You spent years building the perfect product, but what marketing strategies will work for your product or service?

How you bring the value of your product or service to your target audience is a function of how well you market it. In this age of clutter, you must be able to cut through that clutter using the variety of strategies and tactics at your disposal.

In our previous posts, we expressed how important it is to differentiate your offering. Here, we will highlight ten extremely effective strategies you can use to market your product and get the right outcomes for your business.

What Is The Difference Between Strategy and Tactics?

As a new entrepreneur, you may not know the difference between strategy and tactics. Sometimes the line is blurred but strategies can differentiate while tactics only bring to life the differentiation of a good strategy. Any company can use tactics – it’s the ones that have a strategy that wins.

Before presenting the various strategies, what is the definition of a marketing strategy?

A marketing strategy is a strong overarching vision, intended to fulfill your predetermined goals and objectives. A strategy is the plan that ensures all your day to day activities (tactics) contribute to your monthly, quarterly and annual business goals. Strategies have the opportunity to differentiate.

This is very different from tactics, which are highly practical things you will do every day. Writing blog posts, sending tweets, replying to emails, outreach to bloggers, changing page titles and appointments you make/attend, etc. Tactics are the tools that implement the strategy.

Here is an example of a strategy versus a tactic:

    • Strategy. A surprise attack on the enemy
    • Tactics. Shoot guns, fire rockets and storm the castle.

An interesting point to consider is that strategies are usually timeless (people still react in pretty much the same way as they did 100 years ago) whilst tactics are technology/time sensitive.

So, if you change the time frame (e.g. 1900, 1980, 2013, 2020) your strategy would remain the same, whilst the tactics will more than likely change. Below we outline some examples of strategies and tactics to consider.

Effective Marketing Strategies To Consider

Here are some of the most effective strategies proven to deliver results:

Positioning

One way to market your product without spending money is to create a brand, image or position in the marketplace. This might be as simple as pricing a product on the high end to create an air of quality or pricing it on the low end to make it seem a good value.

If you limit your product to one gender, such as selling only women’s shoes, you send a message to that gender that your product or service was made especially for them. Selling golf clubs in pro shops only, instead of big box stores, tells the public that your clubs are for serious golfers.

Price Strategy

A small business can implement a marketing plan based on a pricing strategy. One common tactic is to become known as the price leader in the market by offering lower prices than the competition on high-demand items.

An opposite strategy can be used by a company wishing to be recognized as the quality leader, as higher prices may evoke an image of reliability or expert craftsmanship. A quality pricing strategy is often accompanied by a promise of delivering superior customer service.

Promotional Strategies

A marketing plan can also consist of a strategy based on heavy promotional activities to spread the word about a product or business. The company may create a multi-pronged advertising campaign consisting of various types of media to convey a specific message. It can also develop specific promotions aimed at increasing market share.

For example, the company may saturate a market with coupons to entice consumers to try its products, with the ultimate goal of getting them to switch from a competitor on a permanent basis.

Relationship Marketing

Many companies focus on building relationships with their customers instead of always exclusive trying to sell them something (transactional marketing).

Customers who love your brand more will also spend more money with your brand. Many traditional retailers have found this to be true. Walgreens has seen that customers who buy from all of their purchasing channels (store, web, mobile, etc) buy up to six times more than the average customer that only buys in their store.

Scarcity Marketing

In some markets, it’s important to control how much product is available at one time. In many cases, this is done because of the difficulty of acquiring raw materials or a higher quality of the product.

A company may choose to make their products accessible to only a few customers. Rolls-Royce’s release of their Chinese edition car called Phantom sold quickly. While the cost of the car was higher than most cars the scarcity drove the desire and the price.

Niche Marketing

Finding a niche and filling it could be described as the secret recipe for growth in over-crowded marketplaces. Take the shoe business, for example. There is a great demand for shoes in the world and so many top companies have evolved to satisfy most of the immediate shoe needs in the marketplace. The shoe space might seem crowded, but shoe manufacturing company Vans noticed an underserved customer: the skater. By focusing on this niche market Vans has developed a thriving business.

B2B Marketing

Business-to-business marketing is a marketing practice of individuals or organizations (including commercial businesses, governments, and other institutions). It allows businesses to sell products or services to other companies or organizations that in turn resell the same products or services, use them to augment their own products or services or use them to support their internal operations. International Business Machines is a well known B2B marketer. IBM’s business has grown because taking a very intelligent approach to marketing its products to other business and governments around the world and achieving great B2B sales.

B2C Marketing

The ultimate goal of B2C marketing (business-to-consumer marketing) is to convert shoppers into buyers as aggressively and consistently as possible. B2C marketers employ merchandising activities like coupons, displays, store fronts (both real and online) and special offers to entice the target market to buy. B2C marketing campaigns are focused on a transaction, are shorter in duration, and need to capture the customer’s interest immediately. These campaigns often offer special deals, discounts, or vouchers that can be used both online and in the store.

Affinity Marketing

Create strategic partnerships that are mutually beneficial by forming alliances with complementary brands. Also known as partnership marketing, with this strategy, one brand generates sales while the other creates new customers and builds brand awareness.

Brand Lover Marketing

What builds loyalty that goes beyond reason? What makes a truly great brand stand out? It has to give customers a feeling of belonging while generating strong feelings of love for its customers. Creating loyalty beyond reason requires emotional connections that generate the highest levels of love and a sense of belonging for your brand.

Defining The Best Marketing Strategies For Your Business

A good strategy does not work without effectively executed tactics. By the same token, executing tactics without a defining and differentiation strategy is unlikely to help you stand out from the crowd. Using these two elements in concert is the magic that marketers strive for.