needs, preferences, and pain points to tailor your messaging and approach accordingly.

Develop Your Messaging

Once you know all you can about who you’re talking to and their needs it’s time to present your USP and how your product or service is everything they’re looking for.

Here are some key considerations when developing your messaging:

  • USP: Clearly state what sets your product or service apart.
  • Benefits Not Features: Translate product features into benefits that solve customer problems. Translate the product features into the value it brings and how it brings that value before what the product is and does.
  • Craft Core Messaging: Develop 3-5 core messages that reflect your brand’s mission, values and key benefits. (These should align with your USP
  • Tone: Choose a tone of voice that matches your brand (e.g., casual, formal, professional, friendly).
  • Address customer Pain Points: Identify common challenges your audience faces and position your product as the solution to those pain points.
  • Keep It clear and concise: Avoid jargon or complexity. Focus on clear, simple messaging.

It may be necessary to adapt your messaging for different channels but ensure that all your messaging keeps consistency.

Pick Your Marketing Channels:

There are many marketing channels to choose from, each with unique strengths and characteristics. Choosing the right ones depends on your target audience, marketing goals and resources.

Here are a few examples:

Content Marketing:

  • Types: Blog posts, infographics, videos, eBooks, case studies
  • What it’s good for: Providing valuable information to educate and engage your audience. Content marketing helps build brand authority and improve SEO.
  • Best for: B2B and B2C companies looking to educate their customers or drive organic traffic. Great for industries where knowledge and expertise are important (e.g., finance, health, technology).

Email Marketing:

  • Platforms: Mailchimp, HubSpot and UseTrackable
  • What it’s good for: Building customer relationships, nurturing leads, and driving repeat business through targeted emails.
  • Best for: Businesses with a growing email list that want to send personalised or automated content (e.g., newsletters, promotional emails). Ideal for nurturing leads and driving customer retention.

Magazine Advertising

  • Platforms: Print magazines (Vogue, Wired, Time), Digital magazines, Niche publications.
  • What it’s good for: Reaching niche or targeted audiences through specialized publications, high-quality visuals that allow for luxury product presentations and extended shelf life for repeated exposure to readers.
  • Best for: Luxury brands and products that benefit from premium visual appeal, businesses targeting specific demographics (e.g., fashion, technology, health) and companies looking to build brand credibility with authoritative publications.

Paid Media:

  • Platforms: Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads
  • What it’s good for: Paid ads that appear at the top of search engine results or social media feeds. Great for immediate traffic and leads.
  • Best for: Businesses with a budget for advertising and clear conversion goals and tactics (e.g., e-commerce, lead generation, local businesses). PPC is particularly effective when targeting high-intent users.

Radio and TV Marketing:

  • Platforms: Local radio stations, National radio, Internet radio (Spotify, Pandora).
  • What it’s good for: Reaching local audiences or specific demographics, targeting commuters during drive times and an affordable option for creating consistent brand awareness.
  • Best for: Local businesses like restaurants, retailers, and service providers, brands looking to announce events or promotions to a regional audience and businesses seeking cost-effective marketing to reach a large, but specific, audience.

Social Media Marketing:

  • Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest.
  • What it’s good for: Building brand awareness, engaging with customers, and creating a community. Social media platforms are ideal for visual content, conversations, and customer interaction.
  • Best for: B2C, B2B, startups, small businesses, and personal brands. Each platform has a specific audience—LinkedIn is great for B2B and professional networks, while Instagram and TikTok are better for younger, visually-driven audiences. Find out which platform is best for your business.

Tip: Before investing in paid ads, ensure that your conversion process is smooth and efficient. A consistent and optimised conversion rate means that visitors are successfully moving from initial interest to completed actions (such as a purchase or sign-up) without unnecessary friction.

If you’re paying for top-of-the-funnel leads but they drop out halfway through due to complications like a confusing checkout process, unclear calls to action or your sales team is struggling to close sales, you’ll lose potential customers and diminish your return on investment (ROI).

Analyse the Data

Data is one of the most important parts of marketing because it tells you if and how well your efforts are working and if you’re on target to reach your KPIs.

Utilise tools like Google Analytics, social media insights, and CRM systems to gather and monitor data.

Focus on specific metrics for each marketing channel—like click-through rates for email campaigns or engagement metrics for social media—to determine which strategies are delivering the best results.

Staying Flexible

In business unexpected changes may strike. This is why it’s important to keep reviewing your marketing and data to be best prepared for minor mishaps or even a bigger crisis.

Also don’t forget about major holidays and certain events like Christmas and Black Friday/Cyber Monday. These events can bring great opportunities for your marketing efforts and spending extra time preparing for them early is worth it.

Whether you’re offering discounts or special offers, people are looking to spend money during this period, so it pays to be ready and get your business front of mind.

Next Steps

After building your marketing strategy the next step will be to start rolling out the strategy across your chosen channels, such as social media, email marketing, paid ads, or content marketing.

Launching a marketing strategy also needs to be supported by a strong sales process. CH4B and our Experts can support to ensure the marketing strategy blends with the overall business strategy

CH4B have helped businesses develop the perfect marketing strategy for them and we can do the same for you too.

No more overwhelming marketing jargon and complicated steps. With guidance from one of our strategic business advisors, you’ll always have someone to help with questions and keep you accountable.

Book a call today to see how we can help and don’t miss our upcoming Expert Insights webinar, “Developing a Sales-Generating Marketing Strategy for Your Business” with Paul Rees Associates to gain expert insights on building a strategy that works! Register Now.

Upcoming Webinar "Developing a Sales-Generating Marketing Strategy for Your Business" in Partnership with CH4B Expert, Paul Rees Associates. 28th November 2024 12:00-13:00


 

Spotlight on Stories & Insights

How to Create a Marketing Strategy

A Marketing strategy is a must for any business. It will hold the details of how you expect to promote your business, nurture customers and reach the right audience.

However, a marketing strategy can seem daunting because it’s such a crucial part of your business and it can seem like a lot when looking at it from a distance.

This blog will show you the fundamentals and by the end, you’ll have put together a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Content Directory

  1. What is a Marketing Strategy
  2. The Parts of a Marketing Strategy
  3. The Process of Creating a Marketing Strategy
  4. Staying Flexible
  5. Next Steps

What is a Marketing Strategy

A marketing strategy is a plan that outlines how a business will achieve its marketing goals using online channels and tactics. It involves using digital platforms such as social media, email, and paid advertising to reach and engage a target audience, drive traffic, and convert visitors into customers.

The Parts of a Marketing Strategy

These are the components that go into building a full marketing strategy. Each section has its benefits, and they all work together to ensure the best possible outcomes for your marketing initiatives.

The Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is a foundational model that refers to the set of actions a company uses to promote its brand, products or service. The traditional marketing mix is made of 4 elements, known as the 4 Ps:

Product

  • What is it: the goods or services a business offers to its customers
  • Why it matters: A business must develop products that meet the needs and wants of its target market. This includes decisions about product design, features, quality, branding, and how the product stands out from competitors. This is called a unique selling point (USP).

Price

  • What is it: the amount of money customers pay to acquire the product.
  • Why it matters: Pricing strategies are crucial for balancing profitability with customer expectations. Businesses must consider factors such as production costs, competitor pricing, perceived value, and the target market’s willingness to pay.

Place

  • What it is: The channels through which the product is distributed and made available to customers.
  • Why it matters: It involves ensuring the product is in the right place at the right time. This can include physical stores, e-commerce platforms, or third-party retailers. The goal is to make it convenient for the target audience to purchase the product.

Promotion

  • What it is: The channels through which the product is distributed and made available to customers.
  • Why it matters: You would promote to generate desire from your customers. This can include physical stores, e-commerce platforms, or third-party retailers. The goal is to make it convenient for the target audience to purchase the product.

Marketing Goals

Your goals will be defined by what you want to achieve with your marketing efforts. Whether it’s to increase brand awareness, generate leads, increase website traffic or any other objective. You’ll want to have your goals set before you put the strategy together as they will inform how the rest of the strategy is made.

Goals should be specific. You can achieve this by working with SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) to help keep it clear.

These aren’t set in stone. Goals are made to be flexible, and you can always change whatever you need.

Target Audience and Audience Segmentation

A target audience is a specific group of people who are most likely to be interested in and benefit from your product or service.

Audience segmentation is the process of dividing a broad target audience into smaller, more specific groups based on shared characteristics like demographics, psychographics geographics, firmographics and behaviours.

Buyer Personas represent your ideal customers in those segments. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional character based on real data that includes age, gender, income, location, hobbies, values, interests and even behavioural traits.

This allows businesses to create personalised marketing strategies that cater to the unique needs, preferences, and behaviours of each segment. By delivering the right messages to the right segments, businesses can increase engagement, improve customer experiences and drive better results.

Marketing Budget

A marketing budget is a financial plan that outlines the amount of money a business allocates to its marketing efforts over a specific period, usually monthly, quarterly, or annually. It covers all expenses related to:

  • Promoting Products or Services
  • Advertising
  • Content Creation
  • Digital Marketing
  • Social media
  • Events

The goal of a marketing budget is to ensure that resources are effectively allocated to achieve the company’s marketing objectives, such as increasing brand awareness, driving sales, and engaging customers.

Research

Market Research is the process of gathering and analysing information about a market, including insights into customer needs, behaviours and preferences.

Competitive analysis is a type of market research where you review your competitors’ marketing presence and what their customers are saying to determine their strengths, weaknesses, strategies and market position.

Completing a comprehensive SWOT analysis can help identify opportunities and threats in the market, enabling you oversight to refine your own strategies and stay competitive. By studying competitors, you can gain insights into what works and what doesn’t in their industry, helping make more informed decisions.

Content Creation

This is the part of your strategy where you’ll create the content your audience is looking for. Your content should be valuable, relevant and consistent with your brand. You’ll develop brand messaging to keep consistency across all marketing channels.

Content includes blogging, videos, social media updates, infographics, podcasts and more. Creating content is a key component of your strategy, as it helps your business engage with its audience, build brand awareness and drive conversions.

Setting KPIs

Setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will allow you to measure the effectiveness of your strategy. KPIs aren’t static and need to be regularly reviewed and adjusted based on performance and changes in your business goals.

The Process of Building a Marketing Strategy

Now that you’ve defined all the parts of a marketing strategy, you’ll need to implement them. Here’s an overview of how you can take action step by step.

Competitor Analysis

First things first you’ll need to have a good idea of what the market looks like in your industry. Through market research, you’ll identify opportunities and reduce risks when launching new products or entering new markets.

The process typically starts by defining specific research objectives, such as understanding customer preferences, analysing competitors, or exploring potential demand for a new product. Once the goals are clear, businesses have 2 options:

  • Primary research (collecting first-hand data through surveys, interviews, or focus groups) 
  • Secondary research (using existing data like industry reports or competitor analysis).

Market research ensures that your strategy Is based on solid market data rather than assumptions.

With market research, you’ll be able to identify pain points or basically what your audience needs and how you’re going to solve it for them

Set Your Marketing Goals

Once you’ve completed your market research you’ll start to set some goals. These goals are what your marketing efforts are going to achieve.

To start setting goals ask yourself:

  • What specific outcome do I want the marketing to achieve?
  • Are my goals SMART?
  • How will these goals impact my business?
  • How will I adjust if my goals aren’t met?

Identify The Target Audience

When finding your target audience, you’ll need to consider the product or services you’re offering.

For example, CH4B gives business owners back time and reduces overwhelm using vetted expert partners, learning resources and business support and coaching. It can be used by any business but SMEs are the target audience because they’re most likely to need the services we offer.

Having already done competitor research you can start to imagine what kind of people would be interested in a business like yours.

Once you know who you’re targeting, segment the audience into smaller groups based on shared characteristics like demographics, behaviour, or interests.

Next, develop buyer personas—semi-fictional profiles representing each segment—detailing their specific needs, preferences, and pain points to tailor your messaging and approach accordingly.

Develop Your Messaging

Once you know all you can about who you’re talking to and their needs it’s time to present your USP and how your product or service is everything they’re looking for.

Here are some key considerations when developing your messaging:

  • USP: Clearly state what sets your product or service apart.
  • Benefits Not Features: Translate product features into benefits that solve customer problems. Translate the product features into the value it brings and how it brings that value before what the product is and does.
  • Craft Core Messaging: Develop 3-5 core messages that reflect your brand’s mission, values and key benefits. (These should align with your USP
  • Tone: Choose a tone of voice that matches your brand (e.g., casual, formal, professional, friendly).
  • Address customer Pain Points: Identify common challenges your audience faces and position your product as the solution to those pain points.
  • Keep It clear and concise: Avoid jargon or complexity. Focus on clear, simple messaging.

It may be necessary to adapt your messaging for different channels but ensure that all your messaging keeps consistency.

Pick Your Marketing Channels:

There are many marketing channels to choose from, each with unique strengths and characteristics. Choosing the right ones depends on your target audience, marketing goals and resources.

Here are a few examples:

Content Marketing:

  • Types: Blog posts, infographics, videos, eBooks, case studies
  • What it’s good for: Providing valuable information to educate and engage your audience. Content marketing helps build brand authority and improve SEO.
  • Best for: B2B and B2C companies looking to educate their customers or drive organic traffic. Great for industries where knowledge and expertise are important (e.g., finance, health, technology).

Email Marketing:

  • Platforms: Mailchimp, HubSpot and UseTrackable
  • What it’s good for: Building customer relationships, nurturing leads, and driving repeat business through targeted emails.
  • Best for: Businesses with a growing email list that want to send personalised or automated content (e.g., newsletters, promotional emails). Ideal for nurturing leads and driving customer retention.

Magazine Advertising

  • Platforms: Print magazines (Vogue, Wired, Time), Digital magazines, Niche publications.
  • What it’s good for: Reaching niche or targeted audiences through specialized publications, high-quality visuals that allow for luxury product presentations and extended shelf life for repeated exposure to readers.
  • Best for: Luxury brands and products that benefit from premium visual appeal, businesses targeting specific demographics (e.g., fashion, technology, health) and companies looking to build brand credibility with authoritative publications.

Paid Media:

  • Platforms: Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads
  • What it’s good for: Paid ads that appear at the top of search engine results or social media feeds. Great for immediate traffic and leads.
  • Best for: Businesses with a budget for advertising and clear conversion goals and tactics (e.g., e-commerce, lead generation, local businesses). PPC is particularly effective when targeting high-intent users.

Radio and TV Marketing:

  • Platforms: Local radio stations, National radio, Internet radio (Spotify, Pandora).
  • What it’s good for: Reaching local audiences or specific demographics, targeting commuters during drive times and an affordable option for creating consistent brand awareness.
  • Best for: Local businesses like restaurants, retailers, and service providers, brands looking to announce events or promotions to a regional audience and businesses seeking cost-effective marketing to reach a large, but specific, audience.

Social Media Marketing:

  • Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest.
  • What it’s good for: Building brand awareness, engaging with customers, and creating a community. Social media platforms are ideal for visual content, conversations, and customer interaction.
  • Best for: B2C, B2B, startups, small businesses, and personal brands. Each platform has a specific audience—LinkedIn is great for B2B and professional networks, while Instagram and TikTok are better for younger, visually-driven audiences. Find out which platform is best for your business.

Tip: Before investing in paid ads, ensure that your conversion process is smooth and efficient. A consistent and optimised conversion rate means that visitors are successfully moving from initial interest to completed actions (such as a purchase or sign-up) without unnecessary friction.

If you’re paying for top-of-the-funnel leads but they drop out halfway through due to complications like a confusing checkout process, unclear calls to action or your sales team is struggling to close sales, you’ll lose potential customers and diminish your return on investment (ROI).

Analyse the Data

Data is one of the most important parts of marketing because it tells you if and how well your efforts are working and if you’re on target to reach your KPIs.

Utilise tools like Google Analytics, social media insights, and CRM systems to gather and monitor data.

Focus on specific metrics for each marketing channel—like click-through rates for email campaigns or engagement metrics for social media—to determine which strategies are delivering the best results.

Staying Flexible

In business unexpected changes may strike. This is why it’s important to keep reviewing your marketing and data to be best prepared for minor mishaps or even a bigger crisis.

Also don’t forget about major holidays and certain events like Christmas and Black Friday/Cyber Monday. These events can bring great opportunities for your marketing efforts and spending extra time preparing for them early is worth it.

Whether you’re offering discounts or special offers, people are looking to spend money during this period, so it pays to be ready and get your business front of mind.

Next Steps

After building your marketing strategy the next step will be to start rolling out the strategy across your chosen channels, such as social media, email marketing, paid ads, or content marketing.

Launching a marketing strategy also needs to be supported by a strong sales process. CH4B and our Experts can support to ensure the marketing strategy blends with the overall business strategy

CH4B have helped businesses develop the perfect marketing strategy for them and we can do the same for you too.

No more overwhelming marketing jargon and complicated steps. With guidance from one of our strategic business advisors, you’ll always have someone to help with questions and keep you accountable.

Book a call today to see how we can help and don’t miss our upcoming Expert Insights webinar, “Developing a Sales-Generating Marketing Strategy for Your Business” with Paul Rees Associates to gain expert insights on building a strategy that works! Register Now.

Upcoming Webinar "Developing a Sales-Generating Marketing Strategy for Your Business" in Partnership with CH4B Expert, Paul Rees Associates. 28th November 2024 12:00-13:00