The success of one company depends on a whole slew of different factors. But, when all is said and done, one company makes it to the top when one right product finds the right customer. However, this road is not as straightforward as it may seem.

On the contrary – keeping in mind the abundance of marketing channels that came with the digital age and the fierce competition present in any industry across the board, conducting an efficient marketing campaign remains one of the biggest challenges one company will ever have to deal with.

Still, much like any other problem, taking a crack at this one starts with a good strategy. Let us take a look then at some of the essential steps that should help you to pen down that strategic marketing plan that should help your company finally come on top of the market.

Research your audience

We can’t underline just how important this step is. In the introduction above, we have mentioned that the right product needs to find the right customers. Even if you have the best portfolio in the world, barking at the wrong doors won’t lead you very far. Do your best then to conduct thorough market research and see what the nearby population consists of. Even if you don’t uncover the ideal customer personas your company should be approaching, reaching a better understanding of the local populous may help you adjust your goals or even product portfolio and realign with the situation at hand.

Set clear and measurable goals

Speaking of the goals, you can’t expect your company makes any tangible progress if it’s not going toward some set of clear and tangible objectives. So, as soon as you get the market research results we have mentioned above, use these insights to come up with the long-term and short-term objectives that will be built according to the SMART methodology, or in other words be:

• Smart
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-constrained

Once you set these goals, start putting together the KPIs that will help you assess how well you are doing. Most modern digital marketing platforms will help you access these critical figures in no more than a couple of clicks.

Look for third-party help

The main reason why so many up-and-coming companies struggle with coming up with effective marketing ideas is not that they lack any tools or creativity –  the modern marketing landscape offers both these assets in abundance. The thing they lack is the experience to use these resources in an effective and prudent manner. This problem can be easily avoided by using strategic business consulting services that will be able to easily identify the deficiencies of your ongoing strategies, point you out to the resources that may be more in-tune with modern tendencies, and identify the market gaps you could exploit.

Factor in the branding considerations

The goal setting we have mentioned earlier should give your effort some sense of direction. However, modern marketing trends are shifting the focus from reaching these short-term goals to using them as stepping stones for building sustainable brands. For instance, content strategies are usually there to ensure an influx of new conversions. If they are utilized correctly, however, they can give your brand an authoritative voice and lure in the people who are not, for the time being, interested in your portfolio. These efforts need to be conscious and work toward your already established branding strategy.

Take into consideration distribution channels

This is one of the most common mistakes inexperienced marketers make when taking a shot at some new market. Essentially, the marketing of some products needs to take into consideration their availability and competition in different markets. If the marketing doesn’t follow the sales funnel pace, your team may end up spending considerable resources shooting blanks. So, when putting together the marketing strategy, do your best to take into consideration the following four P’s:

• Product – the item you intend to sell to some group of customers
• Price – How do your prices hold up against the local competition
• Place- Where will your products will be made available
• Promotion – How many resources and what strategies you should use per channel based on the previous three P’s

Review, reassess and repeat

Last but not least, we would like to mention that creating an effective strategic marketing plan is not a one-time effort. On the contrary – the digital marketing playing field is moving at a lightning pace. If you want to keep up with it, you need to constantly keep an eye on the campaign KPIs, make on-the-go adjustments, reassess the market projections and redefine your goals. This may sound a bit taxing but as soon as you document the essential marketing plan items like:

• Audience personalities
• Marketing budget
• Branding goals and short-term goals
• High priority KPIs
• Competitive analysis
• Pricing strategy
• Unique value proposition

… adding new variables and performing market projections will become very streamlined and fast.

In conclusion

We hope these few tips will help you to come up with a marketing plan capable of dealing with various challenges of the present-day marketing landscape as well as leveraging some of its numerous benefits. We are living in times when we have a virtually endless number of marketing channels to play with and incredibly fierce competition to keep at bay. These circumstances can make even the most well-intentioned marketing strategies diluted and inefficient. The suggestions we gave you will definitely help you to give your efforts more focus and bring them closer to your original intentions.]