After more than a quarter of a century in marketing (Scary), it still intrigues me that strategy and action are so often separated in business, particularly in the case of SMEs. The consultant helps you with your strategy but often has little involvement with delivering any action plan while marketing service suppliers are keen to deliver their services (design, web, print, communication etc) without any real reference to your strategy. Real success in marketing comes when a clear strategy is converted into a dynamic and well managed action plan. Strategy plus communication is what really works. In big corporates, this process is usually handled by a marketing team that that will ensure resources are effectively utilised to deliver marketing results in line with overall corporate objectives. In the world of SMEs, this “Marketing team” usually translates to “A Director” who does marketing amongst other things or or ‘a marketing person’ whose salary IS the marketing budget! “Your Marketing Department down the road” is an offer from a number of marketing agencies, but too often this translates as “Your Creative Department down the road“; well able to deliver great creatives, but again falling short of the goal of a “clear business strategy joined -up to a dynamic and well managed communication action plan.” At BSA we join-up strategy and communication in the real world to deliver:
Clear strategy – the essence of business
- Clear objectives as to what you wish to achieve
- An understanding of the resources you have available
- A plan of action as to how you will use your resources
- A process to monitor, control and focus your action plan
plus
Active communication – the essence of marketing
- The essence of marketing is communication.
- If you are not in communication with your target market, you are not marketing.
- ‘In communication’ requires that a message is both sent, and received.
- If your target contacts aren’t receiving (and hopefully understanding) your messages, you still aren’t marketing
In essence, if you have a strong business proposition that delivers clear and relevant benefit and value to your target market and you effectively communicate this proposition such that your targets hear and understand your proposition, they WILL do business with you. Easy isn’t it! If you want to turn this theory into reality for your business, let’s have a chat.
