Effectively running a business and maintaining market visibility require not only knowledge, experience and business acumen, but also a solid marketing strategy.
High-quality products or excellent customer service won't attract customers or gain the necessary publicity without planned advertising . That is, a marketing strategy tailored to our potential customers. This strategy fully considers the channels and tools that facilitate reaching the right audience and building relationships with them.
Omnichannel marketing strategy remains a common challenge for companies . Many struggle with the lack of an integrated plan to support digital transformation, business growth, and effective online audience engagement. Where do you begin developing a marketing strategy? One that encompasses both offline and online activities?
You'll find a recipe for developing a marketing strategy in a nutshell in this article. This publication explains how to create a marketing strategy and execute its assumptions in an omnichannel environment. Ready? Set? Go! 🚀
(The rest of the article can be found below the form)
Marketing strategy – what is it?
A marketing strategy encompasses the complete concept of a brand and its market positioning . The strategy allows for the development of a marketing plan and specific activities aimed at reaching potential consumers and converting them into customers. By what means? In an online marketing strategy, achieving these goals involves the use of technology and digital media. A company's marketing strategy is one of the most important organizational documents, clearly defining the characteristics of a given brand and including recommendations for advertising channels (online and offline).
When is it worth setting a marketing strategy?
A marketing strategy is an integral part of business strategy. It should be established at the very beginning – that is, at the stage of planning market entry, when it's crucial to assess the chances of striking a blow against the competition. It should be implemented over a period of months, not years. It's a document that outlines a set of specific activities, based on which we should plan our marketing activities. The strategy should be updated and adapted to the company's changing environment, its goals, maturity, and the market situation.
Content of the marketing strategy
What should a marketing strategy include? Depending on the model or framework adopted for defining a marketing strategy, we most often encounter a division into appropriate marketing activities:
Step I "Searching for answers" - analysis and research to keep your feet firmly on the ground while implementing marketing plans
- market analysis – all trend research (technological, economic, environmental, social, communication, and in many cases purchasing – both online and offline) in order to identify market niches and identify key factors that may influence our company and marketing activities,
- stakeholder analysis (including, among others, analysis of competition and benchmarks, partners, influencers),
- target group analysis – the marketing strategy assumes a combination of both demographic and behavioral aspects (including: context and language research, behavior and navigation analysis, analysis of influencers or people who have the greatest influence on our target group),
- search/interest analysis – (digital body language), seeking insights. Analysis when creating a marketing strategy helps identify the most important problems and incorporate their solutions into the marketing strategy,
- internal analysis – A good marketing strategy must be focused on your company! In this case, you can use various frameworks, such as the Business Model Canvas, One-Page Strategic Plan, 7Ps Marketing Mix, and SWOT. The marketing strategy created based on them will be tailored to the individual needs of the organization and the company's resources.
Tip!
Before you begin a full analysis, create a database of questions you need answers to. This will help you stay on track, reducing the time required for analysis. Ensure you're only mining data that will influence strategic decisions. And only engage in activities (marketing and other activities necessary to grow the business) that will truly add value to the project.
The chosen marketing strategy will then have a solid foundation.
Step II “In search of one’s own self” – the vision of the organization and the needs of the recipients that it can satisfy in its marketing strategy
- Why – or why you want to exist as a company. What do you want to change? What impact do you want to have? Creating a marketing strategy also depends on this,
- Who – Who are you targeting with your products or services? This is the time to create hypotheses about your target group and compare them with previous analysis to create personas. how to create a persona read more here,
- What – What exactly do you offer? What problems does your product or service solve? What benefits does it bring to your target group?
- How – How do you operate? What makes your product or service different from the competition? What value does it provide? The answers to these questions will help you attract new customers!
- Price (eng. Unique Value Proposition) – a unique value proposition, which you'll define using tools like UVP Canvas. It's important to consider both the challenges and needs of your audience, as well as the product's distinguishing features. The knowledge you gain from this approach will be very helpful when considering different types of marketing strategies.
- USP – (eng. Unique Selling Proposition) – a distinguishing feature of a product or service (that the competition cannot match). Marketing strategies will allow you to highlight it and emphasize it in your communications,
- Company personality – Key principles and characteristics that help define ways to create an organizational culture and develop a company. In marketing activities and the marketing strategy itself, this will be reflected in, among other things, the method of communication, the language used, and the promotional activities undertaken.
- BHAG (English: Big Hairy Audacious Goal) – a bold goal for the next 10 years or more that will help your company grow. It is easier to reach the goal when we have a (marketing) plan and specific ways to reach the peak of business opportunities. Then the development of the company and achieving success are practically a foregone conclusion!
Tip
Transfer the collected materials to a tool that allows you to easily sort and combine insights (e.g., Miro, Milanote, Notion, Mural, or offline whiteboard). This will help you gain a bird's-eye view of everything and, together with your team, highlight the most important issues necessary to develop guidelines, brand strategy, and ways to differentiate your company's image from the competition. This can increase the chances that a well-presented company's offering will allow you to conquer a specific market segment. This, in turn, will help maximize profits within your adopted marketing strategy.
Step III “Quo vadis?” – goals, measures and a plan to build on solid foundations
- cele – After analyzing and drawing key conclusions, you now know where you stand. So, it's time to define more specific marketing strategy goals. Remember, they should be SMART! ????
- OKR and KPI – i.e., Objective Key Results and Key Performance Indicators. These are the basic measures of the effectiveness of our actions,
- budget – How much do you need versus how much can you invest to promote your product or service? Based on prior analysis, it will be easier to determine the budget threshold you need to allocate to promote your product or service,
- plan for marketing purposes, i.e. a roadmap defining the points of contact with potential customers (both online and offline) and the channels that will help us communicate and deliver the product or service to recipients.
As you've probably guessed, there are many frameworks and approaches to developing a marketing strategy. There's no single golden rule or methodology that will work everywhere, for every business, or for specific marketing strategies. It's important to tailor your activities to your needs, industry, opportunities, market, and project size. By following certain principles, you can be sure you're well-prepared and your marketing strategy will be effective.
Marketing strategy – the most famous structures (frameworks)
Let's take a closer look at some of the most famous frameworks that were developed by marketing experts and are currently used in companies around the world.
An effective marketing strategy, according to Dr. Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights , should consist of six pillars:
1. Strategy and management: goals, analytics, company marketing strategies (segmentation, targeting, brand positioning), integration and alignment of marketing and sales, resources, structure, technology and data.
2. Goals and KPIs: forecasts, reporting, KPIs, attribution.
3. Media: owned, paid, earned, shared.
4. Customer experience: how they experience our website, applications, and service. These elements also influence the decision-making process and the conversion of existing customers into loyal customers.
5. Messaging: Email, chat, social media , customer service, on-site interactions, and message personalization.
6. Content – also known as content marketing strategy.
6 pillars of an effective marketing strategy – according to Smart insightsEach of the pillars described is equally important to achieving marketing goals, regardless of company size. Success in digital marketing isn't limited to online media alone. Creating effective user experiences, communication, and high-quality content that drives your strategy is equally essential throughout the entire marketing strategy development process.
Another well-known approach to defining marketing strategy is the Performance Marketing Framework . This framework provides insight into channel-level performance, allowing us to make more accurate strategic choices at a given stage. The components of this model include:
- Strategy – appropriate KPIs and goals, market analysis, product strategy, brands and customer journey,
- Process and planning – This part covers, among other things, campaign planning and scheduling, required resources, budget, and establishing offers and pricing. One of its elements is the marketing plan,
- Technology and data – this includes the company’s data architecture, technology stack and process design,
- People (target group) – needs analysis, onboarding and training, as well as roles and responsibilities within the organization,
- Programmes – created for appropriate target groups, they contain, for example, plans for activities that generate leads, support sales, and foster customer engagement and loyalty,
- Analytics and Insights – precise methods of analyzing, among others, the ecosystem and insights, as well as designating appropriate dashboards and analysis methods.
It's a ready-made outline of all the activities, resources, and information you need to gather (for example, defining your target audience) to develop a marketing strategy for your company. Here's what it looks like:
Model Performance Marketing Framework by CatalystThe third example is a marketing plan for companies looking to enter a new market. If you're developing a new product, planning to launch a mobile app, or your company is preparing to conquer the B2B market, check out the Go-To-Market-Strategy Framework . What is this model? In short, it's the 6W model , which means:
- What – i.e. a product or portfolio of products (services),
- Where (distribution) – the market where we want to acquire customers,
- When (timeline) – i.e. when we plan precisely the individual actions related to introducing the product/service to the market,
- Who (customer) – i.e. who will be our target group/target segment,
- Why (competitive advantage) – otherwise it may be the previously mentioned UVP (Unique Value Proposition),
- How – the business model. – here you can use another framework (Business Model Canvas).
Door Design Go-To-Market Strategy
All three models discussed utilize different types of marketing strategies. Another good example is the SOSTAC® model, which we've dedicated a separate article to – check it out here!
Each model follows similar stages. When defining a marketing strategy, we consider the company's long-term goals, the market and its specific characteristics, the needs of potential customers, the channels through which we can communicate with them, and the necessary resources to achieve our goals.
How to choose communication channels for your marketing strategy?
Owned, paid, earned, and shared. They classify media based on their source. Within each online channel, we can distinguish four types of media that led potential customers to our company.
What do the described channels include in the marketing strategy?
Examples of channels in a marketing strategy
- Owned media – all media that enable the implementation of the marketing strategy your company manages. These include: Website, blog, langin page or application,
- Paid media – any media your company has decided to invest in to reach its target audience. Examples include: Google Ads campaign, Facebook Ads or on Youtube, but also cooperation with influencers and the content they create for your brand,
- Earned media – for example, information about your activities in partner blog posts or newsletters, mentions of you on social media, and backlinks. These marketing activities create a sense in the minds of your target audience that you're a reliable business partner worth doing business with. Trustworthy – and without trust, there are no sales!
>> Nonverbal Communication: Show me what you're not telling me. <
- *Shared media – promotional activities as part of marketing strategies, which include posts shared on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram. These posts can come from brands, media outlets, and individuals and have a direct impact on brand positioning.
Need visualization to understand? Here you go! 😊
Types of media: owned, paid, earnedTo gain a competitive advantage and achieve real success, which will be reflected in swollen marketing funnels, it is worth integrating online channels with offline channels , such as OHH (Out of Home) or classic ATL as part of omnichannel marketing strategies.
Why is it worth advertising across various channels as part of your marketing efforts? As proof, consider the example of one of our clients who generated a whopping 98.000 PLN in revenue from a 12.000 PLN advertising budget. Here's an example !
(Oh, and not to mention, we also generated over 90.000 PLN from Facebook advertising for just 2,000 PLN.) We love this kind of omnichannel collaboration! 💙
Omnichannel Marketing Strategy – Rules of Conduct
There are many possibilities and paths to success! It's worth using a previously prepared document, such as a marketing strategy, to emphasize the channels where our potential customers are present. However, don't worry, your marketing strategy action plan doesn't have to be a massive report! Learn the key models for creating an omnichannel strategy and take action to increase sales!
Omnichannel is an approach in which our recipients are surrounded by our communication from every possible side:
- in the world offline: in a stationary store, on public and street transport (using, for example, advertising media such as digital OOH or outdoor advertising: billboards, posters or citylights), and even in the press (oh yes, contrary to appearances, this one is not dying ;))
- and Online: programmatic, PPC search engine advertising (Google, Bing, Youtube), website positioning, influencer marketing, social media (both organic and paid activities) and e-mail marketing.
To easily align advertising channels with strategy and tailor communication to the appropriate customer purchasing stage, it's worth visualizing and creating roadmaps. These are visualizations of recipients' journeys from the moment they become aware of a specific problem, through searching for and comparing solutions, to the point of making a decision—in your organization's case, making a purchase or opting for your offer.
Each stage of the customer journey has a tailored channel that supports our potential customer and helps lead them to a solution and the achievement of their goals – in other words, a purchase.
(P)RACE Model
In the widely known (P)RACE model we take into account:
- P – plan – i.e. planning actions and strategies based on previously drawn conclusions from our analyses,
- R – reach – the awareness phase, in which we reach a selected group and gain their attention for the first time,
- A – act – this is the moment when, as part of the strategy implementation, we encourage recipients to take an interest and engage in interaction,
- C – convert – we include channels and communication that encourage a purchase or taking appropriate action, e.g. contacting the company,
- E – engage – Engage! These are all activities aimed at building relationships and long-term support. These activities can become what distinguishes a brand, allows it to gain a competitive advantage, and influences increased market share.
What might such a roadmap, taking into account both offline and online channels, look like in practice, within the framework of previously established rules of conduct?
Roadmap – online and offline channelsWhat does the average company marketing budget and its structure look like?
A simple measure of the importance of online marketing is the size of budgets allocated to individual channels, as defined in the marketing strategy. The latest IAB research on advertising spending and revenue shows that over three-quarters of advertising budgets are currently allocated to online media. The data covers European markets, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Of course, the data is based on research among the largest publishers and platforms and may be less representative of smaller companies. It also fails to take into account the importance of SEO, inbound marketing, PR, and influencer marketing. However, data plays a key role in guiding development and shaping approaches to marketing budgets.
Media spending breakdown. Source: IAB report: www.iab.com/topics/ad-revenue/As our CEO, Krzysztof Masłowski, explains, allocating the marketing budget is one of the three cardinal sins of business owners. You can read about the other two here.
Many companies plan their activities and budgets based on one-off events, often allocating a significant portion of their finances to hiring specialists and administration, completely forgetting about promoting the company and reaching potential customers.
We know from experience that many business owners tend to take small steps when it comes to advertising their business online. Unfortunately, these days, small budgets often mean wasted resources. They don't allow for adequate testing and quick learning of where to allocate money. So, how should your company's marketing spend be divided? Verseo's CEO suggests:
Distribution of marketing expenses in the company – recommendation of Verseo CEO Krzysztof MasłowskiHow does Verseo approach creating a marketing strategy for its clients?
At Verseo, when managing our clients' advertising activities across the entire online advertising ecosystem, we prioritize tailoring our communications and channels to the company's marketing and business strategy. We consider customer goals, trends, and purchasing habits. We dedicate a specialized expert to each channel, who manages the campaign using the PRACE model—planning activities and tailoring communications to the appropriate stage (reach, act, convert, engage). Therefore, you can completely entrust your online marketing to us—digital marketing is our "natural environment" for the Verseo team—our work and passion!
This is our operational strategy, and its main goals are to strengthen the brand, attract new customers, ensure the satisfaction of those already acquired, and continually improve our competencies and growth. These are precisely the goals our marketing strategy encompasses!
Frequently asked questions about marketing strategy
A marketing strategy is a comprehensive concept of a brand and its market positioning. It is one of the most important organizational documents, describing the brand's characteristics and outlining a plan of actions (online and offline) aimed at reaching potential consumers and converting them into customers.
It's best to establish a strategy at the very beginning of a company's operations – right from the moment you're planning to enter the market. It's not worth delaying, as it allows you to immediately explore market opportunities, compete effectively in the industry, and implement your business goals over the coming months.
The choice of channels should depend on your customer profile and the specific nature of your business. An effective strategy incorporates a mix of appropriate tools, from SEO and paid advertising (PPC, e.g., Google Ads, Meta Ads), to social media and content marketing.
Omnichannel is a multi-channel approach to sales and marketing. It involves coherent and integrated planning of activities across both online and offline channels to provide customers with a seamless brand experience at every touchpoint.
There's no one-size-fits-all figure. The budget and cost structure of a marketing strategy depend on the scale of the business, industry competitiveness, and chosen advertising channels. However, it should always be treated as an investment whose return (ROI) will be regularly measured and optimized.
Verseo offers expert support (over 150 specialists) who will review your business free of charge and prepare a personalized quote and proposal for the optimal marketing mix. The agency assists in the audit and planning phases, as well as in the execution and analysis of the implemented strategy.
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- A marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan for brand positioning and advertising activities, established at the outset of a company's operations and regularly updated.
- Creating a strategy is based on three steps: market and competition analysis, defining the company vision, and setting goals and a budget.
- The most popular frameworks are the 6-pillar Smart Insights model, the Performance Marketing Framework, and the Go-To-Market Strategy tailored to the specific needs of the company.
- Channels are divided into owned, paid, earned and shared media, and an effective strategy requires the integration of online and offline activities.
- The omnichannel model surrounds customers with communication from all sides, and the PRACE model defines stages of the purchasing path with tailored channels.
- Over 75% of advertising budgets go to online media, with the recommended allocation being a significant portion for advertising activities.
- Verseo creates strategies tailored to the client's business goals, assigning specialized experts to each channel in the PRACE model.
