Your marketing strategy is part of your business strategy, and not something separate. The marketing strategy is designed to support your endeavour to achieve your business objective.

These steps are generic to any strategic process, they would be suitable to implement digital, marketing, communication, product launch or any business strategy.

Whether you spend 10 days or 10 seconds on each step, will depend on the context and scale of the project, but the steps are not optional.

1. Clarify your mission and vision

Your mission is a statement of your reason for being, a vision is a description of what your business looks like in the future. if you can’t articulate what your desire future looks like, then how can anyone else contribute to achieve it?

2. Scan the environment

It’s important to understand exactly where you are today. List all the factors for you and against you in the contest of achieving your vision. The easiest way to do this is by through the traditional SWOT analysis, where you brainstorm Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Check out the SWOT Analysis – Done by Carlose Lopez

3. Set your priorities

Based on the SWOT you have produced, be smart about:

• which opportunities are going to play to your strengths and deliver business value
• identify the strengths which give you the greatest ability to differentiate yourself uniquely
• prioritise for action those weaknesses that are likely to get in the way of achieving your vision

4. Set your objective

Now is the time to set the strategic objectives. Consider the SMART framework: (S) specific, (M) measurable, (A) achievable, (R) realistic and (T) time framed.

Also consider the obstacles that will prevent you from achieving your objectives. Obstacles are things you have to overcome or bypass and your strategy has to address them accordingly.

5. Create your strategy

A strategy is simple a broad description of the approach you intend to take to achieve your goals.

6. Define operational plans and budgets

You put “flesh on the bones” of the strategy and make it workable by allocating resources and making specific decisions.

7. Develop and manage your project plans

Ensure the project comes in on time, scope and within budget. Break down the work to be done into packages of specific deliverables with specific time frames and allocated resources.

Use guerilla development: spend little, abandon easily, keep moving on, keep innovating, keep diversifying.

Check out the How to create a business strategy – Done by Carlose Lopez

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