I live in Washington, DC, and there’s no shortage of incredible theater and performances here. When I see shows as a former (okay, current) theater nerd, I’m watching the emotion on the actors’ faces, the choreography, the lighting.
But if I peek at my husband during the show? He’s watching the conductor with rapt attention. Amid the costumes and spectacle, as a former musician (okay, band geek), he knows the conductor is setting the tone, pacing, and feeling for the entire show.
It makes me think about how marketers are conducting their own shows beautifully, and keeping all the other players on track. In this article, we’ll dive into why a strong marketing strategy is a foundation for your business. First we’ll cover eight core parts, and I’ll show you step-by-step how to create a marketing strategy using Mural.
Why a strong marketing strategy matters
A well-defined marketing strategy orchestrates your entire company’s efforts and guides the business towards its goals.
Here’s why it’s essential:
- Set a clear path: A great marketing strategy guides your organization towards achieving its goals, like boosting brand recognition, driving sales, or entering new markets.
- Optimize resources: Spend time, money, and effort where they’ll have the most impact. This kind of focused effort prevents wasted resources and maximizes returns.
- Improve customer relationships: Customized messages will meet your prospect and customer needs, leading to better engagement, satisfaction, and conversions.
Key components of a successful marketing strategy
Steve Farrell, Mural’s VP of Global Marketing, on marketing strategy:
“You’re never doing marketing for the hell of it. It needs to be driving some aspect of the business. Every single thing that you’re doing is about awareness, so customers and potential customers know you’re out there.”
Let’s take a look at the eight components it takes to build a marketing strategy:
1. Target audience and segmentation
Understand your ideal customers, and get to know their struggles really well so you can create messages that resonate. Dive in by interviewing current customers, conducting market research, and creating detailed buyer personas.
For example, a persona might be “Musical Melissa”, a 35-year-old professional who enjoys cutting-edge tech and will pay extra for easy access to concert tickets. Rather than trying to appeal to everyone who might be vaguely interested in concerts, focus your marketing efforts on super-qualified segments of this audience: Music enthusiasts who are tech-savvy and have disposable income.
Assert your brand’s unique strengths over the competition. Use this distinction in crafting your marketing strategy for major impact.
2. Value proposition and messaging
Express the unique value your product or service offers. A compelling value proposition sets you apart from the competition, providing clear reasons why customers should choose you.
Make sure to include:
- Which audience will benefit most from your product or service?
- What guarantees does your brand offer regarding product quality?
- How do your benefits and features stand out from the competition?
- Can you consistently fulfill your promise to your customers?
3. Market research and insights
Your strategy needs to be grounded in reality! Gather data and insights about the market and consumer behavior so you can make informed decisions:
- Use social media like Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to spot new trends and see what topics are popular with your target audience.
- Gather direct feedback via surveys from your customers about their preferences, needs, and pain points.
- Study market reports from sources like Nielsen, Gartner, or McKinsey to understand competitive landscapes and consumer behavior trends.
- Regularly review feedback from customers to hear firsthand about their experiences and concerns.
- Learn from industry experts in interviews, webinars, and at conferences.
- Review your website analytics to understand visitor behavior and preferences.
This research will empower you to make informed decisions, spot the latest trends, and seize valuable opportunities. You’ll adapt more quickly to any market changes by staying on top of the latest intel.
4. Competitive analysis
Competitive analysis is different from market research. It offers a much broader understanding of the market and consumer behavior. Competitive analysis focuses specifically on evaluating your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and strategies.
Understand industry trends and keep track of what your competitors are doing. Dig into their strengths and weaknesses, looking at their features, market position, marketing tactics, and growth strategies. A close look at their abilities will help you spot opportunities for your business to shine.
5. Channel strategy
Pick the right channels to reach your audience. Easier said than done — while it’s a priority, 71% of marketing leaders say they struggle to coordinate customer journeys across multiple channels.
But all that great research you’ve completed will help you select the right platforms, so those who matter most to you’ll see your campaigns. Create a plan to connect with your audience and meet their needs through channels including:
- Social media, like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook
- Digital advertising, like Google Ads, display ads
- Print advertising, like magazines or newspapers
- Content marketing, like blogs or articles
- Email marketing
- Podcasts
- Live streaming, like YouTube or Instagram
- Events
6. Content and campaign planning
Maybe you’ve seen Mural’s spunky AI videos or ClickUp’s hilarious skits on LinkedIn. I’m a huge fan of Doist’s visual and inspiring blogs. Atlassian has an incredible research team, and uses resource hubs to drive traffic. Consistently engaging content will drive engagement and create loyalty. Your approach to content will need to be unique to your team.
Be creative and listen to your audience’s needs and preferences. Make content plans and campaigns that show your brand and get your audience involved. Use analytics to adjust and make sure your content and campaigns are meeting its goals.
7. Implementation plan
Consider how your team will collaborate to implement your strategy. Will you have lots of live check-ins? Tons of tasks in a project management software? Updates sent asynchronously?
A well-coordinated plan will boost your team’s efficiency. Plus, the process will be way more enjoyable if you’re leaning into everyone’s preferred working styles.
Your implementation plan might include:
- Tasks that need to be done
- Deadlines for each task
- Owners responsible
- Success metrics
- Resources needed
- Communication channels
At Mural we like to use the DACI framework to map out who’s responsible for what, and get everyone aligned before doing the work.
8. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Super important, don’t forget your key metrics. KPIs, like financial metrics, customer acquisition, retention, and content performance, provide valuable insights about the success of your strategy.
Make sure your goals are measurable and actionable. Use tools like CRM systems, attribution platforms, and custom dashboards to track and make data-driven decisions.
Step-by-step guide: Creating your marketing strategy with Mural
So we’ve reviewed the main components of a great marketing strategy. But how do we make it visual, engaging, collaborative, and dare I say, fun?
Step 1: Set up your Mural workspace
Get started and create a dedicated workspace in Mural for your marketing strategy project. Invite your team members and ensure everyone has access to the workspace and canvas.
Step 2: Conduct market research
Capture information from your research and interviews all in one place. Use our interviewing template to capture notes live and analyze later with the team. Mural's AI features like Generate and Cluster by Topic will help you generate questions, find trends, and categorize data insights.
Step 3: Analyze the competition
Use the competitive analysis template to uncover hidden market opportunities, refine your strategy, and make smarter decisions.
Step 4: Define your target audience
Develop customer personas using our user personas template. Identify demographics, needs, and pain points to help tailor your messaging to resonate with your audience. Use tags to categorize personas and streamline targeting.
Step 5: Craft your value proposition
Collaboratively create a value proposition canvas using a SWOT analysis template as the core activity. Highlight the unique benefits of your offering. If you’re running some of the discussion async, use the comments feature to gather feedback before and after your meeting to refine your proposition.
Step 6: Set marketing goals and objectives
Outline your goals using our SMART goal-setting template, making sure they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. And of course, any goals you set for your marketing strategy need to be aligned with your business objectives.
Step 7: Plan your channels, campaigns and content
Use a series of murals to collaborate with your team, or pull together multiple templates on one canvas for a single source of truth for planning.
- Organize tasks with a kanban board to ensure efficient task management.
- Map out channels using frameworks to visualize your objectives and align them with business goals.
- Pull together your marketing campaigns using our campaign brief template
- Build your content roadmap by quarter or by year
Step 8: Implement measurement and analytics
Review metrics on an ongoing basis, and if needed, use the voting feature to prioritize critical metrics and stay focused on what matters most.
What are the benefits of using Mural for strategic planning?
Mural transforms the often cumbersome task of marketing plan development into an interactive and inspiring activity. Here’s how:
- Visual collaboration: Mural’s digital workspace brings your team’s ideas to life, fostering creativity and ensuring alignment.
- Inspiring sessions: Try themed experiences, not meetings. Run activities instead of (oops) talking to people. Use a LUMA recipe over a standard agenda.
- Real-time collaboration: Connect easily, anytime, no matter where team members are located. Bring up the energy with an icebreaker, and give people lots of space in an open-ended question time.
- AI features: Innovate and collaborate more efficiently with Mural’s AI features. Find themes in your conversation, or summarize information.
- Templates and frameworks: Save time with Mural’s pre-built templates and frameworks. Use a structured approach to planning, instead of ad hoc notes and team chatter.
- Integrations: Integrations are lifesavers. Use Mural with tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Google Workspace to get time back in your day.
- Feedback and iteration: Mural’s comment, voting, and feedback features mean your team can give feedback when it’s convenient for them.
Tips for effective collaboration using Mural
Visual collaboration for marketing works best in a shared space. It should be easy for everyone to contribute their ideas. Visuals are processed six to 600 times faster than text (!) so tools like Mural help your team work quickly, but also enjoy the process.
How can collaboration improve the marketing strategy process?
- Check your tech stack: Decide how you’ll use Mural with your other marketing collaboration tools.
- Have regular check-ins: Schedule consistent team check-ins to review progress, address challenges, and adjust your strategy.
- Keep things open: Foster an environment where ideas and feedback flow freely. Ask questions, and use private mode to help folks feel comfortable.
- Use templates: Pick from 100+ templates to save time and ensure consistency in your strategic planning.
- Use visuals: Make complex information understandable and memorable. Drop in images, gifs, or design your own diagrams.
- Make it interactive: Have people add their ideas on stickies, and color code around themes you notice. Use icons to gather consensus or reactions.
- Iterate and improve: Collect feedback continuously and make iterative improvements.
Strategy is the start
Building a great marketing strategy requires careful planning, collaboration, and the right tools. Mural’s visual collaboration platform transforms the process, making it more engaging and efficient.
Stay tuned for our next blog article, where we’ll explore the execution, measurement, and continuous improvement phases of the marketing cycle.
Start using Mural today for free.
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