Does your business really have a marketing strategy?
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
If it's just a list of marketing activity, it isn't a strategy.
Most businesses don't have a marketing strategy, they have a marketing plan. It's true.
And before you close this page because you've got a beautifully colour-coded marketing calendar sitting on your desktop, hear me out because I see this all the time.
A business owner tells me they need help with their marketing strategy. They show me a document covering social media, SEO, blogs, email marketing, Google Ads, networking, trade shows and maybe a website refresh.
They are all worthwhile activities. All capable of delivering results. But none of them answer the most important question.
Why are we doing any of this in the first place?
A marketing strategy and a marketing plan are not the same thing
One of the biggest misconceptions I see is the confusion around marketing strategy vs marketing plan. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but they're very different.
A marketing plan or communications plan as I describe it explains what you're going to do.
It might include:
Posting on LinkedIn three times a week.
Improving your SEO.
Writing two blogs each month.
Sending a monthly newsletter.
Running Google Ads.
Exhibiting at a trade show.
That's useful. You need it. But they're all activities. They are not a strategy.
The marketing strategy answers much bigger questions and should always come first.
Who are we really trying to attract?
Which customers do we actually want more of?
What commercial problem are we trying to solve?
Who are we really competing against?
Why should someone choose us instead?
What makes us memorable in a crowded market?
What does success actually look like?
Without those answers, a marketing plan is simply a list of things to do without a purpose or direction.
The problem isn't usually marketing
Most people come to Your Marketing Department because they believe they need marketing help.
Perhaps enquiries have slowed down. They're struggling to win the right projects. Sales conversations feel harder than they used to. They're losing work to competitors. Or marketing has become another job on an already impossible to-do list.
Naturally, they assume the answer is better marketing.
Ironically, one of the first things I do is move the conversation away from marketing altogether.
Instead, we talk about the business.
What's changed?
What's the biggest challenge right now?
What are you trying to achieve over the next 12 months?
Why do you think you need marketing support?
Those conversations almost always uncover something much bigger.
Perhaps the business has outgrown its positioning.
Perhaps they're attracting the wrong customers.
Perhaps nobody really understands what makes them different.
Perhaps they're trying to sell too many things to too many people.
Marketing may well be part of the solution. But until we understand the real business challenge, recommending a new website, better SEO or more social media is little more than guesswork.
Marketing has become confused with communication
Somewhere along the way, marketing became almost entirely about communication.
Websites.
Content.
They're all important. But they're only one part of marketing.
The classic marketing mix consists of four elements.
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
Promotion is the bit everyone sees, and let's face it, the easiest and the most interesting, so it's the part that gets all the attention.
Yet if your product isn't compelling, your pricing doesn't reflect the value you deliver or you're targeting the wrong market, better promotion won't solve the problem. It will simply communicate the wrong message more effectively.
That's why strategic marketing has to look beyond communications. It has to look at the whole business.
But what about your USP?
Another term that I'm starting to hear again in conversations is finding your USP. The reality is that very few businesses have a genuinely unique selling proposition anymore. Most SMEs operate in competitive markets where several businesses can deliver a good product or service.
The businesses that grow aren't always the ones that are the most unique.
They're the ones that are the clearest.
They understand exactly who they're trying to attract.
They know what matters to those customers.
They communicate it consistently.
And they're memorable enough not to disappear into a sea of generic messaging and interchangeable logos.
That's where positioning matters. Not because you're trying to invent something nobody else does. But because you're helping the right customers understand why you're the right choice for them.
Here's a quick test
If your marketing strategy mainly answers questions like these...
What are we posting on social media?
Which blogs are we writing?
Which keywords are we targeting?
How often should we email our database?
Which exhibitions are we attending?
...you probably don't have a marketing strategy. You have a marketing plan.
There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, every business needs one. But without a clear strategy sitting behind it, it's difficult to know whether you're doing the right activities, targeting the right audience or solving the right problem.
Before you invest in more marketing...
Before you commission a new website. Before you increase your SEO budget. Before you start posting more on LinkedIn. Take a step back and ask yourself a different question.
What business problem are we actually trying to solve?
Because once you're clear on that, the marketing becomes much easier.
Your messaging becomes clearer.
Your priorities become sharper.
Your budget works harder.
And your marketing plan finally has something meaningful to deliver against.
That's what a marketing strategy should do. Not give you more marketing activity. Give your business direction.
Wondering whether you have a marketing strategy or just a marketing plan?
If this article has made you question whether your marketing activity is actually solving the right business problem, let's have a conversation.
In a relaxed 45-minute strategy conversation, we'll step away from the marketing activity and look at what's really happening in your business. If marketing is the answer, I'll tell you. If it isn't, I'll tell you that too.
