If you’ve ever found yourself wondering how to juggle the endless tasks of running your business while also figuring out how to market it effectively, you're definitely not alone. Let’s be honest, it can feel a lot like drinking out of a fire hose. The good news is, creating a marketing strategy doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as it sounds. In fact, with a bit of guidance and a clear plan, you can develop a marketing strategy that not only fits your business but also your busy schedule. And because we don’t like to overcomplicate things, we’re going to break down the marketing strategy basics below!

In this article, we’re sharing:

• Why having a marketing strategy is important
• What to include in a marketing strategy
• Marketing strategy basics you need to know as a small business

Why Having a Marketing Strategy is Important

First things first—let’s talk about why having a marketing strategy even matters. Because with algorithms changing so quickly nowadays, aren’t we all just throwing spaghetti, closing our eyes, and hoping that we end up going viral with the right crowd of people? That’s a strategy, right?

In a word, no. Because a marketing strategy is so much more than the tactics you’re using on social media platforms. A well-crafted marketing strategy gives you direction. It helps you define your goals, identify your audience, and choose the right channels to reach them. For a deeper dive into why this is so important, check out our detailed blog post why a marketing strategy is so important here.

What to Include in Your Marketing Strategy

Now that we’ve touched on the importance of having a marketing strategy (and clarified what a marketing strategy is not), let’s break down what you should include in yours.

1. Your Goals

Every great marketing strategy starts with clear goals. What do you want to accomplish in your marketing? Are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive more traffic to your website, or boost sales? Your goals will shape your entire strategy, so it’s worth taking the time to make sure you’re setting goals that mean something to you and your business.

2. Your Customer Personas

Next up in your marketing strategy is understanding who your customers are. Creating customer personas helps you get a clear picture of your target audience, including their demographics, interests, and pain points. We work with a lot of small business owners, and to be honest? Most of you don’t know who your business is really for (beyond the vague stuff). Creating customer personas that are so clear you feel like you know the person is critical if you want to make sure that your marketing efforts are going to bring them into your world.

3. Where You Are Going to Market Your Business

Bring out the spaghetti. Just kidding. But seriously—Once you know who your customers are, it’s time to figure out where to find them. Are they scrolling through Instagram, checking emails, or searching for solutions on Google? Are they online or offline? Making decisions through their friends or own research? 

Once you answer these questions, the next step is to choose specific marketing channels. The best marketing strategies are not dependent on one platform. Find a list of places to marketing your business without social media here if you’re feeling stuck on what to include (but don’t choose too many to start, you can always add more later!).

4. Specific Tasks

The very last step in your marketing strategy is to decide on specific marketing tasks. This part is important, because it makes the entire plan both manageable and actionable. Instead of saying, “I’ll work on social media marketing,” specify, “I’ll post three times a week on Instagram and engage with followers daily.” This part of your marketing strategy is also the most fluid. While you likely will want to check in on your marketing strategy as a whole regularly (maybe every 90 days or twice a year), the tasks might change more frequently as social media trends come and go.

While we are talking about marketing strategy basics, here are a few more things we wish more small businesses knew.

Don’t Overcomplicate It

Easier said than done, we know. Who isn’t great at overcomplicating their own business? But here’s the truth—a one-page marketing strategy is often more effective than a detailed 20-page document that you’ll never look at again. So as you sit down to work through your own marketing strategy, don’t be afraid to keep it short and to the point. Nobody is going to see it but you (and maybe your team) and you don’t get a prize at the end if your marketing strategy is the prettiest. If you want to dig into this idea more, we highly recommend the book The 1-page marketing plan.

Consider How Much Time You Have

Remember how we told you not to go overboard when deciding on the number of platforms you can commit to? One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is biting off more than they can chew. Your marketing strategy should reflect the amount of time you realistically have to dedicate to it. If you can only spare an hour a week, that’s okay! Build a strategy around that hour and make it count.

“Creating a marketing strategy is really overwhelming for a lot of small business owners because they bite off more than they can chew—and then stress about how they are going to fit it in. Our approach to creating a small business marketing strategy flips that on its head. We think you should be building your marketing strategy around how much time you have to dedicate to marketing—because that’s how you actually have a chance at keeping up with it!” - Tayler Hollman, Enji Founder

For more on this approach, read our post on creating a marketing calendar you’ll actually use.

Marketing Strategy Sample: What It Looks Like with Enji

To give you a clearer picture, let’s look at a sample marketing strategy with Enji. After you take our 20-question quiz, we create a marketing strategy that includes:

• Up to 3 goals (like getting better leads, increasing sales and revenue, or building your brand)
• Up to 6 objectives (what you’re going to do to reach those goals - like start an email marketing campaign or increase your website traffic)
• A place for your customer personas (so you can reference them often!)
• The marketing channels you should focus on

Head here next to learn how we can help you create a marketing strategy in less than ten minutes. 

Get Started Creating a Marketing Strategy

With these marketing strategy basics in mind, we hope that we’ve dragged your feet to the fire enough that you finally create a marketing strategy you can stick with. Take a deep breath, grab a cup of coffee, and start mapping out your marketing strategy. You've got this!