The Marketing Fitness Strategy Formulation Process

This 4-step process is meant to formulate strategy quickly, to be used immediately for as long as conditions warrant, and then to make changes rapidly as conditions change.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Look Within

Where are we?  Where do we want to go?

You and your people know your organization. You likely know your value, mission, and vision of the future.  We bring that out, discuss it and hone in on what sets you apart from all the rest.

Define Success: We hold a kickoff interview with key stakeholders inside your organization. Goals, objectives, and desired outcomes are set in this initial meeting. This can typically be accomplished in a one-hour conference call or Zoom meeting.

Resource Survey: Within 24 hours after the kickoff meeting, we will send you a link to a custom 20 to 25-question online survey to inventory current marketing assets and resources. The survey can be completed in 20 minutes or less and can include as many key stakeholders as you like to get their input. Completing this survey forces you to focus on core marketing issues to prepare for the next step: a group brainstorming session.

Dream Big Facilitation: When all surveys are in, a group Zoom meeting is scheduled to drill down on the information gathered in the Audit phase. In this session, we explore positioning options, what makes you different and begin to define your unique value proposition.   Together we set realistic growth goals, what’s profitable, recent market changes, competition, and other critical issues. This is a focused, structured meeting that generally lasts 90 minutes.

Step 2: Look Around

Competitive Research: Based on your stated goals and audit survey results, we review the market space and market forces, and assemble materials and data regarding significant competitors. We provide a snapshot of the market and competitive landscape for review in the positioning facilitation meeting.

Positioning Research:  Drawing from trade association data and target audience demographics, we confirm positioning assumptions and begin to formulate brand positioning, audience messaging, and tactical methods to deliver messages.   We look at the potential for profitable growth, niche opportunities, marketing cycles, new sales requirements, and marketing challenges.

Step 3: The Marketing Fitness Growth Strategy

Strategy Document: The Marketing Fitness Roadmap comes to life in a prose document.  The result is a pragmatic strategy — a living framework — based on your vision of the future. It’s a blueprint that serves as a template for making decisions and allocating resources.  Specific tactics are recommended to deliver messages efficiently to target audiences to get them to take action.  The document includes a workout process to achieve desired growth goals with guidelines for tracking and measuring results. The average document is around 20-25 pages in length.

Step 4: The Roadmap to Success

Presentation: A second 90-minute Zoom meeting with stakeholders is scheduled to review overall strategy recommendations and options for implementing the strategy to achieve growth goals.

Quick-Start Action Plan We wrap the meeting by outlining specific marketing initiatives and projects. Your team develops timelines for completion and tactics to leverage high-return opportunities.

Execute Your Strategy

With the completed strategy roadmap in hand, you are ready to engage your audience with the right messages at the right place and time and get them to take action.

Armed with a system that lets you measure which strategies and tactics work best for growing your business, you will be able to adjust as you grow. You’ll also see more efficient use of your resources and a greater return on your investment because you won’t be wasting them on tactics that don’t work. And you will have a sound framework to reach potential customers when they need you most when they are in the research phase of the buying process.

How do I get started?