Effective Marketing Strategies for Businesses

A marketing strategy is one of the factors that decide whether a business succeeds. Many people today put a lot of time and money into this area. A highly effective marketing strategy makes a brand solid and brings in more potential customers. How to build a marketing strategy, and the successful strategies of big brands, will be MONA Media covered below.

What is a marketing strategy?

Put simply, a strategy Marketing is an overall marketing plan that helps a business reach more users and convert potential customers into customers who use the business's products and services.

A business's marketing strategies usually include:

• The business's value proposition
• The message the business wants to deliver to customers
• Information about the target customers
• Marketing methods

Watch the video to better understand how to build an effective marketing strategy and avoid wasting resources

->See: What is online marketing? How to build an effective online marketing strategy

 Why do you need to build a marketing strategy?

Any work carried out according to a plan set in advance is easier to do and has a higher success rate. Marketing is no exception.

A business that does not define its goals, implementation plan, target audience, components, channels and methods for suitable marketing campaigns will find it hard to get results.

Instead, the business may spend a great deal of time, effort and money on communication that brings no clear results. Not to mention it can cause serious damage to the brand if the path you take is wrong and you have no way to deal with the consequences.

That is why, before you start doing marketing, the first step is to build a marketing strategy. This step gives the business a clear and accurate direction. Based on this strategy, marketers can also manage the business's activities and allocate resources sensibly.

After each campaign, marketers can review and adjust what did not fit or did not work well, and learn lessons so that later marketing gets the best results.

One of the most effective marketing strategies today is using a personal brand to build trust and connect with customers. This is why many business owners have started investing in personal branding. Watch the video below to understand this view better

What are the benefits of building a marketing strategy?

A well-structured marketing strategy helps a business carry out marketing work professionally and in the right direction, saving time and cost.

In particular, when a business builds a suitable marketing strategy, it gains many benefits, such as:

Understanding customers, the market and competitors

A marketing strategy is built on careful, detailed market research and analysis.

Through this process, the business gets a better understanding of its industry, its own situation and its position in the market. It also learns who its competitors are and how they do marketing and business…

From there, the business can learn lessons and come up with a marketing approach that fits its industry and reaches exactly its target customers.

Raising brand awareness and credibility with customers

Building and growing a brand is very hard work that takes a long time and the right strategy.

When you build the right marketing strategy, you will know how to reach your target customers and how to show up to raise awareness and build credibility for your brand.

Helping the business allocate its finances sensibly

A well-structured, detailed marketing plan includes allocating people and budget to each marketing item. With this strategy, the business can forecast and balance its marketing budget and investment costs, which helps keep the business's finances balanced.

Increasing engagement and building relationships between the business and customers

An effective marketing strategy keeps the business present in customers' minds and helps them understand the brand's products and services clearly and accurately.

Analyzing customer personas and understanding customers helps the business know how to deliver information to the right people, so they take action and make specific decisions.

So a marketing strategy also plays an important part in creating engagement and in building and maintaining the relationship between the business and its customers.

A business with the right marketing strategy and skillful marketing approaches will build good relationships with customers. This is also the core that lays a lasting foundation for the business's growth.

Increasing revenue and profit

The first requirement of marketing is that it must create profit. Marketing not only meets customer needs but also widens reach, helping more people learn about the business's products.

From there, the business has more chances to bring its products closer to consumers and earn revenue from them.

Building a marketing strategy is not just about applying models or tools; more importantly, you need the right business mindset. Yet in Vietnam, many people are still reluctant to talk about business and marketing, and these concepts even carry negative labels such as ‘tricks’ or ‘schemes’. The video below will help you look at business thinking more realistically, giving you a solid foundation to build an effective marketing strategy for your business.

The difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan

The two concepts of marketing strategy and marketing plan are sometimes confused. We will tell them apart so you can understand them more easily:

A marketing strategy is the market research to come up with specific marketing plans. A marketing strategy studies customer segments, potential markets, social trends, geographic location and customer habits…

Marketing plan means setting the goals to reach and carrying out the plan that has been set. These are plans to reach the goals that come from the research in the marketing strategy. Plans to grow the market, expand the brand and reach the right customers cannot be complete without a marketing strategy.

In short, the two need to work together. It starts with the marketing strategy. Based on that data and analysis, the marketing plans are set. The final step to success is carrying out those strategies and plans.

->See: Applying Maslow's hierarchy of needs to customer segments.

Types of marketing strategies

Product strategy (Product)

To decide what you should sell, you need to study in detail what potential customers need from that product or service and adjust what you sell to meet those needs.

Meeting customer expectations gives you more chances that they buy from you, refer you to more customers and come back to buy again in the future.

Some important factors to consider when making a product:

1/ Will you mass-produce or make to order? Will you offer the same product to every buyer or a separate product tailored to each customer's needs?

2/ What type of goods does your business sell?

• Convenience goods – bought often at low cost (ice cream, cigarettes, rice, salt, water,…)
• Shopping goods – bought after a lot of thought and comparison between sellers and brands (clothing, electronics, household appliances,…)
• Specialty goods – bought only a few times, such as very expensive or luxury items (motorbikes, antiques, diamonds, comics,…)
• Unsought goods – things consumers do not know about or want to buy except in special situations (insurance, funeral services, fire extinguishers).

Knowing which type your product belongs to helps you price it, choose where to sell it, and distribute and promote it in the right place, to the right people, at the right time.

3/ Is the product new or already on the market?

4/ What is your product's quality?

Whether a defect is big or small, your product can still disappoint people and cause revenue to drop. So make sure your product gets no bad feedback by answering the following questions:

• Does your product meet customer needs?
• Do the features meet those needs?
• How do customers use the product?
• What do the product's look and packaging look like?
• Can customers try the product before buying?
• Are the size, color and product name truly attractive?
• How is the product different from competitors?

Pricing strategy (Price)

The cost at which you sell your product will affect how many units you sell.

• If you sell at a low price, many people will buy, but it also means your product is low quality and earns little profit.
• If the product price is high, customers may buy less or in small quantities, but you will focus more on quality.

To work out your product's cost, you need to consider:

• The product's costs (fixed and variable costs)
• Competitors' product prices
• How much customers are willing to pay for your product.

Once you know these factors, you can work out the profit your goods and services will bring in.

Besides the factors above, you can set your product's price based on market share and competition, such as:

• What value does the product/service give customers?
• Should you offer discounts to specific customer segments?
• Is your price higher or lower than competitors'?
• Payment methods and payment terms?

Distribution channel strategy (Place)

Where will you sell the product, and how will you distribute it?

• Will you sell directly or through agents and other retailers?
• If you sell the product yourself, where will you sell it? Online, by email or in a physical store?
• Is the location you choose convenient for customers to visit, and does it attract many potential customers?

Even if you are just starting a business, considering a new distribution method will be useful to you.

• Choose and set up a stable location.
• Manage the supply chain to create a smooth process from preparation to production, delivery and consumption.
• Exporting is a step in growing the company and expanding into overseas markets.

Promotion strategy (Promotion)

Promotion is the strategy of getting your product in front of as many users as possible. For customers to buy from you, they need to know about it, have a positive impression and be convinced that they need or want your product.

There are many tactics you can use to promote your product to potential customers, such as:

• Advertising on TV, radio, signs, billboards, magazines,…
• Advertising on the internet, social media and other online advertising techniques.
• Taking part in trade shows/fairs and events.
• Printing advertising flyers.
• Direct marketing by phone, Email Marketing.

Which promotion method fits depends on your budget and your potential customers. Make sure you are advertising the product where people will see it.

Three important things that make your product/service promotion strategy succeed are packaging, messaging and the brand image you project.

• Think about how to make your packaging attractive, eye-catching, easy to understand and easy to carry your message.
• Your message needs to convince consumers that they need and should buy the product because it brings them the value they need.
• Your brand needs to be appealing enough for them to remember it, think of it and decide to buy or recommend it to people they know.

On top of the 4 main elements (4Ps), in 1981 Bernard Booms and Mary Bitner expanded the “4Ps” model into the “7Ps”. They added 3 elements:

• Person – People
• Process – Process
• Physical Evidence – Physical evidence

->See more: What are the 7Ps in marketing? Applying the 7P marketing mix in practice

Many people ask Hùng how a service company can grow more sustainably. The answer lies in knowing how to find clients the right way, at the right time and with the right level of investment. Watch this video to hear Hùng share 7 approaches MONA has applied in practice.

The difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan

Types of marketing strategies

Many marketing strategies are in use today. Among them, you will come across the basic, widely used strategies below.

Marketing mix strategy

This is the most popular marketing strategy. The marketing mix strategy (or 4Ps strategy) was mentioned above.

This strategy includes 4 elements:

• Product – Product
• Price – Price
• Place – Place
• Promotion – Promotion.

Segmentation marketing strategy

A segmentation marketing strategy uses different market segments to run and roll out campaigns that make marketing more effective.

In general, there are 3 main groups of customer segments that marketers can consider when building a strategy:

• Differentiated segmentation: a high budget but the most effective, because it focuses on uniqueness and standing out in the market to meet the needs and problems of the target customer segment.
• Concentrated segmentation: focusing on one group of customers with a defined scope to make the most of budget, costs and conversion potential.
• Mass segmentation: used for broad strategies that cover many different audiences.

Digital marketing strategy

This is also a widely used strategy today. Its advantage is that it uses many elements of the internet to make communication more effective.

Through it, the strategy can attract target audiences and increase organic purchase conversions through content development, social media,…

However, for the strategy Digital Marketing to succeed, you need a complete, thorough plan from setting goals to the specific execution steps. You also need to define the metrics that measure effectiveness so you can act on solutions in time and make your digital marketing strategy work better.

These days, using a marketing strategy as the main strategy for promoting the brand and increasing revenue for the business is nothing new. One of the most effective methods in digital marketing is SEO Google. MONA Media specializes in website services such as an all-in-one website design service, SEO services helping getting your business to TOP 1 on Google search.

We have more than 10+ years of experience in the website field and have completed more than 300+ projects, with more than 10,000 clients. See our full-scope SEO service below.

Competitive marketing strategy

A competitive strategy usually puts all resources into increasing the competitive advantage over the business's and brand's competitors in the market.

To do this, the brand and business need to study their competitors in depth to find a suitable competitive strategy.

Depending on the business's position and market share, it can consider specific strategies.

• Follow a strategy of holding your position if the business is already ahead of competitors.
• Strengthen the product and service advantage and expand the market vertically/horizontally if the business has a lower market share than competitors.

The business also needs to consider cases where negative effects could lead to a PR crisis while carrying out the competitive strategy.

Content marketing strategy

Content Marketing is the practice of creating truly valuable and useful content. It includes text, images, video, podcasts,… to attract customers.

Instead of drawing customers in passively, such as by buying ads across newspapers, media and billboards, a content marketing strategy is more proactive and subtle in persuading potential customers.

A content marketing strategy focuses on creating useful, practical value and quality content so customers come to the brand on their own, take some conversion steps, and get customer care that improves their experience.

As a result, customers feel comfortable, decide to buy on their own and stay loyal to the brand longer, with their concerns resolved and their guard lowered compared with traditional advertising.

Product marketing strategy

When you launch a new product or have a product you need to push, you should have a separate marketing strategy for that product. This is very important for any individual or business in commerce.

According to expert statistics, more than 20,000 new products are launched on the market every year, but only 15% of them succeed. Make sure you have a solid strategy.

Some product marketing strategies you can consider:

• Low-price marketing strategy
• A strategy focused on product value
• Building promotional programs

Marketing strategy for promotions

Promotions are strategies that raise awareness and increase sales. There are many types of promotion strategies, but the main elements of a successful one include:

• Target customers
• Budget
• Promotion goals

There are many strategies you can apply to marketing for promotions, such as:

• Issuing vouchers and coupons
• Discount vouchers
• Using influencers
• Partnering with other brands
• Email promotions
• Running contests and prize draws
• Loyalty programs
• Charity campaigns
• Free samples, gifts, discount coupons,…

There are many marketing strategies to apply in business, but how do you build a marketing strategy that truly works?

>>Read more: What is SEM? An overview of SEM online marketing strategy

8 steps to build an effective marketing strategy

There are many ways to create basic marketing strategies. Below are the 5 most important factors that affect your success.

Step 1: Clearly define the strategy's goals

Marketing goals can include one or more specific goals, such as:

• Brand
• Sales
• Market position
• Financial targets
• Products

Step 2: Identify and research market segments

This is the second step you need to take after setting the strategy's goals.

To make the analysis easier and more accurate, you should use marketing research tools such as Ansoff, PESTLE, SWOT, Porter's 5 Forces,…

Step 4: Identify and research your target customers

Start by researching customers' habits, interests and what they want from the product/service. Dig deep into your target customers to refine a product/service that fits them. Any line of business should put customers at the center.

Gender, age, interests, place of residence, social status and even education level should all be researched and analyzed. That makes it easier to infer their personality and buying motives.

A customer's interest in the product/service is high. If you launch exactly what meets that need, you will surely create strong buying demand and drive high conversion.

You can create landing pages, CTA or sign-up forms, and collect information from customer cookies to gain customer insight and draw an accurate profile of your customers.

In addition, customers' internet habits, online hours and the channels they use to search for products/services are also very important. The deeper you research your target customers, the better your marketing strategies and marketing plans will fit.

Step 4: Clearly identify your competitors

You must always stay ahead of your competitors. You need bold strategies that stand out from theirs. When comparing two brands offering the same product/service, customers judge them on criteria such as website rankings, brand reach, price, business strategy… So you need to research analyzing competitors your own in every respect.

Finding out which strategies they do better than you, and where they fall short of you, will help you seize opportunities and improve your business.

Look into the marketing channels your competitors are active on. Analyze their marketing strategies on those channels: when they post, and how they create content and events for their products. In particular, dig into the keyword sets they are using and the methods SEO that help them rank higher…

There are also many tools today that help you research competitors. You can use those tools, or you can become their “customer” and receive their emails and messages on your personal accounts. This makes it easier to keep regular track of their strategies, marketing plans and events.

Step 5: Build your marketing strategy

A marketing strategy includes many smaller strategies, each of which you have to build, such as:

• Pricing strategy
• Product strategy
• Distribution strategy
• Promotion strategy
• People strategy
• Technical strategy
• Brand strategy
• Logistics and warehousing strategy
• Customer value creation strategy

Step 6: Implement your marketing strategy

After building the marketing strategy, the next step is to build an implementation and execution plan.

• Sales forecast plan
• Pricing and gross margin plan
• Ordering and delivery
• Customer relationship management
• Marketing communications
• Channel organization
• Capital investment
• Customer value standards
• Sales plan
• Organizing production and supply
• Organizing technical support

Step 7: Use a marketing funnel strategy

An extremely important step in building a marketing strategy that many agencies will not share with you is the marketing funnel strategy.

A marketing funnel is a simplified model showing the path a target customer takes to reach a product/service or business. In this funnel, the customer is at the center.

For a marketing strategy, understanding how your consumers move through the marketing funnel matters more than anything. In practice, this process is a bit messy because consumer behavior varies a lot.

But the main point is that the content and goals for each stage must be clearly defined; only then can your brand meet customers everywhere and at every stage of the marketing process.

Step 8: Evaluate and measure your marketing strategy at each stage

This is the last step, but no less important. After each marketing strategy, you need to evaluate, analyze and measure the effectiveness of every stage of the strategy.

From there, you will know which stages, steps or methods you applied wrongly or poorly, and optimize them to get the best marketing results.

-> Learn more: The SMART model what is it? How to apply the SMART model in business

Marketing strategies of famous brands

Marketing strategies of famous brands

Any business with a well-structured, correct marketing strategy will succeed in business, and there is plenty of evidence for this. Below, let's analyze the marketing strategies that big brands are applying.

Apple's marketing strategy

For a long time, Apple has not had to spend much on advertising new products, thanks to its smart marketing strategy.

They rely on a strategy of creating buzz, also called word-of-mouth marketing, to get users excited and eager for their upcoming products.

According to Bloomberg, ever since the first-generation iPhone came out in 2007, the press and media have been especially fond of “the Apple house” products. Without the company having to advertise, the media have raced to cover news about its new products.

From then on, Apple's new products have always been covered quickly. Even when Apple has not revealed a thing about a product, the rumors from the media have turned upcoming iPhones into “super products”.

Apple also gives users a feeling of “miss out if you're slow’ and a “follow the crowd” mindset.

In fact, this Apple strategy goes back to 1984 with the “Big Brother” ad, and a message that reached an entire generation: “Throw off your shackles. Break the status quo. Think different”.

Chanel's marketing strategy

Chanel is famous for its “3 no's” strategy: no discounts – no selling on social media – no attention to competitors.

Thanks to this strategy, they stand apart from their competitors, and it has contributed to their success all along.

• Product strategy: they build product lines in their own style, elegant and refined, without chasing any trend.
• No attention to competitors: whatever moves competitors make in products or communications, Chanel goes its own way and does its own work well.
• Social media is where Chanel shows its class, not where it sells. They also rarely respond to comments and focus instead on caring for customers who come to pick out their items. They position the brand with luxurious, slightly aloof behavior that sets them apart.

Colgate's marketing strategy

Rather than being just an ordinary toothpaste, Colgate has chosen a very different approach to customers for many years.

Colgate planned a marketing strategy called the trust-building strategy. These strategies have helped the Colgate brand not only sell toothpaste but also become one of the most trusted brands in the world for oral care.

They started focusing on in-depth dental care, providing information and videos on proper oral hygiene. They share valuable information with users on how to brush, keep teeth and gums healthy, use dental floss, prevent tooth decay,…

Users get useful, free information that they learn from and apply. In this way, a toothpaste brand became a brand that educates and gives knowledge to customers. This solved a problem in customers' daily lives and built complete trust with them.

->See: What Is Performance Marketing? Common forms of performance marketing

Biti's marketing strategy

A brand familiar to Vietnamese people made a comeback in 2017 through standout events, media campaigns and viral videos.

A marketing strategy built on viral videos brought the brand huge revenue and made a big splash in the Vietnamese footwear market.

To achieve this success, Biti's applied the AIDA communication formula in a structured and engaging way to its famous marketing strategy.

Frequently asked questions about marketing strategy

Can you run several marketing strategies at the same time?

Running several marketing strategies at once is a test that helps you find the effective one. However, make sure each strategy gets proper investment and careful research so it fits your business. Once you find the right marketing strategy, focus on it to get the best results.

Does a marketing strategy affect a business's success?

Mona's answer is yes. A marketing strategy does not just affect a business, it affects it a great deal. If your business has a good product but no customers come to buy and use it, your business will soon go bankrupt.

Having a well-invested marketing strategy that fits the business's products helps the business grow quickly, and brings the business large revenue and profits.

Does running a marketing strategy cost a lot?

How much a marketing strategy costs depends on its scale and how it is carried out. While planning the strategy, you also need to keep your budget and business goals in mind. These are the two key factors that guide you in building the right marketing strategy.

A marketing strategy plays an important role in a business's success and in brand promotion. You need to understand what marketing strategies really are and apply them well to get strong results. We hope the information Mona has shared is useful to you. Don't forget to visit Mona Media regularly for more useful articles.