Developing a clear marketing strategy is a vital component of any small business's long-term growth. Without a clear plan for executing your marketing initiatives, it is almost guaranteed that a portion of your budget will be wasted as you pursue a variety of tactics without sticking to one. In this article, we'll break down the main ways you can create a unified marketing strategy across your entire organization, whether you have one employee or hundreds.
Imagine a team of professional rowers, crowded into their boat and pulling at the oars in unison. The team is firing on all cylinders, rowing in sync and cutting through the water like a singular machine. They have a unified goal in mind and are passing every other competitor as they approach it.
Now imagine one rower stops.
He messes up the flow, and his oar drags limp as the rest of the group tries to make up for the lost momentum.
And then another drops out.
And then another.
Soon the boat drags along as other boats pass on either side. The ones still rowing become increasingly frustrated and all morale, camaraderie, and teamwork are lost.
Now imagine these aren’t rowers but business professionals working on the same team.
One creates three social media posts to check off a box for the week.
Another designs a web page to be aesthetically pleasing.
A third creates an email campaign to make sure their leads don't forget about them.
None of them are inherently wrong in their method of work or motivation (they might even be really good at what they do). But if their work isn't strategic or centered around a common goal, the team isn't moving forward or even in the same direction.
This is the problem that many marketing teams face and becomes a cause for frustration among leaders and team members alike.
Setting Unified Goals
All too often, marketing teams in the workplace become so focused on their individual tasks that they miss the bigger picture.
Marketing is about setting a goal and creating content, strategies, and messaging that will drive customers toward that shared goal.
It is the leader's job to identify that goal and to clearly communicate it to each of the team members.
Setting a goal of a certain number of product sales or new customers or web leads over a given period of time (month/quarter/year) gives the marketing team something to point back to for every small task required of them.
If your social media manager, web developer, SEO expert, graphic designer, copywriter, and email manager all have the exact same idea in mind, their creativity isn't stifled, it's freed up to produce amazing results in a unified direction.
And the best part?
This will undoubtedly generate even better results for the company as a whole, boosting morale and confidence among the entire team.
On the flip side, if your marketing content isn't streamlined in this way (with the same objective in mind across every customer-facing outlet), you will continually be frustrated by a lack of results.
So start by asking yourself:
What are my company’s goals (for the next month/quarter/year/decade)?
What message do my customers need to hear for those goals to be achieved?
Assembling Unified Teams
Marketing is least effective in a silo.
Marketers work best when they understand the bigger picture and the overall company structure.
For this reason, many people argue against the effectiveness of contractors in the marketing process, but this argument couldn't be further from the truth.
Skilled marketing contractors are one of the most efficient and effective ways of achieving marketing goals. These individuals can propel a team forward in their area of expertise... but only if given clear insight into the company's overall goals and direction right from the start.
Understanding and communicating your company goals will make it much easier when you do bring on a new team member or a contractor, because it will provide them the clarity of what they are working toward right from the beginning.
Marketing goals should also align with the those of the rest of the company.
Oftentimes, marketers are expected to stay in their lane and focus on outward facing communication with clients. But without a proper understanding of what is happening internally in the business, it's impossible to accurately communicate with customers.
If your team is confused about the goal you are trying to achieve, your customer will be confused about what it is that you do.
Reexamining our rowing example, we see that the coxswain is the one sitting in the front of the boat, shouting out orders to the team to ensure everyone rows in unison. This guarantees that if someone falls out of line, they can quickly and seamlessly rejoin the flow of the team.
A team leader performs the exact same role (minus the yelling).
Individuals don't naturally fall into unison.
A leader should prioritize the message communicated to their marketing team as much as the marketing team prioritizes the message relayed to the client.
Executing A Unified Marketing Strategy
Once the marketing team is clear about what it is they do, they can begin executing effective strategies on behalf of the business.
Marketing campaigns should always push the customer in a certain direction, moving them along the funnel until they decide to actually purchase your product or service.
For some of the marketers, getting customers to that point will involve creating stunning content around your brand, and for others, it will involve targeting customers through search engines and social media outlets.
While the client interaction might vary among marketers, the actual goal should remain the same.
In assessing our rowing team's strategy, we can clearly see their shared goal of getting from Point A to Point B the fastest.
In the business world, Point B is usually more subjective, yet just as important to identify if we want to achieve our goals.
Once that point is identified, individual team members can begin creating personal strategies that will help them get the team (as a singular unit) to that shared destination.
And once you reach that goal?
Set a new one.
And a new one after that.
You'll be amazed at the impact you can create for your team and your clients when you see the finish line and get them to see it too.