Marketing trends change rapidly. Just think about it, in the first quarter of 2022 we saw the rise of short videos, the successes and failures of new platforms, and of course, we also had to reckon with the impact of the pandemic on everything. And this is all true in 2023 when things have changed also. But what about your marketing strategy? With so many changes in the online world, it means that the marketing strategies put together a few years ago do not necessarily work the way they originally did.

In order for your marketing to remain successful – and to maintain your relevance in the eyes of your audience – you must keep up with these changing trends. The guide below will help you do just that – we’ll show you how to build a successful marketing strategy in 2023 that covers all the important areas. Let’s start!

Why do you need a marketing strategy?

A solid marketing strategy will help you reach your ideal customers, including those who have purchased from you in the past and those who have never heard of your brand. Without a good strategy, you would just be wandering aimlessly in a dark room, which would cost you a lot of money and time. 

Conversely, having a strategy helps:

• coordinate all the company’s teams based on the main goals;
• adapt your activities to the goals;
• find out what positively affects your target audience.

There are seven main steps to creating a successful marketing strategy, which you can read about in more detail below. Without further ado, let’s take a look at them!

7 steps to creating a successful marketing strategy

#1 Prepare your marketing plan

At first, it sounds strange that a marketing strategy will need a plan, but these two concepts do not mean the same thing. Your marketing strategy paints a comprehensive picture of why your marketing team needs certain resources, and why it has to perform certain tasks, and you will also set your goals within the framework of the strategy.

In the plan, you define the specific steps you will take to implement this strategy and achieve your goals. A good template can be useful for this, which will help you determine your annual budget, list the tasks to be performed, and the marketing channels you will use to perform these tasks.

#2 Create your buyer personas

A buyer persona is essentially a fictional person who has all the relevant characteristics of your ideal customers. For example, if you sell baby products, your ideal customer might be a young urban mom who frequently browses Facebook and Instagram and can afford to shop in your price range.

Based on this, you can create a fictitious person who will determine what marketing messages you will formulate, on what channels you will distribute these messages, what types of advertisements you will use, and so on. It is therefore important to know your target audience before you start working on your marketing strategy so that you know who your marketing messages are aimed at.

#3 Set your marketing goals

Your marketing goals will be primarily dictated by your business goals. For example, if you want to get 500 people to attend your conference six months from now, your marketing goal could be to increase the number of registrations by 10% by the end of the month compared to the previous month.

Another example is that you want to attract more people, for which you will need stronger brand awareness. So now you have to set the goals that you want to achieve with your strategy, as you will have to make all your decisions based on these goals and your buyer personas.

#4 Choose the right tools

Once you have your goals and buyer personas in front of you, you will also need the right tools for successful marketing. You can choose from a number of free and paid tools that help you with different areas of online marketing. There are analytics tools, social media management tools, website analyzers, and more, among others.

#5 Examine your existing media content

Look at what content you currently have that can help you create your strategy. You can make this step easier by classifying these contents into three larger categories:

• Paid media: This includes any media that you spend money on to get new customers for your company. Think television commercials, newspaper and internet ads, social media ads, and more.
• Own media: The content that your company produces: images, videos, infographics, e-books, and so on.
• Earned Media: Anytime a customer, user, or publication mentions your brand on social media, a blog, or takes an image related to your brand, that’s all considered “earned” or “reached” media. This includes, among other things, user content.

Gather quite a few examples of these materials in one place so you know what’s available to you and how you can integrate this content into your building strategy. Let’s say, for example, that you have a blog where you share some interesting professional articles every week (your own media). You can also promote this blog with social media ads (paid media) to reach as many users as possible who will share this content with their friends (earned media).

If you have content that doesn’t serve your goals, then don’t focus too much on it as part of your strategy. However, if you have gaps, you can also identify them in this step so that you know what you still need to fill in.

#6 Audit and plan your media campaigns

The previous step leads right here. Now is the time to decide which content will be useful for you. First, focus on your own media and marketing goals. Would it help you get more attendees to your conference if you changed the call to action at the end of your blog posts? After that, the buyer personas can come. 

Let’s say you sell lesser-known sports goods, and one of your buyer personas wants to find out how he can strengthen his abs. You could make a text article or even a video presentation about this, which illustrates how specific sports equipment can be used for this. Finally, create a content plan. This plan includes what topic group the contents belong to, what their goals are, what format they will be produced in, and which channels you will publish them on. Don’t forget to indicate which problems your buyer personas of a piece of content offer solutions for.

#7 Launch your plan

By now, the market research and the plans so far depict a good picture of how and with what tools you should implement your strategy. The last task is to assign specific activities to this plan. Create a document and outline the steps you need to take to implement your campaign. 

In other words: define your campaign. This document should be prepared for the long term. A general strategy is usually planned 12 months in advance. This will be the main document that will provide the basis for your marketing efforts. Remember that since your company is unique, your online strategy and the document outlining it must also be prepared individually. Just make sure it includes the tasks listed in the previous points!

Final Thoughts

As you can see, a marketing strategy is key to a successful business. However, it really matters how you build your marketing strategy and what aspects you focus on. It is crucial to understand your buyer personas, to be present on the right social media platforms, and last, but not least, to use the right marketing tools. But that is not all. You should also focus on your media content, build campaigns, create ads that give you the right results, and most importantly, never forget to monitor how these work. If you are interested to learn more about the world of digital marketing, SEO, WordPress and many other topics, don’t hesitate to visit our blog and read our articles!