Marketing Strategy Vs. Marketing Implementation

Not all companies are in the same stage of their marketing strategies.

Some may be newly formed, others need some assistance with distinct elements of their strategy, while others will have a strategy down on paper but don’t know how to put that plan into action.

Read on to find out more about which service is right for you, and the specific tasks that each process involves.

What goes into a marketing strategy?

To create a marketing strategy, you first need to assess the state of your current marketing situation. Then, you need to decide on your target market(s), the channels to use to reach these markets and the content that needs to be created to engage with the audience.

When strategy isn’t enough

You may have developed a watertight marketing strategy that you know will bring results, but there are still a number of obstacles to its success. There’s a crucial step between strategy and the outcome: implementation. Many companies expect implementation to be the easy part, but all too often this is held back by barriers. These might include:

• Time. A company may not have given staff member(s) sufficient time to carry out the steps required to implement the strategy.
• Uncertainty. The staff or agency that worked on the original strategy may not have explained the implementation steps clearly to the people involved.
• Delays from third parties. You may be working with another company in order to provide you with the graphics, text or video that you require to put your campaign into action. If you have a specific timeline you wish to follow, stalling midway because of missing content will cause a loss in momentum for your strategy.

Implementation matters

Your marketing strategy could be the most effective in your sector, but if you aren’t able to implement it successfully, the money you spent on developing it will be wasted. If your company keeps putting implementation off in anticipation of a slow period, you are likely to find that key components of the strategy become out-of-date. Consumer preferences and economic conditions will have shifted, meaning that your campaign could be ineffective at best, and painfully off-mark at worst.