7 key ways to build a strong marketing strategy

Marketing is a key driver of business growth, but building an effective approach takes time.

Whatever size your business is, you’ll need to think about marketing from day one. Once you’ve got your company registration right, you can begin promoting your business to potential customers and clients.

1ST Formations is here to explain the key steps to creating a powerful marketing strategy, whatever your sector.

1. Define your ideal customer clearly

To develop an effective marketing strategy, you first need to understand who you’re trying to reach.

Think about the qualities of your ideal customers: demographics (i.e. age, gender, location), pain points, and motivations.

Once you've identified their challenges, consider how your products or services can solve them.

Having a good understanding of who your customers are and where you’ll find them will also help you save money when running paid advertising campaigns. Clear targeting prevents wasted budget.

To really get to know your customers, you can use techniques like surveys, focus groups, and online social listening. In some cases, you may want to bring in a professional to guide this process. It’s an extra cost, but their expertise can uncover insights that are harder to gather on your own.

2. Set measurable and realistic goals

You need to clarify what you’d like to achieve from your strategy to make it a successful one.

To map out a strategy, start by setting out some SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. So, when you’re setting your goals, make sure they meet those requirements.

An example of a tactical SMART goal for marketing could be: “Create 10 social media videos showcasing our new women’s clothing range and post them on our accounts by the end of the month.” It’s specific (one type of marketing focused on one product range), measurable (10 videos), achievable (it’s a realistic amount), relevant (marketing the business’s core products), and time-bound (with an end of the month deadline).

3. Build a strong and consistent brand positioning

Brand positioning is what makes you different and why customers should choose you. It should form the basis of your marketing and identity.

Your brand includes elements like messaging, tone of voice, personality, values, and visual identity. A consistent brand positioning builds trust and recognition, which can improve the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Having a strong brand also gives you an air of professionalism and boosts your credibility. Having a consistent brand shows customers that you know who you are and what you’re doing.

4. Choose marketing channels that align with your audience

It’s important not to spread your efforts too thin, so focus your marketing strategy on two or three core channels that best match your audience.

Some popular channels you could invest in include:

• Social media (e.g. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook – you don’t necessarily need to use them all)
• Email marketing
• Organic search – Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving how your business’s website appears on sites like Google
• Paid search or social ads
• Content marketing
• Partnerships and collaborations (including working with influencers)
• Offline methods, like handing out free promotional products

Choosing the right channels matters because it allows you to focus your time and budget where your ideal customers already are. For example, if your audience prefers visual content, platforms like Instagram or TikTok may perform better than text-based channels.

5. Create value-driven content that solves problems

Content can come in various forms, including:

• Blogs
• Guides
• Videos
• Email newsletters
• Case studies and customer testimonials
• Webinars
• FAQs

To save on content creation costs, you can repurpose assets across channels. For example, when you’re filming a video for social media, you can also take photos to include in your next newsletter. Repurposing content saves time and keeps your messaging consistent across every channel.

High-quality content can build trust and support customers as they evaluate your products or services. However, it must be relevant. You don’t need to tap into every trend if you can’t connect it to your business.

6. Track performance and optimise regularly

Strong marketing strategies require regular refinement, so be prepared to test and adjust as you go.

By looking at data in Google Analytics, social media insights, and your CRM system (the tool you use to track customers and leads), you’ll see the impact of your marketing campaigns.

You might want to measure metrics like:

• Click-through rates – How many people click on the links you share? A low click-through rate can suggest the message isn’t resonating.
• Followers – How many people are following you on social media? Is it increasing over time?
• Cost per lead – How much are your marketing efforts costing you to gain each potential new customer? Cost per lead helps you understand whether your marketing is delivering value.

If you’re not happy with the results, experiment with messaging, visuals, targeting, and timing. You can use A/B testing (which involves making a change and testing how it affects the results) to tweak your strategy. Small optimisations compound over time, so you can keep making minor changes to create the most effective marketing tactics.

7. Prepare to scale your marketing as you grow

A strong marketing strategy supports long-term business growth. And as your business grows, you’ll need to adjust your marketing efforts. Developing scalable habits early on makes future marketing easier to manage.

Consider using automation tools (like social media schedulers) to reduce the time you spend on admin. Using professional tools also makes it easier to outsource marketing to others, including freelancers and agencies. As your business expands, you’ll need to have robust systems in place.

Successful marketing relies on organised campaigns. Clear internal processes and scalable tools will make it easier to manage your activity as you grow.

Build a stronger marketing future for your business

Creating an effective marketing strategy involves understanding what you want to achieve, being consistent with your brand, and embracing ongoing optimisation.

Before you get carried away with marketing, though, make sure you have the business basics in place. Getting the right company structure early can help you build a compliant business that customers can trust.

1ST Formations supports founders who want to launch and grow their businesses with its company formation services.