Sometimes it's fairly obvious what a company can do from a promotional point of view to gain new business. If this is the case we normally suggest developing a Marketing Plan, rather than a full Marketing Strategy. This will give a brief overview of the company and its services together with its USP’s (unique selling points). It will then list all the suggested initiatives such as revising the website, paid for Social Media advertising etc, but most importantly it will show exactly how the initiatives should be used. There is also a timing plan for the introduction of each initiative so that everything is done in a planned way. The activity needs to be monitored and reviewed because the Marketing Plan should always adapt to any changes that may occur i.e the economy might alter or there might be a new competitor to deal with, etc. The document is also a point of reference to see how the company is performing against the plan.

A Marketing Strategy is a much bigger document. Before this is produced, research needs to be carried out on the company and its target market.

The strategy is normally split into three parts:

Where are you now?

This gives an overview of the company, what its products and services are, its USP’s, what marketing has already taken place and the outcomes. How the company is perceived in the market place and how it wants to be perceived. There is also a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).

Where do you want to be?

This lists the company’s objectives and resources needed to achieve them.

How are you going to get there?

This is the action part of the document that details all the initiatives to be used in order to achieve the objectives already set out, together with a timing plan and planned outcomes.