How your marketing strategy should support your business strategy

All businesses have goals– whether they are financial, quality related or customer focused – such as growing new customers in XYZ geography or increasing retention rates. Unfortunately when some businesses plan their marketing strategies , they do it in isolation – focusing on the tactics and often the budget instead of how can the marketing strategy support and help achieve the business goals.

To begin writing your marketing strategy , each business goal should be broken down to understand how the goal can be achieved. A solid marketing strategy will help deliver your business goals. For example, if your business goal is to increase client retention to 75%, marketing activities to help deliver that can include sales training, loyalty programs, pricing strategies, direct and online marketing campaigns all targeting existing customers and driving to deliver the retention goal of the business.

Each business goal needs to have a marketing strategy around it – and each marketing strategy needs to: 

1. Clearly define the target audience – in the case of increase client retention, this would be existing customers,
2. What are the touch points with those customers – and how can we increase them to grow loyalty and retention in this case
3. What is the unique selling proposition those customers are buying from you and how can you better communicate it,
4. Pricing strategy to reward loyalty – think No Claim Bonus
5. Include measurable results
6. Include specific promotional tactical elements