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Strategic ideas and industry trends

Why You Need a Clear Marketing Strategy In Today’s Data-Driven World

Caid Christiansen

Marketing—can’t live with it, can’t live without it. Or so it seems at times.

Many organizations have had their impression of marketing ruined by teams who were unable to execute, tactics that didn’t make money, or strategies that weren’t oriented towards their success. Much of that is a hangover from the old agency model which was focused around large media buys, unclear ROI, and lots of hand-holding. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

These days, tactics alone aren’t enough. Your business must have a clear marketing strategy centered around results.

A Marketing Strategy Starts with Goals

Your first question—your most important question—must be: “what are my goals and objectives?” Do you want to drive traffic to your website? Do you want to increase the number of calls you get every month? Do you want to boost ecommerce sales? No matter the goal or goals, what’s most important is that you be explicitly clear about what you want.

Your goals will become your north star. Down the road, they’ll help you uncover how your marketing investment is helping your business. But without a defined set of goals, you can’t even know how you’ll execute or how you’ll measure.

Then, There’s Tactics

Your strategic goals will determine your tactics. That billboard you thought you wanted may not make sense if you want more site traffic. Likewise, that Facebook ad or email campaign may not make sense if you want to increase call volume. They may make sense—but it all depends on what you’ve decided is most important.

Done right, the foundation you’ve started to lay down with your broader goals and objectives will give you a clear picture of which tactics make the most sense. You should only select those tactics that will help you achieve your goals. Again, you couldn’t even get to this step without having determined how you want your marketing to help your business.

Finally, There’s Results

The last place strategic planning directly impacts your marketing is in determining the results you’ll measure, and how you’ll measure them. A billboard’s results are harder to track. Executed correctly, however, an email campaign will have clear metrics you can track and tie into ROI. Like the best tactics for your strategy, the results that matter will vary depending on your goals.

There’s a reason we call ourselves a strategic marketing agency. We’re results-driven from the outset. How will you drive traffic? How will you measure the impact of your investment? How will you execute? Having an eye for strategy, and how that transfers over to execution and results measurement, is essential in today’s world.

You need a clearly-defined marketing strategy in today’s world because without it, you’re just throwing dollars at a program that may or may not be working.

Build a marketing strategy, determine tactics, and define results, and you’ll know what to measure, how to look at the data, and how to tie that into results. Try new tactics and hope for the best, and all you’re doing is setting your business up for failure.

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