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No strategic plan is complete without a solid marketing strategy to go with it. A marketing strategy translates a company’s financial goals into actionable steps to drive a company’s business (services or products).

When framed like that, it’s easy to understand how critical a marketing strategy is, not just to the business as a whole but for the effectiveness of the current strategic plan. With that in mind, here are some common marketing strategy mistakes to avoid.

No Marketing Strategy

Believe it or not, one of the biggest mistakes is simply the act of not having a marketing strategy at all. Any level of marketing requires an appropriate level of planning and strategy to go with it. Otherwise, there will be no way of tracking success, no oversight, no ultimate goal, and no organization. In other words, it’s more likely to fail.

Failing to Define Target Audience

All businesses should have a clearly defined target market – the people most likely to buy their products/services. It is critical to know this target audience before implementing a marketing strategy.

Failure to do so can (and will) result in wasted expenses, as ads reach the wrong potential clientele. A company has a higher success rate when directly promoting to the people most interested in what they do. It’s that simple.

Not Establishing Goals

Establishing goals is a significant part of both strategic planning and marketing strategy. A goal helps to establish what success looks like at any given point in time. For example, a marketing strategy goal could be garnering more customers or increasing the traffic of current customers. Both are viable and serve different purposes. However, the marketing tactics would be vastly different between the two. Thus, it is critical to know ahead of time which option is best.

Ignoring Social Media

Not every marketing strategy works well with social media – however, that doesn’t mean that one should automatically rule social media out all the time. Social media can be a powerful and cost-effective tool, especially for businesses looking to create a loyal customer base.

When creating a social media strategy, it’s essential to consider various factors, including the target audience. Doing so will help inform which platform is best suited for the company’s goals and what sort of campaign would have the most reach.