THE MOST IMPORTANT STEPS IN A MARKETING STRATEGY

As an IC graduate, I have gained considerable experience in developing and executing marketing campaigns. I have worked with numerous companies within various industries and the beginning phase of any campaign plan is the most important step in marketing.

The beginning phase relates to understanding the problem statement, identifying measurable goals, communicating product objectives, and truly understanding the target audience’s pains and needs. This might sound very basic at first, but many marketers fail to take great consideration within the beginning phase of a campaign plan.

This article describes the most important steps in a marketing strategy.

WHAT IS A PROBLEM STATEMENT?

A problem statement presents the desired situation of the client organization considering stakeholders’ concerns and potential negative consequences. Within the article, I will provide a problem statement template (Template 1) to help organize information for the beginning phase of a campaign plan.

PROBLEM STATEMENT TEMPLATE (ONE)

How can [organization] [desired situation] without [concerns/negative consequences]? (Based on De Haan and De Heer (2015)). This template can therefore be used to organize information in a more efficient manner.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLE

How can OiLComPany align its brand image as a sustainable organization with public attitudes to plastics without undermining the company’s business relationships, disrupting well-established company systems dedicated to plastics, or sacrificing lucrative government-funded research in plastics development?

PROBLEM STATEMENT EXAMPLE

MEASURABLE GOALS

The problem statement describes the desired situation or goal of an organization, but it is often too abstract to be the basis for making organizational decisions, defining objectives, or implementing strategies. This is because it gives no real clues about alternative ways the goal can be reached in the real world and, as a result, no clear clues about how communication might be useful in helping the client reach their goal.

What is needed is a set of concrete, actionable, or measurable goals that describe what needs to happen in the world for the organization to reach the goal. A goal is measurable if we can determine how often it occurs (frequency), how much of it there is (size, number, amount), or how consistently it occurs over time (rate).

We can get an initial idea about what these measurable goals are in the Orientation Phase by conducting an intake/orientation interview with the client and, if necessary, other relevant stakeholders of the client’s organization.

The client is likely to have ideas about what needs to happen to reach the organization’s goal/desired situation mentioned in the problem description, given the structure and resources of the organization. The intake interview(s) can be conducted, in part, by asking the client to be more and more specific about his or her ideas. Some questions likely to elicit this information are given in the following template:

INTAKE QUESTIONS TEMPLATE (TWO)

The client’s answers to these questions will reveal the logic behind her perspective and what she is prepared to accept as evidence that the desired situation has in fact been achieved. Other relevant stakeholders in the client’s organization are likely to have different agendas and expectations and, therefore, different ideas about what measurable goals will be necessary to realize the desired situation or what levels (e.g., frequencies, amounts, rates).

COMMUNICATION PRODUCT OBJECTIVES

A communication product objective describes how communication can contribute to reaching a client organization’s measurable goal. Communication can contribute to the successful achievement of a measurable goal by e.g., creating awareness, directing behavior, and inspiring behavior change.

Together, communication product objectives provide the first clues as to what communication product will be most effective for achieving measurable goals and how the communication product should be designed. Communication product objectives identify which influential variables communication is likely to have an impact on.

Communication cannot influence proximity. But it can raise awareness and stimulate interest. Therefore, we can identify raising awareness and stimulating interest in cooperation as two roles for communication in achieving the measurable goal. Any role of communication can be made explicit by using the communication product objective template in Template 3.

COMMUNICATION PRODUCT OBJECTIVE TEMPLATE (THREE)

NEEDS ANALYSIS (CUSTOMER PAINS/NEEDS)

A needs analysis yields design requirements that the communication product should satisfy to be valuable, attractive, and practical for the target group.

Determining the target group’s pains, frustrations, goals, attitudes, behaviors and perspectives has the highest priority in design research. It is important to know not only what the target group knows, but also what they feel, think, and believe. It is important to know not only how they behave, but what their short- and long-term goals are, what values drive their behavior, what and who is meaningful to them, and what they pay attention to in their daily lives.

The very best manner to visualize this information is through a complete CUSTOMER PERSONA & CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP. Customer personification along with a detailed customer journey map is crucial to any marketing success. From my experience, when you truly understand your target audience and you can clearly pinpoint their needs and frustrations, you will have a more targeted approach to executing products for behavioral change.

CUSTOMER PERSONA

By having a full scope of a customer persona, you will know exactly what is important to the audience, where they spend most of their time online/offline, what drives their behaviors, what inspires them, their fears, and their desires related to the problem statement. I will provide an example of a detailed customer persona for you to view. By looking at this persona, you can clearly see how the target audience speaks to you and how to integrate your strategy within this persona.

CUSTOMER PERSONA TEMPLATE EXAMPLE

The best manner to gather data for your customer persona is by setting up an interview questionnaire with the intended audience. To start, you need to find a sample population.

In marketing, a sample population refers to a group of individuals or entities from a larger population that is selected to participate in a market research study or survey. The sample population is often selected randomly or through specific criteria in order to ensure that it is representative of the larger population, and the information gathered from this sample population is used to make inferences about the preferences, behaviors, and opinions of the entire population.

CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP

A customer journey map is a visual representation of the various touchpoints and interactions a customer has with a business or brand over time, from initial awareness to post-purchase support. Creating a customer journey map is important for several reasons:

Understanding customer needs: A customer journey map helps a business understand the needs, motivations, and pain points of its customers at each stage of the journey. This can help the business identify areas where it can improve the customer experience and create more value for its customers.

Identifying opportunities for improvement: By mapping out the entire customer journey, a business can identify areas where the customer experience can be improved, such as by simplifying processes, reducing friction, or providing better support.

Aligning teams: A customer journey map can help align teams across the business, from marketing and sales to customer support and product development. By understanding the customer journey, teams can work together to create a more seamless and consistent experience for customers.

Driving customer loyalty: A positive customer experience is key to driving customer loyalty and repeat business. By understanding the customer journey and identifying opportunities to improve it, a business can create a more positive experience for its customers and increase the likelihood that they will become loyal advocates for the brand.

CUSTOMER JOURNEY TEMPLATE EXAMPLE

Overall, a customer journey map is an important tool for any business looking to improve the customer experience and create more value for its customers. I hope this article helps you gain insight into the importance of the beginning phase of any campaign plan. By using all the information in this article, you will be able to create more useful marketing products that can be more accurately executed for the intended audience.

Lastly, to see how AI is transforming the marketing industry by storm, please view my blog post on how AI will transform marketing, forever.