The 4 Components of An Effective Marketing Strategy
At the heart of every successful business is an effective marketing strategy. How can someone buy a product or service they don’t know exists? Simply defined, a marketing strategy is a strategy outlined for advertising or rather marketing a product/service to a specific group of customers. An effective marketing strategy will outline its value proposition and objectives, identify its target audience, key messages, and most importantly, its marketing channels. This article will guide you through these four components of an effective marketing strategy.
- Value Proposition
A statement that eloquently answers why a customer should choose your brand is referred to as a value proposition. When your product and/or service has sparked interest in a consumer, the next stage is convincing them that your product and/or service is the solution to their needs/wants when compared to those of competing brands. For a potential customer to acknowledge your product and/or service, you’ll need to provide a reason for what sets you apart from other brands; value proposition makes a grand entrance here. Statistics report that you have got no more than a minute to grab/capture a potential customer’s attention while they are exploring your brand on your website.
An example of a great value proposition is by Uber, which states, ‘Uber is the smartest way to get around. One tap and a car comes directly to you. Your driver knows exactly where to go. And payment is completely cashless.’ This description directly contrasts the typical experience of taking a taxi, making it more appealing to use Uber for convenience.
For your value proposition to leave a positive and lasting impression on a potential customer, it has got to quickly outline how to meets your customer’s needs and how it benefits them in an understandable way. When you achieve that balance in your value proposition, you also express what makes your brand unique; a sweet win-win situation.
- Target Audience
When you have an idea of how you want to be seen/perceived in the marketplace, you must know the group of customers that will best fit the shoe. It is important that you define with utmost clarity not only your target audience but also what makes them your target audience. The first point will help you know WHO wants your product/service, while the latter will help you know WHY they need/want your product/service. Your target audience should be based on gender, age, education, income, ethnicity, and even family size.
Your target audience should determine your general brand image, such as the colors you’d choose to use. For example, if your business deals with the manufacturing of children’s toys, then bright brand colors would surely attract your target audience (toddlers) to your business. Yes! That is the power of a target audience. Important to note is the fact that you will always need to first ATTRACT your target audience to your business before trying to make a sale.
- Key Messages
As you execute your marketing strategy, you also build your brand. But how? when you advertise your business, there are certain keywords you will use. For example, if you are a realtor, keywords and/or key messages such as Comfort & Peaceful Living or Fine & Luxurious Property could be amongst the terminology used. What is the importance of key messages?
Remember we mentioned first to attract your target audience? There you go. Simply put, the key messages of your business are the main points of information that you want your (target) audience to hear, comprehend and most importantly, react to. Below are attributes of an effective key message:
- Memorable – easily can be remembered; avoid long, run-on sentences.
- Simple – easy to comprehend language; avoid acronyms and jargon
- Compelling – meaningful information that encourages consumption action.
- Relevant – balances between what your audience needs to know and what you need to communicate.
- Strategic- defines, differentiates, and addresses product/service benefit(s).
- Concise – straight to the point; can be communicated in 30 seconds or less.
A couple of good key messages can be found with some of the world’s leading brands, such as Wal-Mart – Save Money. Live Better, MTN – Everywhere You Go, Instagram – Connecting The World Through Photos and Uber – Evolving The Way The World Moves.
In less than ten words, the above key messages have one thing in common. They’re telling their target audiences how their brand will improve the quality of their life. This, in turn, serves the purpose of sparking interest in the customer, leading to a sale. That is the main purpose of a key message. It is like a summed-up version of your value proposition in 10 words or less.
- Marketing Channels
A marketing channel is the engine of your marketing strategy. It drives your product/service to your (target) audience or, rather, potential customers. Marketing channels are defined as third parties websites/applications that expose/take your product/service to market after your website. Marketing channels include but is not limited to:
- Pay-per-click Marketing
- Social media Marketing
- Email marketing
- Content & SEO Marketing
- Word of mouth(referral) marketing.
It is important to observe that your target audience will determine what type(s) of marketing channels you will use. For example, as a fashion designer for teenage clothes, using email marketing will not be AS EFFECTIVE, for audience reach and click-through-rate, as social media marketing. Social media such as Instagram have been shown to provide the 2nd best ROI (return on investment) for business brands. By 2023, the website alone is expected to reach well over 120 million active users! Choose your marketing channel wisely.
Remember, consumers cannot buy something they do not know exists. Marketing is vital to your businesses success.
