In business, strategy is everything, we all know that. But when it comes to marketing, so many still take a ‘suck it and see’ mentality. Marketing trends are evolving continuously, which makes having a plan for your business, whether it’s revised quarterly or annually, more important than ever.

Shockingly, some 49% of businesses don’t have a clearly defined marketing strategy in place, particularly on the digital front, which can pose some rather underwhelming results in terms of engagement, customer reach and web traffic. Along with limited in-house resources and lack of content, lack of strategy is one of the biggest challenges that businesses have to overcome to find success online, so why is having a strategy so important? Here we take a look at the benefits as well as give you the advice you need to develop and implement a finely tuned marketing strategy of your own.

Why go all out with strategy planning

There are tons of plus points that go hand-in-hand with planning your marketing strategy to a tee. A great marketing strategy has the power to increase brand recognition, grow your market share, and enhance your online and offline presence. If the plan for 2018 is to break into a new market with your products or services, or get your wares out there to an entirely different audience, a marketing strategy can bridge the gap to successfully promote your brand a little further afield.

Your marketing activities are also certain to throw up plenty of useful information about your market and target audience. Customer buying trends and even competitive analysis are just two areas that can be explored to strengthen your brand and its offering for the better. Your marketing activities won’t fall on deaf ears with a well-thought-out and carefully timed strategy either. By using up-to-date and thorough market research as the basis of your strategy you can ascertain your target audience and identify the marketing techniques that appeal to them for better use of resources.

Getting started with your strategy

Developing a strategy that works for your business and its audience isn’t easy. If it was, everyone would be getting it right! It all starts with getting to know your brand, its offering and your target market.

Your market research will influence all areas of your business, so find the primary and secondary resources to understand your market, your audience and even your competitors. By getting to know your market you can identify which marketing channels really resonate with your audience and come up with a plan to capitalise on this. If you currently have an active marketing campaign, don’t scrap it completely. Analyse what works and what doesn’t, and use this to influence your new and improved campaign. In addition to using market research tactics to discover more about your market, take note of how your market is changing and how trends are influencing your audience. Here’s just some of the marketing changes to expect in 2018 to get you started.

With the right market research, strategies can be tweaked to perfection for maximum engagement, effectiveness and efficiency leaving you to reap the rewards mentioned above, and more.

Have a current marketing plan in place? Read this blog post to find out what to do when your marketing isn’t working as well as it should.