Marketing and PR must start with strategy

Earlier this week on this blog, I riffed on how You and I are incredibly lucky. My point was that marketing and PR is so much easier with the ability today to publish information.

Several people called me out to say that I make it seem too easy. That simply tossing stuff out there is not enough.

For example, Stephen Eugene Adams wrote: "I think that we are now seeing a lot of unemployed marketing and PR people. If everyone can now do it themselves, then why do we need a top level person to run our marketing effort. Marketing people have now become production people. Tweet 5 times a day. Post on the Facebook Fan Page once a day, send out a press release to PRWeb once a month, send out an email newsletter once a month. The CMO of most small and medium sized businesses these days are now fresh out of college and they are lower paid. Is this better?"

I replied to Stephen: "No, it is not better. It is a problem. Marketing Strategy is still essential. Tweeting or blogging is just the tactic. But it is essential that the tactics chosen support the company goals."

Marketing and PR must start with strategy

I've thought a great deal about strategy and distilled it down to my free two-page Marketing Strategy Planning Template.

Start with goals: What we need to do is align marketing and PR objectives with those of the organization. For most corporations, the most important goal is profitable revenue growth. In newer companies and those built around emerging technologies, this usually means generating new customers, but in mature businesses, the management team may need to be more focused on keeping the customers that they already have. Of course, nonprofits have the goal of raising money; politicians, to get out the vote; rock bands, to get people to buy CDs, iTunes downloads, and tickets to live shows; and universities, to get student applications and alumni donations.

Then focus on buyers: Successful marketing and PR efforts work because they start by identifying one or more buyer personas to target, so you need to make buyer personas a part of your planning process. A buyer persona is essentially a representative of a type of buyer that you have identified as having a specific interest in your organization or product or having a market problem that your product or service solves. Building buyer personas is the first step and probably the single most important thing that you will do in creating your marketing and PR plan.

Now you're ready to publish: Then your brand journalism efforts should be designed to reach the specific buyer personas that you have created. You must now think like a publisher. You should develop an editorial plan to reach your buyers with focused content in the media they prefer.

How to use the Marketing Strategy Planning Template

I created the Marketing Strategy Planning Template to help people implement strategies for reaching buyers directly. I believe it’s essential to shift out of the marketer's comfort zone of preaching about products and services. For example, if you were to say to me, "I want to start a blog," I would point you to the template and have you start asking the following questions:

• Who are you trying to reach with the blog?
• Is a blog the best tool? Or might another form of content be better?
• What problems can you help solve for your buyers?
• What value do you bring as creator of this content?
• What search terms are people entering to find you? (This will help you name the blog itself and to title individual posts.)
• What sort of person are you, and what is your company’s personality? (This is helpful for creating the design.)
• What do you want people to do—buy, donate, subscribe? (Helpful to create appropriate links to additional content.)

The Marketing Strategy Planning Template is built on the same principle I talk about on this blog: that understanding buyers and publishing information on the web especially for them drives action.

You need a strategy before you start creating content

This approach becomes clear on the second page of the strategy template where I point out that when you publish valuable information (videos, blogs, Twitter feeds, e-books, and so on), you are creating the sorts of links that search engine algorithms love. Thus, your content surfaces when buyers are looking for help solving their problems!

The second page also reminds you that the information people find will drive them to action and help you achieve your goals. Moreover, you can monitor your own effectiveness: You can measure how many people follow you on Twitter, sign up for your email newsletter, or download a white paper. You can also measure how your marketing strategies are helping your organization reach its most important goals, such as new sales and revenue growth.

Image: Shutterstock / AlexRoz

Comments

[Paul Tobey]

the concept of blogging for businesses has become very popular in the last couple of years your article has touched on many of these aspects one of the things that has worked very well for me is the fact that on every blog page I have some area where people can opt into my mailing list. I've always felt the monies in the list and in my business training courses I focus on this a lot thanks for the information and I look forward to more.

[TaiGoodwin]

Hi David,
Fantastic tool you have here. It is similar to the process I questions I use when working with clients. I am always taken a back a little when clients are shocked that I am starting a social media strategy session with questions about their overall marketing (audience, branding, offerings). I guess that's one of the 'gifts' we provide is seeing the connection between the big picture and the tactical when it comes to planning and execution.

I didn't see you original article, but I agree that we are fortunate. We have so many ways to be discovered by and engage with our audience. While access to the channels is easy, it takes much thought and planning (like your template) to really get results.

Great job and thanks for sharing!

[Stephen Eugene Adams]

David, Thanks for the mention. I'm now glad I removed the last two sentences from my comment before posting it. I do think that a lot of the thought process in today's marketing and PR work has been thrown out the window in order to save money. Your tools to help companies think about what they are doing in this arena are outstanding and I use them all the time when consulting with my customers. Keep up the good work.

[Jamie Favreau]

David,
This is great information and really helpful. Plus, really easy to understand.

Thanks.

[Gail Gardner]

Your marketing strategy template can get small businesses thinking about who their target audience is - a process that I find many have never really thought about before.

I recently wrote a post questioning the wisdom of every business having their own blog. Many businesses are not willing to invest the time and overhead required to do that well so for those businesses it may be better to focus on blog outreach to have existing related bloggers publishing content about what they do.

What I've been encouraging serious bloggers who are social media savvy to do is start group geo-targeted niche blogs and offer their services to small businesses.

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks all -- glad that we all agree that strategy is important and I am thrilled that my template is of value.

[Bill Gluth]

You are so right, David. You can't execute a strategy unless you have one to start with.

Your marketing strategy template has been invaluable planning tool. Once there's focus, then action can occur. Your template makes strategy easier to accomplish. Thank you for that.

[HalperinCre8tiv]

Great article. The need for tactics with a strategic purpose cannot be overstated. We have had new clients approach us for a website or logo and we insist upon starting with looking at their brand and brand strategy. Some will say "We don't really want that right now..." and we will have to politely decline their business. To initiate any design or advertising or PR without strategy would be akin to setting money on fire-- and that would make my company an accomplice to a crime. No can do.

[LouiseBJ]

Hi David, thanks for the practical Marketing Strategy walk-through in this article & for sharing such a great template.

Already I feel more focused and will be reviewing my own content creation plans.

Thanks again.

[Bryan]

Thanks for the template David! Extremely helpful. I know a lot of business owners I talk to need to read. They do think if I publish a blog people will then magically appear(much like what Gail said). They quickly give up or the fail to realize how much time must be devoted to blogging and creating content. Everyday I am amazed how, much like bloggers have gone around the mainstream news, all of us can publish great content and expand our business by marketing directly to our consumers via the internet. What do you see as the next big change technology on the horizon? It was the internet & blogging, now video and audio have taken off on the web for business to communicate with customers along with Social Media.......what can you see coming up in the next 3 years that could have the same impact as the other items noted? No more TV instead everyone hooking directly up to content via the web and the tv stations going the way of papers? Sorry for this left field question but someone of your knowledge must be seeing and thinking something that will eventually appear that again rocks the internet and marketing for business. Thanks

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks Bryan. I advise people that the future is here. Now. Don't even think about "what's next". Do what is now.

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[Business Money Today]

If marketing and PR starts with strategy then what does strategy start with? You mention goals then go into targeted buyers. I say start with customers - this will help you define your own goals - then end with customers.

[Bobby Burns]

Great post, David, and great information and tools! Thank you for that. I have to admit that my first reaction to your title was, well, "Duh!", but I realize that it this not so obvious to tens of thousands of business owners. Particularly the "Business Owner-as-Marketers" who don't have a CMO, or even someone valiantly struggling to fill the role of a CMO. They often just have themselves and are naturally drawn to tactics in lieu of a strategy and a plan to carry it out.
Thanks again for a much needed, clear-headed, reminder!

[Kadena Tate]

Excellent post David! Many entrepreneurs immediately jump to the step of implementing tools and tactics, without looking at the return-on-investment (ROI). The market is constantly shifting and changing, therefore, it is very important to research and know your audience first before you can start putting strategic marketing tactics into place.

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[business consultant]

There should always be a strategy in marketing and PR. Focusing on the company's goals first is the most important thing that you should always consider before anything else.

[Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat]

I almost always get a blank stare. My first question is always, “what are you trying to accomplish?”

[Andy M Turner (@andymturner)]

At the risk of being accused of splitting hairs, this looks more like a basic communications strategy planning tool; marketing is about much more than this. It addresses other important factors such as getting the right product/service mix, NPD, pricing, MR, market segmentation, competitor analysis, and so on. Anyone not considering these things and other, broader marketing questions is likely to end up doing only half a job - and disappointed.