Your Marketing Strategy Checklist

Often our prospects are wary of strategy. It sounds expensive and something fancy consultants do (that they fear they can not afford). However to be successful...well as we say at sparqGEN, you need to think first.

What do we mean by this? Many of our clients (and that includes our largest, Fortune 500 as well as our smaller, local customers) often jump to execution.

Usually the conversation starts with doing, doing, doing. So, we might hear something like, "What we really need is to be on Facebook." Really? Maybe you should be on Facebook. Or maybe not. Or, another common request, "If only we had a modern website then the leads would be coming in."

Don't get us wrong. We would love to build your website. We are also experts in social media and we enjoy helping our clients (that belong there) with campaigns and social content.

But let's back it up.

Even the simplest creative assignment is tricky if you have not thought through your overall strategy. What copy do you use? What is your value proposition? Should your piece be bold and bright or more subtle and conservative? So, we go back to the beginning with a simple checklist. Ask yourself these questions (and you can bet we will ask them to help you succeed!).

1. What are your overall business goals? Short-term? Long-term? Is it revenue? Profit? Market share? Diversification? Brand awareness?

2. How would you prioritize these goals? There is only so much time and money and you can not do it all at once.

3. Who is your target customer? (Demographics, psychographics, lifestyle, beliefs)

4. Who is your competition? How do you differentiate your business in the market?

5. What has your marketing produced to date? What has been successful? Or not? Marketing is not a perfect science. Often it takes several rounds of testing to find the right offer, creative and price point.

Basic questions perhaps - but the answers are not always simple. 99% of our clients are so busy running their operations that often they don't ask these questions and their marketing suffers from it.

So while it may be tempting to jump to Facebook or whatever marketing du jour is the rage. Let's stop and figure out what you are trying to do. Then, let's figure out how you are going to get there with a positioning and market segmentation that delivers on your business strategy and fits your budget. After that, we can start planning and Facebook or a new website may or may not be in the plan.

Let's think first together. Contact us today for a consultation.