12 Marketing Strategy Examples, How to Create One + Tips

By Kristina
23 Sep, 2021
13 min read

Marketing Strategy Examples

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Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or just starting out on your very first small business venture, every company in the world needs an effective
marketing strategy to build brand awareness and drive new customers to its products and services. However, if you’ve never been involved in
successful marketing strategies, creating one can be easier said than done.

The most effective marketing strategies consider every aspect of the marketing flow, from a thorough understanding of your audience personas to a
clear-cut marketing budget and so much more; there’s a lot to cover in a company marketing strategy.

In this guide, we’re going to look at some of the best marketing strategies of all time and explain how you can utilize different types of marketing
strategies to maximize your returns in no time.

What is a marketing strategy?

Before we tell you how to compose an effective marketing strategy, you need to understand what a marketing strategy is and how it can help you
improve your advertising.

In simple terms, business marketing strategies are a tool marketers use to outline their various campaigns and marketing models. It’s the how of how
you’ll get customers interested in your products and services.
To create an effective marketing strategy, you need to do four things:

1. Understand who buys your products or services (who are your customers?)

2. Understand how to motivate these people to buy/continue to buy your products or services

3. Understand who your competitors are and what they’re doing to achieve the same objectives

4. Understand how to measure the success of your marketing campaigns and efforts.

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Like a marketing plan, your marketing strategy should cover the five “Ps” of marketing:

1. Product – What you’re trying to sell

2. Price – Profit margins, marketing budget, etc. 
3. Place – What channels or platforms will you use? (For example, will you be advertising on social media, utilizing email
marketing, or going offline?) Consider where your customers already spend their time for the optimal marketing
locations. 
4. Promotion – What are you trying to achieve? (Are you hoping to build your social media presence, increase brand
perception, promote a new product, or something else?)
5. People – Who is your target audience? What drives them? 
Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll be in a fantastic position to start building your company’s marketing strategy.
Marketing strategies vs. marketing plans vs. marketing tactics 
Although “marketing strategies” might seem relatively straightforward, there can often be some confusion when establishing whether you’re creating a
marketing strategy, marketing plan, or marketing tactic. While all three of these marketing initiatives work together, they cover slightly different
aspects and should not be used interchangeably.

Marketing plan

A marketing plan is an overview of all your marketing initiatives. This will include all the campaigns you intend to run over a set period of time, your
goals and ambitions for the projects as a whole, and any research you’ve compiled to support these aims.

Marketing strategies

Marketing strategies at first glance appear very similar to the overarching marketing plan. However, the strategies will take a closer look at just a few
select parts of the marketing plan.

For example, if your marketing plan is to promote a new product or service, you might have a strategy dedicated to how you’re going to use email
marketing to support these broader goals. Every marketing plan will most likely produce several marketing strategies as part of the broader plan.

Marketing tactics

While the marketing plan and strategies are committed to explaining what you’re going to do, marketing tactics go deeper again and
establish how you’re going to do it.
Using the above example, the marketing plan is to build awareness for a new product. The marketing strategy is how you’ll utilize email marketing as
part of this. The marketing tactics will detail the specific actions you’ll take as part of the marketing campaign.
Types of marketing strategies
Now we understand some of the different marketing terms, it’s time to zone in on marketing strategies and how these work as part of your business
plan.

There are numerous different types of marketing strategies you can use depending on your business needs. While we’re not going to cover every
marketing strategy type today, these are some of the main ones that you’re likely to come across:

1. Social media marketing strategy 

Today, social media marketing is a huge part of any business’s marketing plan as it’s a hugely compelling way to drive traffic, build brand awareness,
and take advantage of the social selling revelation that’s taking over online marketing. 
According to recent data, around 54% of social media users use social platforms to research brands and products, and 89% of consumers who follow a
particular brand will purchase from that brand. 
With these figures, if you’re not utilizing an effective social media marketing strategy, you’re missing out on untold rewards.

2. Email marketing strategy

Anyone who’s ever told you “email is dead” is dead wrong. Capturing your customers’ emails and browsers should be an essential part of your
marketing strategy and is an excellent way to continue a conversation with people who have expressed interest in your brand.

There are loads of email marketing tools available to help you in this area. However, you still need an effective email marketing strategy to produce
consistent, compelling emails that convert readers into buyers. 

3. Inbound marketing strategy

An inbound marketing strategy is all about pulling customers in and driving traffic to your website or products. Rather than using “disruptive”
marketing techniques (like TV advertising), inbound marketing is about lead generation using people who have shown interest in your products,
services, or brand as a whole.
Email marketing can be a good example of an inbound marketing strategy. If someone has subscribed to your mailing list, chances are they’re at least
somewhat interested in what you have to say. This enables you to take a softer approach to your marketing, as these leads are already more likely to
become sales.
Another inbound marketing strategy could be blog posts. People will only see blog posts relevant to their search terms and interests, meaning they’ve
expressed a need that at least somewhat relates to what you’re selling.

4. Content marketing strategy

A content marketing strategy is likely to overlap with an inbound marketing strategy, but it is more specific. With content marketing strategies, you
focus on content creation that will draw people in and build interest.

This is likely to cover blog posts and white papers and can even overlap with your social media marketing.

Effectively, any part of your marketing campaigns that require content will require an effective content marketing strategy.

5. Editorial strategy

Taking an editorial approach is a particularly vital marketing strategy for advertising companies as it highlights the content formats, workflows, and
channels you’ll be utilizing to hit your marketing goals.

It’s similar to the sort of marketing strategies you would expect to see in a news or media organization and can be essential for brand publishers or
advertisers to keep their marketing efforts and ideas in focus.

6. Marketing communications strategy

Your marketing communications strategy should be primarily focused on your brand’s message and value proposition. It’s all about how you’re going
to say what you need to say. 
For example, is your tone of voice serious or humorous? Are you marketing yourself as an expert in your industry? What is the message you want to
get across?

7. Digital marketing strategy

Digital marketing probably doesn’t need much introduction… This marketing strategy will encompass all your online marketing, SEO, social media
lead generation, performance marketing, and more…. Effectively, if it’s online, it should be covered by your digital marketing strategy. 

8. Internal marketing strategy

Although internal marketing will be less vital for SMBs, it can be a vital part of the marketing efforts for large companies. A good example of an
internal marketing strategy would be an internal email that lets employees know they’re eligible to become shareholders or asks existing shareholders
to support a new initiative.

Internal marketing can also cover more mundane issues, such as keeping staff up to date on any changes to the company, branding, or internal
procedures.

9. Public relations strategy

If you’re in business, you’ll probably know how complicated PR strategies can be. Not only does getting PR right ensure you keep your customers
happy, but it’s also vital for protecting your brand image in the eyes of your stakeholders, the media, and even governmental bodies or other influential
institutions.

Any large business should have a dedicated PR team in charge of the brand’s public image. In addition to protecting it, good PR can also offer
invaluable word-of-mouth advertising.

10. SEO strategy

SEO should form part of all the different marketing strategies. Still, you may find it beneficial to have some of your marketing efforts explicitly
dedicated to SEO, as this is likely to be your primary source of lead generation.
SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) is pretty much what it says on the tin: the art of using keywords and phrases to boost your visibility when users
search for relevant terms on the internet. Getting SEO right is arguably the best way to drive traffic to your website and should be front of mind in all
your digital marketing and content marketing strategies.

Naturally, SEO goes beyond just keyword optimization and considers a plethora of other aspects to help you rise on those search engine results pages
(SERPs). So, it’s a good idea to have at least one marketing team member dedicated to the latest SEO trends so you can rank #1 on Google. 

How to create the most effective marketing strategies

When it comes to strategic marketing strategies, there isn’t always a one-size-fits-all solution. Strategies can take many different forms, from word
documents to flowcharts to slides… But although they can look different on the outside, the most effective marketing strategies will always have a few
things in common.

If nothing else, your marketing strategy should cover the following questions:

Who are you trying to reach? 

For this section, you need to really get into the mind of your target audience. This includes building detailed buyer personas and user personas, with
information including their demographics, age, location, employment status, interests, passions, pain points, and anything else you can think of. The
more detail you can include in your target market research, the better you will understand and communicate with your audience. 

Where will you reach your potential customers? 

As part of your research into your target audience, you should also spend some time considering the places (online and offline) where they spend their
time. For many businesses today, most of your marketing strategies will probably be focused on social media. Still, even once you’ve narrowed this
down, it can also be valuable to create marketing strategies for the various social media platforms and any other marketing channels you would like to
use. 

What action do you want people to take?

The answer to this question will fuel your Call-to-Action phrases and is essentially nailing down the goals of your entire marketing campaign. Do you
want to drive more website traffic? Increase sales? Raise awareness for a new product? Get more followers on social media? Boost your search results
rankings? Whatever your goals are, having them clearly laid out as part of your digital marketing strategy is essential. 

How will you inspire potential customers to take action?

The next question leads off this, and it’s about how you’re going to convince or inspire consumers to take the desired action. This could incorporate
discount codes, summer sales, referral programs, or you could even let your brand, product, or service speak for itself if you’re just hoping to build
awareness.

How will you measure success? 

If you have no KPIs or objective method for measuring the success of your marketing campaign, you really have no way of monitoring whether or not
your campaigns are working! Having clear, measurable goals and precise targets you can see whether you’re hitting are essential for an effective
marketing strategy. For eg, if your target is to get more followers on Instagram for your brand… It’s easy to see when you’re on track. However,
you’ll want to dive deeper than this, with goals for conversions, weekly and monthly targets, etc.