Do you have a strategic marketing process in place?
If you don’t think strategically about your marketing process, it’s likely that it won’t continue to meet customers needs and expectations over a sustainable period of time.
A well defined and feasibly written marketing strategy should set the foundations for achieving your businesses goals and aspirations.
Marketing Process Definition
In marketing, process refers to the procedures or processes that are developed to ensure the customer has a positive and memorable experience when purchasing and/or using your product or service.
“The process of doing so can be modeled in a sequence of steps: the situation is analyzed to identify opportunities, the strategy is formulated for a value proposition, tactical decisions are made, the plan is implemented and the results are monitored.” - NetMBA
Marketing Process Planning
The marketing planning phase should analyse your internal strengths and weaknesses, your competition, changes in technology and industry, while providing an overall picture of the current state of your business.
You should be familiar with different approaches that outline various steps to take in your marketing process planning. These are typically summarised into the following phases:
Mission
Situation Analysis
Objectives
Strategy
Control
Evaluation
Having a clear overview of your marketing process is key. Your planning should involve creating strategies that you can implement to achieve your desired results.
You should consider both your short term strategies and long term goals during the planning stage, paying particular attention to comparing the marketing risks with the potential business rewards.
Marketing Process Flowchart
You should try to work your marketing process into a visible road map for clarity of purpose. This will enable you to communicate your actions to other business stakeholders while identifying any gaps that you might else have missed.
Marketing process flowcharts will differ depending on your business and intentions but should contain some common elements, as shown in the diagram below.
Marketing Process Flowchart: Image courtesy of MBT Marketing
Research is often an undervalued practice, but shouldn’t be taken lightly. gathering sufficient marketing research will allow your planning to be based on solid evidence and data, rather than hunches or emotion.
Strategies will ultimately decide the vision of the company and subsequently, your goals and mission. Your strategic plan needs to be well thought of by realistically considering all possibilities and contingencies.
Planning dictates the actions that will allow you to achieve where you want to be. Your marketing plan should involve sales forecasting, financial planning, communications strategy and many other benchmarks which define how your business is going to achieve its strategic goals in future.
Tactics are your short term actions that you will implement to attract customers, provide better value for your customers than your competitions, increase sales, or any other short term objectives which need to be achieved.
Marketing Process: Online Marketing Funnels
Marketing Process Video Transcript
This was taken directly from YouTube, so the transcription quality is pretty bad…
0:14
hey it’s just a cynical should say they’ve stuck on my work with not
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complex does business under some stress that soaks my stomach snappers
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dramatically decreased on mine and a potential
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now it’s ok to online uk two 106 basically is
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the terminology to to describe the whole marxist system from marketing process
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getting track to know where trust when it’s all right for the Metreon
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conversion process to
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realize business value most usually in the form a purchase
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so there’s no complaints for each stage is funneling
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and I is usually described by a final because
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for each stage lot to process it gets narrower and narrower
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east of quite wide and as you work to your processes you start to pick other
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people were
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I’m gonna on purchases qualified people throughout the process
1:04
and I’m the at the end you get your purchase so the main components that are
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much a final marketing process
1:10
is official website and social media and that’s kind of stage one in attracting
1:14
awareness speak we need to be able to find your mind need an online presence
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the best way to develop is your social media profiles and your website
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West people find your website they need to you to capture a lead
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so usually the best way to do that is through the blackness
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offering free downloads incentives in exchange for contact details
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what you have his contact details marketing process she committed through the natural process
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I’m quite common in this is done through email sequences
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you find a throughout those connection process and throws him %uh sequences
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and they might the direct enquiries or some I
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clint contact Exchange email exchange or talk and social media
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where you need to past not harassing me speak to a customer for any enquiries
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that’s usually so
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process we alleviate concerns and chill
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removing them from consideration to purchase
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now throughout the whole marketing process to so many different elements that can be
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tested and improve the court she wanna be continuously
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testing all your marketing resources is usually good
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a/b testing or split tested on dis in the same
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Roma’s conversion rate optimization makin
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each resource throughout the whole final perform asbestos
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as possible so that your whole final
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is is performing well I’m once you have your final set up in order so
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the major resources and strategic marketing process through they get found converter
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out a nice three main areas: then is the time to start skating the traffic
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generation
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and get more people to find you are increase your online presence in your
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marked impression the only is is best to
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get the fundamentals tested and optimal
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bust because the cost per acquisition
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of each person will decrease
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so for instance if you have a process where you know the
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spending a thousand pounds a month unmarked in the pool
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generates a thousand prospect since its open the final
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throughout that successful marketing process going through your state refund
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translates into 10 customers at the end of the month then
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it’s so nice to lock somebody each customer is more than a hundred pounds
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to break even that it supports folks will mark the final
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if you can increase tiny percentage is
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1 percent five percent even even peaks at just 20 percent to reach different
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cost your final
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you find that you can actually scale York traffic generation
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a new budget to get more people it’s it’s ok because it will be more
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profitable in the long run it’ll be cheaper
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to take people through the final and into I
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business ID now Frio at the Martin
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atticus years investment should be measured safe throughout this whole
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process you should be a solid marketing process for
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measuring testing I improving
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and reporting on new features most the time out to professionals who was have
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to report back to the business
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or the way to hide them because they were denied
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how well the foreman and most so I’m when
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once the whole fun mark to fund was set up that its moreover
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a tweaker optimize process where your considering makin
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measuring order the key metrics and measuring a final
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protesting out different variations your
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I’m which if you do in a good job will improve
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metrics and reporting back to have actually saved
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X amount through hey oh this has become more efficient this is become
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better combating obsessive just generalize with on I’m up to photo
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I’m you can apply it to any been any business to invest too much in
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needs an online market on and if you’re planning a marketing process
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active in Moncton and you have in class photo
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drawer now or mine mapped out on paper or online
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raised a sec is it will creates a lot of clarity
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Levison and you’ll be able to understand Howell
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prospects get into the final and out the photo
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I’m nothing should be done by chance she’ll be designed well
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and everything should be measured tested I’m optimized
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routine
Marketing Process Implementation
In order to successfully implement a strategic marketing process, you must have clarity in what need to be done and when. This is key to ensure the implementation of your plan is achieved without fault and without disconnect.
To aid you in your marketing process implementation and to help get your marketing funnel fully operational, a framework can be used to map out the key stages in your execution and delivery. This will allow you to envision the entire logical path for moving someone from initial awareness to advocate.
Marketing Process Implementation: Image courtesy of DuctTapeMarketing
Your Strategic Marketing Process
If you haven’t thought or acted strategically in your marketing process so far, then it’s never a bad time to go back and recreate the blueprints.
A successful marketing process is based upon sound understanding of what needs to be done, when to do it, what it would effect, how it is implemented and how it is analysed, measured and reported upon.
Could your business benefit from a robust marketing process?
Do you already have a marketing plan that isn’t fulfilling your business goals or objectives?
Stuart is a digital marketing strategist living in Kent, UK. Stuart blogs at StuartJDavidson.com where he shares his extensive freelance and corporate marketing experiences. He is also the author of "How to Win in Social Media".
