Recently, I shared with two colleagues a sample marketing strategy. For startups, small businesses and entrepreneurs a written marketing strategy helps you to focus and accomplish more. They should be written and be very simple, particularly when you are writing your first one.

My Sample Marketing Strategy

1. Define your top target audiences. (Business owners, PR professionals, CMO’s, etc.) Attempting to be everything to everyone is not intelligent marketing.

2. Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). What will make your brand unique and rise above the noise? How will you demonstrate this in your website, videos and other content?

3. Your offerings. What you will offer your clients as far as products and/or services. As well, establish their prices and any packaged rates. You must set these set in writing.

4. Distribution strategy. (Partnerships, videos, digital optimization, social media, public relations, blogging, ecommerce, networking, etc.)

5. Sales strategy. How will your brand be sold? Are you employing outside sales reps or telemarketers? If so, how will they be trained and managed?

6. Servicing strategy. Will you use outside vendors or virtual assistants to help with servicing? What training will you provide your employees to ensure that they give 5-star care to your clientele?

7. Continual market research initiatives. You must keep your eye to trends to stay relevant and competitive.

8. Email and social media marketing strategy. What platforms and channels will you leverage to remain in contact with your clientele, prospects and influencers?

9. Co-branding and partner marketing. Partner marketing can be a highly effective way to co-brand. How will this be achieved?

10. Implementation and measurement. How you will implement these tactics on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis? How will you measure success and performance? I would have this as a checklist format so all actions are reviewed and acted upon on a continuous basis.

Sample Marketing Strategy Made Simple

As you can see, I kept this samples marketing plan extremely simple. I did not write this for a well-established and large business. This was written for the entrepreneur who has never written one and has no formal education in branding or marketing. Here is a sample marketing strategy template you can download for free.