How to bring your marketing strategy to life
Ever taken a new car out for a test drive and it goes so well you just can’t help wonder why you don’t already own this amazing vehicle?
Or have you finally tried the new neighborhood restaurant everyone is raving about and marveled that you hadn’t tried their famous cheesecake until now?
There’s a part of the marketing process that is exactly like that, and it’s the part of the process clients absolutely love.
You’ve gone through the evaluation phase, you’ve analyzed, you’re well versed in the theory of what’s to come, and now you’re ready for more.
You’re ready to see the strategy finally come to life.
And come to life it does! Effective tactical implementation should be seamless so that you can focus on the results, update your goals, and enjoy the flexibility to brainstorm new ideas.
Bringing your strategy to life.
By the time your strategy has been created, you should start to identify executional marketing tactics. At this point, you’ll have your customer research, a customer journey map, qualitative & quantitative analysis, and a breakdown of your key metrics and SMART goals, making this the ideal time to start mapping out what you’re going to do to reach those goals.
Let’s run with some examples:
In Q3/Q4 last year, your content marketing efforts didn’t seem to garner an uptick in leads or have any measurable recognition.
Over the past 3 quarters, your social media efforts earned you 10 additional followers, only 2 of whom went to your site and downloaded content.
Your company has worked virtually since its inception and you recently opened your first physical office. No one in your industry knows about it.
In each of these scenarios it’s critical to figure out how to address the issues while aligning your programs and tactics to your goals.
But before making any decisions, you want to be sure that you’ve left no stone unturned…
Stay strategy and operations focused.
Before committing to a specific tactic, it’s important to think about the bigger picture, as well as any operational implications.
What aspects of your day-to-day operations do you need to consider? How can you demonstrate a relentless dedication to improvement? What are the B2B marketing approaches and tactics that offer the highest return on investment, with minimal resources?
Your strategy is your route map: a guide to help you develop your programs and achieve your organization’s goals — it’s important you learn how to use it as is, while being flexible enough to make changes and tweaks along the way.
Be data driven.
As tempting as it may be, don’t develop programs or implement tactics on a gut feeling or what you think will work creatively. Rely, instead, on reporting and most importantly, seek input from sales, R&D, operations, and other relevant stakeholders. Use their expertise — and their support — to help inform strategy, implementation, and drive you closer to your objectives.
Go broad not deep.
Remember: technology is your friend and it’s always worth embracing both old and new marketing channels. Investigate how to integrate and leverage multiple channels for the greatest positive impact on revenue.
There really is a world of possibility when it comes to bringing your strategy to life and exploring options can be a lot of fun. However, it’s important to keep your business and marketing goals at the forefront of your mind — the tactics you employ, the way you implement them and, of course, the value they provide, will always be influenced by your organization’s set objectives.
Whatever your goals are, make sure your tactics can be directly tied to the pursuit of them specifically and to alleviating the pain points your customers experience throughout their journey.
Need help with your marketing strategy? We’d love to help. Contact us now for a free marketing proposal.