So you’ve signed up to all the social platforms you’ve ever heard of, googled a bunch of potential clients, and joined every entrepreneurial Facebook group, but what now? Like everything in life, your business needs a proper strategy to flourish. Although social platforms and groups can be highly effective, the only way to generate real value from social media is with a carefully mapped out plan. Defining your business’s core values and its most basic functions can be a competitive advantage that sets you apart,if used alongside a proper business strategy.
What is a marketing strategy?
Simply put, a marketing strategy defines what will be the most profitable product and/or services for your business. It’s a long term approach to a sustainable approach, that will not only secure a competitive advantage, but ensures long term profitability, even with changes in external forces.
Why it’s important for your business:
- Clear Guidelines
A strategy provides a clear route that your business can take to be sustainable in the long run. It sets out the clear goals and objectives that you want to achieve, as well as how you’ll go about achieving these and who plays what role. The smallest goal to the most profitable achievement can be marked up in your strategy. Defining your end goal is easy, but a marketing strategy provides you with a step by step plan on how this will be achieved.
- You against the world
The most important thing in marketing and business in general, is the importance of a sustainable competitive advantage. Whether you like it or not, digital media has drastically decreased the barriers to entry, which has made the business sphere dramatically more competitive. That’s where your trusted marketing strategy comes in. It doesn’t only provide you with amazing security when it comes to steps to profitability, but it helps you achieve a great understanding of what your competitive advantage is, as well as integrates it into a communication plan to actively change it into a sustainable advantage.
- Understand your clients
People are vastly different; especially in the South African context. Being one of the most economically and culturally diverse countries, it’s difficult to get your key audience correct. A Marketing Strategy provides you with a clear understanding of who your clients are, what products or services they prefer, as well as how they like to be communicated with. As the clutter of earned media increases, breaking through the clutter has become a critical factor for success. You need to actively define exactly how your customers thinks, shop, as well as how their domestic environment looks.
How to create a marketing strategy
Like most things in the business world, it takes time, knowledge, and precision. Next Level Marketing has an array of educated and knowledgeable professionals who specialise in providing high quality service and marketing strategies. Get in touch to discuss your marketing strategy today!