The Power of a Plan: Why Every Business Needs a Marketing Strategy

Imagine this scenario. You own a plot of land and want to build the house of your dreams on it.  You are wondering how you will build this house. You aren’t an architect, engineer, trained home builder or skilled tradesman, but you know how to cut wood, paint walls, nail pictures, and install a light fixture.  You figure it will be quicker and cheaper this way. So you decide to do it yourself, relying on friendly advice, Youtube videos, grit and gut instinct. 

You pour the foundation, then you try to put up the walls, but they just aren’t flush. You hire a plumber to install the pipes, but they don’t know where to put them. You put the flooring down, but the stain is not what you had in mind. 

A few months into the project, you have made progress on the house, but in the end, your dream house is still far from being a reality. The results just don’t match the effort you have put in. 

If you had hired an architect in the beginning, a general contractor to oversee execution, and experienced tradesman and eager-to-learn apprentices, you’d already be sitting on the sofa with your feet up, coffee or cocktail in hand.

You wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint, so why would you market your business without a strategic plan?

This is the scenario that often plays out with businesses continuing to DIY their Marketing efforts after they have reached a certain maturity level. You may have been able to grow by painting walls and hanging pictures (aka doing basic branding and social media), but it’s not the same as building a structurally sound house where your family can live and welcome guests for years to come.

Pitfalls of Marketing without a Strategy

Business leaders must consider the long-term pitfalls of DIY marketing without a strategy, which include:

• Confused prospects = missed customers - If your messaging and your unique selling point (USP) are not clear, you miss customers across the funnel. They will bring their business to a competitor whose solution they can understand.

• Confused salespeople = confused prospects = missed customers - An unclear sales pitch without a strong storyline leads to more of the above. A well-crafted story that clearly communicates your USP and addresses buyer needs with the right sales materials streamlines the sales process and gets you revenue quicker.

• Competitive disadvantage & missed market opportunities - A tactical, reactive approach means you likely pivot your message or your offering based on today’s trend. By building a strategy, you take a proactive approach, understanding the marketplace, trends, and competitors while identifying threats and opportunities. This allows you to pivot strategically into new, lucrative areas and away from those no longer serving you, vs. simply following the crowd. 

• Wasted resources & blown budget - By throwing money at piecemeal ideas without an overarching strategic plan, you can expect piecemeal results. A flash in the pan here and there, but no sustainable progress. This may turn you off from marketing altogether, which will be detrimental to your business.

• Poor results - You can’t expect to post an image on social media, get 1000s of followers then hundreds of sales.  If you want long-term, sustainable results you need to be in it for the long-haul. With the right plan, there will be short-term wins, but the dividends will really start to pay in months 3+ when the fruits start to bear and the wins come in across the board.

Benefits of Marketing with a Strategy

On the flipside, here are the benefits of marketing with a strategic plan:

• Clarity = well-managed resources = results - You are clear on what you are delivering, how you are delivering it, how much it will cost and when you can expect to see results. This gives the executive team peace of mind, makes your Marketing team clear on what they should be focusing on, ultimately maximizing results and overall business impact.

• Creativity, applied strategically = standing out in your competitive set - Creativity will be baked into the strategy based on market opportunities and competitive offerings. This will allow your unique brand to shine and your market awareness to grow, making you stand out to prospects.

• Freed up executive time- You will spend less time thinking of ad-hoc marketing activities and more time managing your key business metrics. Worry about win rate, not social media follower growth rate.

• Improved sales metrics - with a clear sales story and supporting materials, your sellers will be clear on what they are selling and prospects will be clear on what they are buying, allowing you to secure more, higher-ticket customers more quickly, improving win rate and time to close.

How to Get a Strategic Plan and Make an Impact - Quickly

Now is the ideal time to develop a strategic marketing plan - you still have the entire year to deliver results! Luckily, if you are a C-suite executive with big business goals, you have options that won’t break the proverbial bank, that will generate quick wins and long-term results.

Enter the fractional Marketing leadership, or fractional CMO, model. With this model you get a CMO (the architect) that crafts your strategic Marketing plan (blueprint) taking into account your specific goals and needs (your vision and wish list), builds a team to deliver the plan (tradespeople) and oversees the delivery of the plan (general contractor) until the results start coming in and the team is set up for long-term success.

Whether embarking on a new home build or a business build, having a comprehensive plan is paramount to success. A business with a sound Marketing strategy, an attractive brand, a compelling story, an effective team and tools can mean the difference between minimal growth and unprecedented growth. 

Time to Take Action

Book a Discovery Session with Ljs Advisory to discuss how a marketing strategy can help your business thrive, and start writing your growth story, today.