What Is A Marketing Strategy Document ?

A marketing strategy document is a comprehensive plan outlining an organisation’s overall marketing approach. It serves as a roadmap, guiding the marketing efforts to achieve specific business goals. The document provides a structured and detailed action plan for reaching target audiences and converting them into customers.

It consists of several components that overlap with each other in some sections, and dip their toe into other areas where you wouldn’t think marketing wouldn’t typically provide advice on – such as total addressable market or human resource allocation! All-in-all, they are comprehensive in their scope to provide businesses with a clear heading on navigating markets to suit their goals.

Components of a Marketing Strategy Document

1. Executive Summary:
   • A brief overview of the key points of the business, including goals, main strategies, and expected outcomes.
   • Table of contents.
2. Company Analysis
   • Define their current business strategy, unique value proposition, and current marketing strategy.
   • A list of the pain points and challenges the company is facing.
3. Market Analysis:
   • Market Research: Insights into market size, growth potential, and market trends.
   • Target Audience: Detailed profiles of the ideal customers, including demographics, psychographics, and buying behaviour.
   • Competitive Analysis: An assessment of competitors, their strengths, weaknesses, and market positioning.
   • SWOT Analysis:
     • Strengths: Internal attributes that provide an advantage.
     • Weaknesses: Internal attributes that provide a disadvantage.
     • Opportunities: External factors that the organisation can exploit to its advantage.
     • Threats: External factors that could cause trouble for the organisation.
4. Marketing Goals and Objectives:
   • Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals that the marketing efforts aim to achieve.
   • Typically, these are 2-4 objectives to remain focused on during the execution.
5. Marketing Strategies:
   • Positioning: How the brand is positioned in the market relative to competitors.
   • The 4Ps of Marketing for Products
     The 4Ps model, or the marketing mix, is a framework used to develop and implement effective marketing strategies for products. It includes Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.
     • Product:Definition: The goods or services offered by a business to meet the needs and wants of customers.
       Strategy: Involves decisions about product design, features, quality, branding, packaging, and product life cycle. Understanding customer needs and ensuring the product meets these needs is crucial.
     • Price:Definition: The amount of money customers must pay to purchase the product.
       Strategy: Involves setting a pricing strategy that aligns with the product’s perceived value, competitive pricing, discounting policies, and payment terms. Considerations include cost of production, market demand, and competitors’ pricing.
     • Place:Definition: The locations and channels through which the product is distributed and sold.
       Strategy: Involves decisions about distribution channels, market coverage, logistics, and inventory management. The goal is to make the product available to the target market in the most convenient and efficient way.
     • Promotion:Definition: The activities that communicate the product’s features and benefits to the target audience.
       Strategy: Involves advertising, sales promotions, public relations, personal selling, and digital marketing. Effective promotion strategies create awareness, generate interest, and persuade customers to purchase.
   • The 7Ps of Marketing for Services
     The 7Ps model expands on the 4Ps framework to address the unique characteristics of services, adding three additional elements: People, Process, and Physical Evidence.
     • Product:Definition: The service offering provided to meet the needs of customers.
       Strategy: Focuses on service design, features, quality, and the overall service experience. It also involves understanding customer expectations and ensuring the service consistently meets or exceeds them.
     • Price:Definition: The amount charged for the service.
       Strategy: Involves setting a pricing strategy that reflects the value of the service, competitive pricing, and the perceived quality. Pricing methods can include hourly rates, project-based fees, or subscription models.
     • Place:Definition: The channels through which the service is delivered.
       Strategy: Includes decisions about service locations, delivery methods (online, in-person), and accessibility. The aim is to provide convenient and efficient access to the service for the target audience.
     • Promotion:Definition: The activities that communicate the service’s benefits and value to customers.
       Strategy: Involves advertising, sales promotions, public relations, and digital marketing. Effective promotion strategies build awareness, trust, and engagement with the target audience.
     • People:Definition: The individuals who deliver the service and interact with customers.
       Strategy: Focuses on recruiting, training, and managing service personnel to ensure they provide high-quality service and a positive customer experience. Employee skills, attitudes, and behaviours are crucial to service delivery.
     • Process:Definition: The procedures, mechanisms, and flow of activities by which the service is delivered.
       Strategy: Involves designing efficient and customer-friendly service processes, standard operating procedures, and service delivery mechanisms. Streamlining processes can enhance service quality and customer satisfaction.
     • Physical Evidence:Definition: The tangible aspects that support the service and provide proof of its quality.
       Strategy: Includes the physical environment where the service is delivered, branding materials, and any tangible cues that customers use to evaluate the service. Ensuring a professional and consistent presentation enhances customer perceptions.
6. Marketing Tactics and Action Plan:
   • Detailed activities and initiatives that will be implemented to execute the strategies, including timelines, responsibilities, and resources required.
7. Budget and Resources:
   • Breakdown of the marketing budget, including costs associated with different activities and resource allocation.
8. Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
   • Specific metrics are used to measure the effectiveness of the marketing strategies and tactics, such as conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, return on investment (ROI), and customer lifetime value.
9. Contingency Plans:
   • Strategies to address potential challenges or changes in the market environment.

Phew that’s a lot! And we didn’t even include the appendices! Now you might be thinking, “Do I, a small business owner, really need ALL of this, and where would I get the information from anyway?” – and you would be totally right. Most small business would not need the full scope of this document but it provides you a good insight into the complexities and details involved in fully servicing a marketing strategy for large organisations.

So then you probably wonder, “Well what do I need?” and that’s where our next section explains in further detail into what is enough and what is too much. But remember, its just a guide not a hard and fast rule. Everything is tailored to your goals and your business – if you need extra research into the market size and trends of scuba divers who need noise-cancelling headphones, then we can do that research as well!

What Scale of Organisations Typically Have Marketing Strategy Documents?

Marketing strategy documents are crucial for businesses of all sizes, but the complexity and depth of these documents can vary significantly depending on the scale of the organisation. Here’s a look at how different-sized businesses typically approach marketing strategy documentation:

Small Businesses and Startups

Characteristics:

• Employee Count: 1-50
• Revenue: Up to $10 million annually

Approach: Small businesses and startups often operate with limited resources and smaller teams. While they may not have a highly detailed marketing strategy document, they still benefit greatly from having a clear, concise plan. These documents help them stay focused and make the most of their limited resources.

Typical Contents:

• Executive Summary: Brief overview of goals and strategies.
• Market Analysis: Basic research on market trends and target audience.
• Marketing Goals and Objectives: Simple, SMART goals.
• Marketing Mix: Basic outline of the 4Ps or 7Ps.
• Budget Overview: High-level budget allocation.
• Action Plan: Key initiatives and timelines.

Medium-Sized Businesses

Characteristics:

• Employee Count: 51-250
• Revenue: $10 million to $1 billion annually

Approach: Medium-sized businesses often have more resources and larger marketing teams, allowing for a more detailed and structured marketing strategy document. These organisations need to coordinate more complex marketing efforts across different channels and markets.

Typical Contents:

• Executive Summary and Table of Contents
• Company Analysis: Detailed business strategy and unique value proposition.
• Market Analysis: In-depth market research, competitive analysis, and target audience profiling.
• SWOT Analysis
• Marketing Goals and Objectives: More specific and numerous objectives.
• Marketing Strategies: Detailed 4Ps for products, 7Ps for services.
• Marketing Tactics and Action Plan: Detailed activities with specific timelines and responsibilities.
• Budget and Resources: Detailed budget allocation and resource planning.
• Metrics and KPIs: Specific metrics to measure success.
• Contingency Plans

Large Enterprises

Characteristics:

• Employee Count: 251 and above
• Revenue: Over $1 billion annually

Approach: Large enterprises have extensive resources, complex organisational structures, and large-scale marketing operations. Their marketing strategy documents are comprehensive and highly detailed, often requiring input from multiple departments and extensive data analysis.

Typical Contents:

• Executive Summary and Table of Contents
• Company Analysis: Extensive business strategy, detailed value proposition, and current marketing strategy.
• Market Analysis: Comprehensive market research, competitive analysis, and detailed customer personas.
• SWOT Analysis: In-depth analysis with strategic implications.
• Marketing Goals and Objectives: Multiple, detailed SMART goals covering different aspects of the business.
• Marketing Strategies: Extensive 4Ps for products, 7Ps for services, often including global market considerations.
• Marketing Tactics and Action Plan: Highly detailed, including project management tools, Gantt charts, and cross-functional team responsibilities.
• Budget and Resources: Detailed and extensive budget breakdown, including various departments and initiatives.
• Metrics and KPIs: Comprehensive set of metrics, often with sophisticated analytics and reporting tools.
• Contingency Plans: Detailed risk management and contingency strategies.

How Long Does It Take to Create a Marketing Strategy Document?

Creating a comprehensive marketing strategy document is a significant undertaking, but it’s crucial for guiding your business’s marketing efforts and achieving your goals. If you’re wondering how long it takes to craft one of these detailed roadmaps, let’s break down the process step by step.

Phase 1: Initial Planning and Research (1-2 weeks)

First things first: you need to gather all the necessary information. This means diving into your company’s current marketing strategy, understanding your market, analysing competitors, and profiling your target audience. Think of this phase as laying the foundation for your strategy.

Phase 2: Company and Market Analysis (1-2 weeks)

Next up is a deep dive into your business and the market landscape. Conduct a SWOT analysis to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Define your current business strategies, unique value propositions, and list out the pain points and challenges your company faces. This phase is all about understanding where you stand and where you want to go.

Phase 3: Setting Marketing Goals and Objectives (1 week)

With a solid understanding of your market and business, it’s time to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. These objectives will keep your marketing efforts focused and aligned with your overall business goals. Typically, you’ll set 2-4 key objectives to maintain focus.

Phase 4: Developing Marketing Strategies (2-3 weeks)

Now comes the fun part—developing your marketing strategies. For products, this involves the classic 4Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For services, you’ll expand this to the 7Ps, adding People, Process, and Physical Evidence. This phase is about crafting detailed strategies that will guide your marketing efforts.

Phase 5: Marketing Tactics and Action Plan (1-2 weeks)

Strategies are great, but without a concrete action plan, they won’t go far. This phase involves outlining specific activities, initiatives, timelines, and responsibilities. It’s all about translating your strategies into actionable steps that your team can follow.

Phase 6: Budget and Resource Allocation (1 week)

No plan is complete without a budget. You need to outline the costs associated with different activities and allocate the necessary resources. This phase ensures that your marketing plan is financially feasible and adequately supported.

Phase 7: Review and Contingency Planning (1 week)

Finally, review the entire document to ensure it’s comprehensive and accurate. Develop contingency plans to address potential challenges or changes in the market. It’s about being prepared for the unexpected and ensuring your strategy is robust and flexible.

Total Estimated Time: 8-12 weeks

Creating a marketing strategy document typically takes between 8 to 12 weeks. This timeline can vary based on several factors:

• Complexity of Your Business: More complex businesses with extensive product lines or services might need more time.
• Data Availability: If you already have market research and internal data on hand, the process can be faster.
• Stakeholder Involvement: Frequent consultations and approvals can extend the timeline.
• Depth of Detail: A more detailed and thorough analysis and strategy development naturally takes longer.

Summary

Small businesses and startups typically have more streamlined and concise marketing strategy documents. Medium-sized businesses have moderately detailed documents that allow for coordination of more complex marketing efforts. Large enterprises require comprehensive and highly detailed strategy documents to manage their extensive marketing operations effectively.

Regardless of the size, having a marketing strategy document helps organisations stay focused, allocate resources efficiently, and align marketing efforts with business goals.

Armed with everything you need to go out and achieve your goals, you can now start conquering your market and competition. Get to it!