#5 Competitive Positioning

Once you have absolute clarity on your offering and your audience you can then consider how you want
to be positioned in your chosen marketplace. No matter what anyone says, no-one operates in a sector
without competition. It is true that there may not be any like-for-like direct competition, but there are
always indirect competitors (alternative things that customers could be spending their money on). We
have written an article previously on positioning which you can reference, so we are not going to go into
lots of detail here. However, please identify who the competition is, and how you want to be positioned
against them in the mind of the customer. What makes you different? Why should they choose you
over them?

#6 Key routes to market

Graphic showing different routes to market

Routes to market is all about which are going to be correct channels to get your defined product and sell
it to your defined audience. For some businesses this may be a really simple process. For others there
may be a plethora of different options, all with different pros and cons. What’s more is that the route,
or routes, to market that you choose for your business will dramatically impact on your overall strategy,
marketing plan and activities.

#7 Key Processes

Process is one element of marketing that is often overlooked and only considered when it is forced to be
addressed due to performance issues within the business. However, if you have already mapped out
and considered all of the above, then you should be in a good position to highlight what are going to be
the key processes to absolutely nail. Don’t underestimate a good process. You could have absolute
clarity on all of the above and, on the face of it, a really solid marketing strategy. However, if your
processes let you down, it could end up a disaster. Think through your ideas logically. Is, what looks
good on paper, feasible in reality with the resources that you have? An average strategy with brilliant
processes will always outperform a brilliant strategy with poor processes, over a sustained period.

#8 Messaging

Marketing Messaging Graphic

Now, when you consider points 1-7 above, you have to wonder how on earth a business can gets its
messaging right if it hasn’t gone through this process. You need to understand your purpose, your
values, your offering, your audience, your competitive positioning and your routes to market before you
can even begin to consider your key messaging. However, this is the reason that many marketing
activities simply do not work. If the marketing messaging is not aligned with everything else that goes
into strategic marketing, then it is never going to maximise its impact.
Why is Strategic Marketing so important?

We have explained what strategic marketing is and what goes into the process, but why is it so
important? There are a number of reasons, and they will all ultimately contribute to the performance of
the company.

Firstly, unless you have a solid marketing strategy, whatever you do will never yield the maximum
returns. The basic function of marketing is designed to generate a business a much higher uptake in
profits than it costs to invest. Return on investment can never be maximised unless a more strategic
approach to marketing has been considered.

Secondly, how you can ever evaluate opportunities effectively if you have no guiding marketing strategy
to “sense-check” it against? How can you possibly know if a specific activity is correct if you don’t know
your values, your objective, who your target audience is and how you want to be competitively
positioned?

Thirdly, without an overriding marketing strategy across the business, how can you ensure that all staff
are pulling in the same direction. We all know how important a united workforce working towards a
united cause is to the success of a business. When Leicester City won the Premiership at odds of 3000-1,
it wasn’t because they had the best individual players or the best manager. They won the title because
they were the team that worked most efficiently together.

Teamwork efficiency graphic

Finally, without the clarity of marketing strategy, the business can not run efficiently. Resource, money
and time will be wasted on activities. It could be a business is investing in completely the wrong activity.
It could be the right activity, but the wrong messaging. Alternatively, it could be the right activity but
aimed at the wrong target market.

What deepens the problem even more is that, often a business without a strategic approach to
marketing, will not even be tracking performance accurately. This could ultimately end up costing the
businesses thousands in wasted budget, which they could have identified much earlier with the correct
tracking processes in place.

So, before you dismiss strategic marketing as only being relevant to larger companies, with big budgets,
consider some of the points we have raised. When you think about it, it all makes logical sense.
Marketing strategy is a crucial element to any business that is looking to grow profitably.