Assuming we have already gathered any market research required, the next step is strategy: building a strategic marketing plan. That means sitting down with you personally to make decisions. Note: that we strive to do our marketing consulting face-to-face when in Calgary, Vancouver or Toronto, but we can Zoom or commute to other Canadian or US Cities depending on location and airline access).
The following diagram represents (top to bottom) the decision flow used in developing your plan. Your solution may require all or some of these elements. For some clients, we go even further, and develop a full business plan that includes areas such as financing, operations, information technology, and human resources.
You can see here that we start with the big picture, and work down to the tactical details, to a level where we have a clear budget for moving forward.
Process of Building a Strategic Marketing Plan
Purpose & Vision:
Determines what key need the organization, business or product fulfills, and what size and scope they will need to become in order to meet this need.
Offerings:
Works through all your products and services to program them into full solutions to a given need; this helps you to deliver the best possible offering and increase your unit sales.
Pricing:
Determines how the price should be structured to help your customers perceive the greatest value, sets the level to reflect your quality, and consistently sets out any discounting and payment terms. The improves your profit margin and consistency. If need be, we’ll also discuss how to transition existing customers over to new pricing.
Target Markets:
Considers all the possible target markets, and selects the best ones based on a detailed set of criteria (such as speed of the sales cycle in a given market, price sensitivity of a given market). This helps you focus on the best, most relevant targets, and reduce time spent on less profitable areas.
Location:
Determines whether you need your own physical locations (and why), or dealers/distributors, or simply online distribution (with shipping support). This strategic decision makes a huge difference to your marketing control, and overhead costs.
Messaging:
Sets out the brand tone, key overall message (also called the unique selling proposition or USP), and clear supporting facts to differentiate your brand from competition over the long run. We also often include developing creative visual concepts to bring your message to life in a memorable and metaphorical way.
Promotional Mix:
Here, we address both marketing and sales elements: deciding upon the most efficient channels to reach all target markets. This may include website development, online marketing, direct selling (how many sales people, and what targets are they assigned to?), sales tools (presentations, brochures, etc.) branding, marketing/advertising, publicity, events, social media etc.
Budgeting & Goal Setting:
At this stage, we set priorities of what most needs to be done and when, and proceed in building a budget and schedule. We’ll also set reasonable goals and milestones, and assign team roles.
The Deliverable: Strategic Marketing Plan & Budget
Once the plan decision-making is done, we create a professionally designed, fully-editable business plan document with accompanying spreadsheets that you can use to present to lenders or investors.
Case Studies
Mage Networks
High Speed Internet Provider
Arn’s Equipment
Landscaping and Power Equipment Retailer
Waringa Canada
Agriculture | Equipment | Farming | Technology
Instant Plumbing
Plumbing Company
AlloyGator North America
Car Accessory Retailer
Treeco
A Canadian Hardwood Wholesaler
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