Marketing strategy

First, define what the challenge is and the reason you want to face it.

Once everyone in the team understands the challenge, the team will visualise what success looks like. In this step, everyone on the team should add a note for what success looks like to them, in their specific role only.

Now define success as a team, as well as what success for the overall project should be.

In this step, a team leader should start by creating a definition of success based on all the comments.

Once you have the definition of success, discuss with your team how you are going to measure success. Try to list qualitative and quantitative measurements. Add those metrics to the board, as well.

In this step, the team will discuss how to strategically divide the project or objective that was just defined by everyone using SMART milestones (Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Relevant, and Time-base). Creating milestones will help the team stay on track and gives everyone something to work toward.

The team leader will select and define milestones based on all the notes added and information from previous steps. The team can comment or make suggestions. The final decision will be made in the next step, so everyone should help the team lead to improve each milestone. Make sure all milestones are Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Relevant, and Time-based.

In this step, the team lead will create a clear definition. The success statement will clearly highlight the impact the project or idea must have on those outside the project to be considered successful. These statements should be consistent with the project goal and the mission of the organization and also provide information on measurable project outcomes.

Add a success statement with a clear roadmap to reach success. For example: "We are designing a new online course that will help our users develop their self-esteem. All our products follow our core mission so we can focus on “providing convenient ways to feel better about themselves.” We will finalise this online course in the next two months. It will contain X, C, V and Y, and 30 min face-to-face coaching sessions. We think a successful course is an online course that helps more than 300 users per month and can be used easily anywhere with a phone. It also should be easy to learn and to be available for practice at any time. As a team, we define success as delivering a course that is being tested by our team two weeks before being launched with the finalised project being available five days before launching. We want to make sure we are ready to focus on launching the course. To make sure we are ready to be successful, we have four milestones…"

Evaluate and monitor the political factors affecting your organization. How and to what degree a government and the current policies intervene in the economy? Think about: government policy, political stability or instability in overseas markets, foreign trade policy, tax policy, labor law, environmental law, trade restrictions, etc You will need to be able to respond to the current legislation. You can also anticipate future legislation, and adjust your marketing policy accordingly to better take advantage of those policies.

Evaluate and monitor the economic factors affecting your organization. Evaluate economic factors that can have a significant impact on how an organization does business and also how profitable they are. Evaluate factors like economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates, inflation, disposable income of consumers, etc

Evaluate and monitor the social factors affecting your organization. Factors that include shared beliefs and attitudes of the population.

Evaluate and monitor the technological factors affecting your organization.

Evaluate and monitor the environmental factors affecting your organization. How is your company trying to be ethical and a sustainable company, reducing your carbon footprint targets set by governments and by other organizations?

Evaluate and monitor the legal factors affecting your organization. Evaluate health, safety, equal opportunities, advertising standards, consumer rights and laws, product labeling, product packaging and product safety.

Use our highlight feature to to reveal key findings and important conclusions.

The Value Proposition Canvas is the perfect tool for understanding how customers and users make decisions. This tool will help you create offers and sales pages that they will find appealing. You will be able to easily persuade them by directly connecting with their pain points.

These are simply the jobs your customer needs to perform each day.

Think about the functional, social, and emotional tasks customers are trying to perform, problems they are trying to solve, and needs they wish to satisfy.

Ask yourself - What social, emotional, cognitive, and functional jobs does your customer do on a daily basis? Why?

Think about the negative experiences, feelings, and risks that the customer experiences while they are trying to get the job done.

Types of User Pains

User pains can generally be categorized into a few broad types:

🛌Functional Pains: These relate to the specific tasks users are trying to accomplish or the functional problems they encounter with current solutions. Examples include inefficiencies, poor usability, or lack of functionality.

🤑Financial Pains: These are concerned with the costs associated with using a solution, whether those costs are monetary, time-related, or resource-intensive. Users may feel that a product is too expensive, not worth the cost, or that it requires too much investment for the return it provides.

💁‍♀‍🙋🧑‍💼Social Pains: These involve the way a product or service affects a user’s social interactions or standing. For example, users might worry about how using a product will be perceived by others, or they might feel a product doesn’t fit their identity.

❤️Emotional Pains: These are related to users' feelings about their interactions with a product or service. This can include frustrations with customer service, the stress of complex interfaces, or anxiety about reliability.

🤫Process Pains: These pains occur when existing solutions complicate processes or workflows. Users might be frustrated by solutions that integrate poorly with other tools, have steep learning curves, or require cumbersome steps to achieve results.

What benefits would the customer expect? What would they need? What would delight customers? What things may increase the likelihood of adopting a value proposition? What would make your customer happy?

Having explored our customer's motivations, pains, and gains - we can start describing our Product and Service Features. Start with the product and service section. Product and Service Features:** The products and services which create gain and relieve pain, and creates value for the customer. Here is where you’re literally selling – like when mattress companies talk about their materials and extended warranties.

Why do these features mean anything? Why are those features important?

What value do we deliver to the customer/user?

Write your value proposition statement. This can be added anytwhere in the whiteboard or inside the conclusions section.

Value proposition statement template:

Type of value:

To effectively address user pains, consider the following steps:

Who are our customers really?

What do our customers truly value?

What jobs are our customers trying to get done?

What pains are our customers experiencing?

What gains are our customers seeking?

How are current solutions underperforming for our customers?

How can we eliminate or reduce customer pains in ways that others can’t?

How can we create gains that are superior to the competition?

What’s the minimum viable product (MVP) that would test our new value proposition?

How does our value proposition fit within the broader trends in the industry?

What assumptions are we making about our customers and market?

How scalable is our value proposition?

🔥These questions are designed to push your thinking and help you uncover new ways to add value for your customers. By exploring these areas thoroughly, you can craft a value proposition that not only meets the current market needs but also anticipates and shapes future demands.

Let's warm-up and answer these questions: What is true to our team? Is this unique to your organization and team? What would work for both brand and product design? What are the commonalities? What are the repetitive patterns in our existing design? What can inspire great design decisions tomorrow? Write the first few things that come to mind.

What is irrelevant? What shouldn't your team focus on? Example: Use a different sticky note to mark those ideas as irrelevant.

Define your current business 👁️‍🗨️💯goals and initiatives by following this template:

[Company name] has the ambitious goal of [overarching company goal]. To help the business do that, our marketing team will pursue the following initiatives in [current year].

Define at least 2 business initiatives.

Each initiative need to include a description, a goal, and 1 or two metrics to measure success.

What's your target? Which industries are you targeting to to sell your products? Define at least one.

In the world of marketing, success hinges on your ability to understand and meet the needs of your target audience effectively. Whether you're launching a new product, revitalizing an existing brand, or seeking to outperform your competition, having a well-structured marketing strategy is essential.🥳

The first step towards creating an effective marketing plan is to set clear and inspiring objectives. Every organization measures success differently, so it's essential to tailor your goals to your unique circumstances. Here are some examples to consider:

Try to be specific:

Discuss your objective during the meeting or add the objective inside the " Session Goals and Instructions "

🤓If you need to discuss some ideas, you can scroll up.

Provide insights into your growth strategy and the approach your organization plans to take for the year. A growth strategy is your action plan for gaining a higher market share and expanding your organization. Use this space to address any questions or concerns your team may have.

Tip: A growth strategy is an action plan that will help you get a higher market share and grow your organization. This strategy can be short-term or long-term.

If you are not familiar with the options, check out our card deck "growth strategy"

Discuss and add your strategy to the board. Explore your product and how it satisfies your customers' needs. Engage your team in discussions about user expectations, the purpose of your product, differentiation, design, branding, and more.👉💯 At the core of your marketing strategy is your product or service. This "P" focuses on what you offer, its features, benefits, quality, design, and how it fulfills your customers' needs.

These questions will guide the discussion:

"Promotion" revolves around how you communicate with your target audience. It includes advertising, public relations, sales promotions, social media, and any other tactics to spread the word about your product or service. 🙃Channels: Advertising, Internet marketing, TV or Radio advertising, etc. Discuss and add your strategy to the board.

These questions will guide the discussion:

🤑🤑🤑 Discuss and add your strategy to the board. The "Price" element pertains to the cost of your product or service. It involves pricing strategies, discounts, and considerations related to affordability and value for money.

These questions will guide the discussion:

Discuss and add your strategy to the board. These questions will guide the discussion: Where are you going to offer the product? Do you have an online store? What type of store or product display better represents your product or solution? What distribution channels do you currently have? Is your distribution channel the same one as your competitors? Do you attend trade fairs, visit an online site, or use any type of salesforce?

Discuss and add your strategy to the board. 🤷‍♂‍👨‍🎨👩‍🎤🤵‍♂‍👩‍🌾 Your team members and customer service personnel are a crucial part of the customer experience. The "People" aspect emphasizes the importance of well-trained, customer-focused staff who can enhance your brand's reputation.

These questions will guide the discussion:

Target Audience:

Employees:

Discuss and add your strategy to the board. These questions will guide the discussion: How can you minimize costs and increase profits? How is your team managing the ideation process? What measures do you have in place to improve efficiency? How do you manage your project and keep your team motivated? Explore payment, distribution, ideation, sales, and other processes, and develop your strategy.

Physical evidence is all of the things that will help you become a well-known company, or help users to identify you. Think about things like comfort, usability, design, interface, etc. 🗣👥⏰⚡Sometimes referred to as "Presentation," this "P" is all about tangible aspects that contribute to your brand's image. It includes factors like packaging, branding, store layout, and overall physical presentation.

What elements will help you position your brand and target the right kind of customers or users?

This step is optional.

👉With this template, you can define your final strategy. You can even download it and hang it on your wall.

As team lead: Provide a few options As a team member: vote

Bezos team writes a 6-page memo. We believe a 1-2 page memo can be sufficient. Ask you a manager or team lead for more details. Share the link here or add a document inside the board.

Read the memo and share your thoughts Additional: You can add notes inside the board or save your thought for the meeting/discussion.

We recommend reading this blog post: How to lead goal-oriented meetings? Decide if you are going to encourage everyone to read for 20 min during the meeting in silence. You can add a timer, and everyone can add notes and thoughts inside the whiteboard during those 20-30 mins. Once everyone is done reading the discussion can start. Before you start the discussion/meeting: Choose a ‘Facilitator’ Prepare and specify the goal of the meeting. This must be clear and understood by the team for you to be productive. Make sure to have a clear metric and decision-making process so everyone is in sync, and you can close your meeting with a final decision. Nova provides the necessary evaluation and discussion tools that will help you have a transparent and goal-oriented decision-making process.

How would you describe the idea or challenge (or topic)? Why is this important? Provide a list of resources. Define success.

Choose a role card from the card deck: Roles. This is the character you will play during this Session of Roles - try to stay in character as much as possible when discussing the specified topic.

Add your comment and thoughts (keeping your role in mind) on the board below your role. The objective is to get as many points of view and ideas as possible, while remaining objective, and without judgment.

Discuss the best ideas from the previous steps.

Define your goal. What are your goals for the coming year?🔥 Include at least two KPIs. Identify the departments or team members who are responsible and should be held accountable for reaching this goal.

Add your major steps, events, and milestones that must be taken to achieve your goal. How? Use sticky note or tasks If you are using sticky notes use a different color per department or team. (Define each team or Team member and their tasks and responsibilities by adding information inside the 👫Team/people section) Task or event duration can be shown by making sticky notes longer.

Add competitor products as well as their core features.

You will use a 1 to 5 scale to evaluate each feature. Where:

👎1 = Bad implementation and design 👍5 = Great usability, design and implementation

Add any final thoughts on what this means for your competitive advantage and how you might move forward based on areas of low or high ratings.

Evaluate why these competitors are leading the industry. Focus on their competitive advantage and branding that differentiates them from the rest of the industry. Tips: You can add their name or their logos and place them inside the matrix Select your key competitor before you move to step 3.

Quickly review your sticky notes board and evaluate the marketing strategies that your competitors (or if too many competitors - focus on the industry leaders) use to target customers and grow their business. Consider the following questions in addition to your initial thoughts: What social media channels do they use? How much are they spending on advertising? What keywords are they competing for? etc. Recommendations: If you are evaluating 2 or more competitors use one sticky note color per competitor. If there are many competitors to analyze try copy and pasting the entire board below.

Open the board you created in Step 3 and discuss: How can your increase your own competitive advantage? Discuss and identify your competition strengths/weaknesses and compare those with your own strengths/weaknesses. Add your thoughts and ideas in the notes here.

Discuss and define your growth strategy. Tip: A growth strategy is an action plan that will help you get a higher market share and grow your organization. This strategy can be short-term or long-term.

These questions will guide the discussion: What does a user expect from your product or solution? Why would they use your product? What is the purpose of your product or solution? What needs are you satisfying? How is your product different? In what fields and for what purposes will buyers use our product? What does it look like? Is the design user friendly and attractive? Is your website and marketing up-to-date? Are you following current design trends? Do all parameters (size, colors) perfectly match? What's your branding strategy? Are you missing features? Do you have any features that customers do not need but which can increase the price of the product?

Channels: Advertising, Internet marketing, TV or Radio advertising, etc These questions will guide the discussion: How will potential customers and users receive your message? When is your customer looking or listening to that type of media? What is the best time for your promotion? What social networks are you using and what's the strategy and purpose behind each of them? How is your competition promoting their solution? Develop a promotion strategy combining a few promotion techniques and channels, keeping in mind your budget and target market.

These questions will guide the discussion: How much did I spend to develop the product? How much is my user/customer willing to pay? Would I need to change the price of a particular region? Will a price reduction help attract more clients? Is the current price competitive? What's the price structure?

These questions will guide the discussion: Where are you going to offer the product? Do you have an online store? What type of store or product display better represents your product or solution? What distribution channels do you currently have? Is your distribution channel the same one as your competitors? Do you attend trade fairs, visit an online site, or use any type of salesforce?

These questions will guide the discussion: Target Audience: Who are they? What the size of your audience? Employees: How are they going to stay relevant and up-to-date? Who can provide information and share their knowledge with your team? Who are the best specialists?

These questions will guide the discussion: How can you minimize costs and increase profits? How is your team managing the ideation process? What measures do you have in place to improve efficiency? How do you manage your project and keep your team motivated? Explore payment, distribution, ideation, sales, and other processes, and develop your strategy.

Physical evidence is all of the things that will help you become a well-known company, or help users to identify you. Think about things like comfort, usability, design, interface, etc What elements will help you position your brand and target the right kind of customers or users?

This step is optional. We recommend adding your final answer to this step so you can see it in the final report. Start with an overview.

What is the purpose of this analysis? What are you trying to evaluate or find? What major challenges are you facing?

The SWOT tool is divided into internal and external factors.

Evaluate the following strategies: