A 7-Step Plan for Beginners

What Is a Marketing Strategy?

A marketing strategy is an overarching guide to how your business positions and promotes itself to prospects and customers to reach your company goals.

Consider it the roadmap that outlines your business’s fundamental approach to engaging with your audience, communicating your values (and value proposition), and driving sales.

And your marketing strategy should be:

• Clear
• Concise
• Specific
• Long-term

Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan: What’s the Difference?

The terms “marketing strategy” and “marketing plan” often get mixed up.

Here’s why:

They’re closely related concepts that both inform your marketing activities.

• Marketing strategy definition: The big-picture vision for how you’ll achieve your business’s goals. It sets the stage for how you’ll position your brand, who you’ll target, and the brand values you’ll uphold.

• Marketing plan definition: The step-by-step details outlining how you’ll bring your marketing strategy to life. It focuses on specific processes, tools, and tactics needed to reach your business goals.

For example:

A new energy drink company does extensive research and identifies pickleball players as its ideal customers. And a market segment that’s projected to grow.

Then, the company formulates a marketing strategy focused on appealing to those players by promoting the idea of playfulness, having fun, and not...