The Beginner’s Guide to Strategy

Written by Acme Mag

Simply put, a strategy is your plan of action that is designed to achieve long-term or overall goals. The two most common strategies are a business plan and a marketing plan and although they can be presented together, they are different formalised documents with different purposes.

A business plan is a strategic plan for your entire business which can include financial plans, business objectives, products and services, operations, marketing and how they all relate to each other.

A marketing plan can form part of a strategic business plan or can be presented on its own depending on your business and team needs. This strategic document typically focuses on the overall marketing strategy, target audiences, environment analysis, messaging and anything else that supports marketing endeavors and works towards the goals from the business plan.

Although there are a legion of strategy templates available online, there is no 100% correct way to format a strategy or any strict inclusion requirements so it’s really a matter of finding out what you and your team need to achieve your goals and be on the same page.

For a business strategy we recommend considering to include:

1. Goals – What you want to achieve
2. KPIs – how you intend to measure success
3. Target Audience – insight into your market
4. Competitive Analysis – insight into your competitors
5. Marketing Plan – the strategy behind your marketing
6. Team – the human resources you have and what their roles are
7. Operations Plan – information on specific projects within your strategy
8. Financial Projections – the financial details behind achieving your goals

In addition you can opt to include an executive summary, your elevator pitch, your mission statement, SWOT analysis and industry analysis if they suit your requirements.

For marketing strategies we recommend considering these:

1. Target Audience – marketing based insight into your market
2. USP – your unique selling proposition that differentiate you
3. Pricing and Positioning Strategy – how your fee structure positions you in the market
4. Distribution Plan – how the marketing will be rolled out and by who
5. Marketing Materials – what you have to work with
6. Promotion Strategy – details on the marketing activities you plan to achieve
7. Financial Projections – the financial details behind achieving your marketing goals

In addition you can opt to include an executive summary, retention focused strategy, online marketing strategy such as SEO and an analysis of the marketing delivered by competitors if these suit your marketing strategy requirements.

At the end of the day, power resides in how you use your strategy documents rather than what is in them, this is because a well constructed, comprehensive strategy can go unread by many of your team leaving the document powerless. Instead focus on creating a strategic document that highlights the information, details and plans needed to get everyone moving in the same direction and working together to achieve the same known goals.