What's the difference? Marketing strategy vs planning
Planning and strategy are often used interchangeably, but they're fundamentally very different processes. In this blog, we'll delve into the key differences, what each entails and why they work well together. Like cheese and wine.
The purpose of a marketing strategy
First up, marketing strategy. Consider it your map. Without one, you could be driving in the wrong direction, wasting time and precious petrol money.
When we're developing a high level strategy, we're looking to find out who we should be going after. Both in terms of their value (how much they're likely to spend) and how suitable they are for the business.
For example, if I run a business selling cruises and people over 60 spend the most on cruises, they're the most valuable people for me to market to. However, there could be 100 other cruise companies also marketing to these people.
The second most valuable group might be 25-30-year-old women who cruise with friends. Maybe only 15 of those 100 other companies are marketing to these women. If I don't have the resources to compete with lots of companies for market share, this second group is a more suitable audience for my business.
Now you know who you're going after. The next part of the process is to determine what to say so they buy from you and pick key marketing objectives. The latter should always align with any business objectives.
In short, strategic marketing tells us:
Who we should focus on
What we should say to make them listen
What our marketing needs to achieve, to meet the wider business goals.
Key components of an effective marketing strategy
An effective strategy will include the following:
Market analysis/market research
This could be through surveys, interviews with individuals or groups, or even through online search. There's a lot of information available, so it's best to start with online research (sometimes called desk or secondary research). Use the other, more expensive, methods of market research to fill in any gaps.
Target audience selection
Using the information you've found through market research, you'll decide who's best to focus on in your marketing. Often, you'll have a priority group for immediate attention but will also choose to market to other groups in case they become a priority later. The former is your target market.
For example, you might sell industrial dishwashers, which may have a lifecycle of 7 years. You'll want to focus on businesses that purchased 6+ years ago, but you'll also want to keep everyone else aware of your brand in the meantime. So that when they do move into that 6+ group, they already know who you are and the advantages of your product(s).
Positioning
Positioning is about choosing how you most want to be perceived as a business. To determine that, consider your strengths, what your competitors say and what your audience wants to hear. Directly addressing pain points is a good starting point.
This isn't about lengthy mission statements or brand propositions. Positioning should be short and snappy. Two to three words or a short sentence at most.
Objectives
Any marketing strategy worth its salt needs to say exactly what you're going to focus on, to drive results for the business. For example, you might find that once people know about you, they almost always buy. So how do you increase sales? By increasing awareness of your business. Awareness, therefore, becomes the key marketing objective.
When setting objectives, make sure they’re SMART objectives too. Vague ambitions won’t get you anywhere.
Budget
At this point, you could also set your budget for the year, or a specific period of time. There are a few ways of doing this. You could take a set figure, based on what you spent last year with adjustments for inflation. Alternatively, you could go for a set figure based on your revenue.
As a general rule of thumb, aiming for between 5% and 10% of revenue if you sell to consumers or between 1% and 5% if you sell to businesses will give you a good starting point.
Another method is called the zero-based budgeting. Here you start with what you hope to achieve, calculate the value to the business if you were to achieve it, and work back to determine what investment is needed to get you there. It’s more a more involved process and quite technical, but could help keep you and your team focused on the end goal.
The purpose of a marketing plan
Marketing planning is stage two. We know where we want to get to – we decided that in our strategy. Now we need to create a marketing plan that sets out the specifics of how we'll make the journey.
Traditionally, marketers would spend time planning a year of activity in advance but we see that less nowadays. Because so much can change in a year. Instead, planning the following 6 months or even 3 months is becoming more common.
While many people think planning is about communications (advertising or content), it includes much more. Such as pricing, distribution (where your products/services will be available) and the product itself. These are all things which should align with your strategy.
For example, if you decide that your company positioning is "luxury", pricing your products too cheap, making them with low-quality materials or selling them in WHSmith will undermine that.
Pricing, product, distribution and marketing communications are the tools you have to effectively market your business. You might have heard of these referred to as the 4 P's, the marketing mix or marketing tactics. Relying solely on the communications aspect is common, but can lead you to miss opportunities for further growth.
The steps involved in marketing planning
When you come to the planning process, keep that strategy nice and close. Every decision you make should ladder back up to it.
Pricing
Review how your products compare in price with competitors and against what your target audience is willing to pay. Ideally, you'll have found the answer to this during your research. Then look at the current profit of a unit, and consider how many units you'll need to sell to achieve your business goals (if linked to sales). Make any changes to pricing required, and communicate the changes to existing customers.
Product
Critically evaluate your product against what your audience is looking for, and your positioning. Do they align? Maybe you could update the packaging or materials to gain a competitive advantage? Or create new variations to better suit what people are looking for?
Distribution (place)
Where are your products or services available? Are they accessible to the people you want to reach? If you want to be a luxury brand and charge a premium, you might need to move your premises to a more affluent area.
If your services are online only, make sure any platforms you sell via also align with your business. You might have a great distribution deal, but if that distributor also sells bargain essentials, it's not the best place for your products to be seen.
Integrated marketing communications (promotion)
Typically, when you see a marketing plan, this is what will form the lion's share. Marketing activities: advertising and promotion.
At this stage, you're deciding the marketing channel or channels you'll prioritise – a social media platform, email, out-of-home (OOH), print, etc. You'll outline the main messages for each channel and what type of content you'll share there. You could also undertake marketing campaign planning, by outlining any campaigns you want to run, general or seasonal.
At this point, you should work out how much of your budget to spend on brand building versus performance (sales and conversion), and bake that into your plan.
It's important to also include specific objectives per channel and detail around how you'll measure the success of your marketing efforts. Again, go back to your strategy and ensure you're taking a strategic approach. If you need to increase awareness of your services, keeping track of how many likes you get on a Facebook post is pointless. Tracking new followers might be more appropriate.
Why you need both a plan and a strategy
Hopefully, you now understand the difference between marketing strategy and marketing planning. And can see by this point that they're two sides of the same coin.
Without strategy, it's hard to implement effective marketing tactics. You're driving with no direction. Without a plan, that strategy can't be fully realised and brought to life.
But I'm also a realist. And I know that with all the will in the world, businesses can't always afford lengthy planning processes or regular strategic input. So don't over-egg the pudding.
If you're working on a shoestring budget or don't have a marketing team, grab a pen and paper. Get clear on who you're after, even if it isn't underpinned by extensive market research for the time being. Go out and ask them what they look for in a service, or what they don't like. Stalk your competitors online and find out what they're not saying that you could, to gain a competitive advantage. Then set a clear goal - just one for now. Think "I want to increase conversion rates from 2% to 5% this year". For now, that can be your strategy.
You could also sign up to the waitlist for my DIY Strategy Course to be the first to hear when that’s live.
For your plan, pick a few key channels based on where your intended audience hangs out. Focus on creating great content for them. Not just sales content, but genuinely useful content that your audience is interested in. If your goal is to increase awareness, decide on an ads platform and experiment.
Marketing strategy and planning is a skill, sure. But whether you doing it yourself or pay a freelance marketing consultant to do it for you, it should never be unnecessarily complicated.
How can a marketing strategy help your business?
Strategic marketing provides you with a clear path to follow. It's tempting to treat the marketing tactics we've discussed as separate entities. But when you have a successful marketing strategy in place, you can better see how they all form an impression of your business. And how you can use them to influence customer perception.
If you're already working with a super tight budget, you might be better off spending that money elsewhere in the short term. E.g. on advertising to ensure you're visible to your audience. However, if you have the budget and are serious about growing your business, a strategy can provide significant value.
You'll find a marketing strategy especially useful if you’re:
Launching a new product or service in a new market
Facing increased competition within your market
Trying to reduce the cost of your marketing, without impacting revenue
Concerned that your current spend has a low return on investment (ROI)
Starting to spend more on your marketing and want to ensure it’s effective
Looking to focus your resources, because your teams are overstretched
Not clear on who your most valuable prospects are and/or what to say to them
Not sure if a strategy is right for you? You could also consider a marketing audit, to quickly understand where there's room for improvement in your current situation.
Whatever you do, keep it simple and keep your end goal in mind for every decision you make.