6 Reasons Your Business Needs a Marketing Strategy

Written By: Shannon Briggs

Business owners have a popcorn machine of thoughts popping around their heads all day long. From finance to HR to building codes and more, ideas about marketing are just a few of the kernels in the whole bowl. Random marketing kernels often include questions like: “Should we be on xyz social media platform?” “Is it time for a new website like my competitor?” “How do I get more people through the door to spend money?”

A strategic marketing plan answers all of these questions and many more. Here are six reasons why every business should have one:

Streamline

A marketing strategy streamlines an entire, and important, piece of your business. Think of your marketing strategy as a compass pointing the way. It keeps everyone in the company moving in the same direction as to how the company should position itself. As  a far-reaching  communication tool, it eliminates questions and last minute decision-making about marketing efforts.

Targeted

No longer will you have to guess if your message is reaching the correct people. A marketing strategy targets  the audience you want to reach and focuses on reaching them as effectively as possible in the places they already exist.

Budget Friendly

While a marketing strategy costs money on the front end, it saves money overall. With a targeted marketing strategy in place, businesses are much less likely to spend money on ineffective marketing platforms.. A strategic marketing plan identifies the opportunities that will make your business money in the long term as well as the  opportunities that are not cost-effective. Allocating your marketing budget appropriately and effectively eliminates the last-minute urge to say “oh we should also do this!” in the middle of the year. 

Time Friendly

In addition to saving money, a marketing strategy saves  you time. Again, you will invest a good bit of time on the front-end, but a good, sound plan saves  you hours, days, and weeks in the long-run. A well-developed strategy identifies the key players necessary for implementation, the time commitment needed from each person, and the marketing opportunities that best meet your goals.  With a marketing strategy in place, you know exactly what you are doing for marketing at any given moment, freeing up that last-minute brainstorming session for other tasks. Additionally, you are able to  turn a good bit of marketing tasks over to automation, ending those time limitations in your day-to-day activities.

Saves Brainspace

Money and time are not the only finite resources. With a solid marketing strategy, you spare another precious resource: brainspace. . With decision-fatigue plaguing many business owners these days, already having the decision-making done on your marketing to-do list is just one less thing you have to consider . You juggle enough hats. Let your marketing strategy do some of the work for you.

ROI

When it comes down to it, business owners want to know if what they are doing is helping them reach their goals. How do you know if your marketing efforts are  leading you in the right  direction? By setting clearly defined marketing goals, creating a plan to reach them, and then a subsequent plan to measure your  success. That is a marketing strategy in a nutshell. 

Creating a marketing strategy can seem like a daunting task at first. It’s a big map to navigate  . Yet, by diving in, asking the right questions, and figuring out your process, you are  setting up for future success with a reliable compass  in hand.