Why your scale-up needs a marketing strategy, pronto! 5 reasons to care

As a scale-up business, having a well-thought-out marketing strategy is essential to your success. After all, having an effective plan in place allows you to focus your resources and maximise your return on investments.

Are you a startup or a scale-up? De-bunk the definitions once and for all, and see which camp your business fits in.

But, what exactly is a marketing strategy?

What elements should it contain? How can you create and implement one that works best for your business? Let’s break it down.

1. Defining marketing strategy

Based on desk research, customer insights, and internal findings, a marketing strategy is an overarching plan that outlines how your scale-up business will reach its goals. It details what products or services you want to sell, to who you are selling them, and how - in the most strategically advantageous way possible.

From your core value proposition, your company's values, and business vision - to customer findings, competitor reviews and desk research, key insights and agreed plans for success is all pulled together in a single coherent document that forms your "bible" - underpinning future creative and marketing activity moving forward.

2. Qualifying a good marketing strategy

Backed up by research, internal findings, and often using "The 3C's" framework* by Kenichi Ohmae, elements of a strong marketing strategy typically include:

Vision, Mission, Purpose

a.k.a. Your "What," "How," and "Why." An internal guide to rally behind a unified, clearly articulated, exciting brand story.

Key Messaging & Positioning Statement

a.k.a. What you say. Encapsulating your core brand messages for clear and consistent communication, including your internal positioning statement.

Brand Personality inc. Tone of Voice

a.k.a. How you say it. A tool to help ensure the consistency of all produced communications going forward, that brings your brand to life and builds connection with your customers.

Clear next steps

A consolidated bible for both internal teams and external partners as you build your challenger brand.

So, why does it matter so much to have a marketing strategy in place?

Can't we just continue firing out social ads and posting our blogs and sharing what we like on social?

Sorry to break it to you, but one of the hallmarks of a sophisticated scale-up is having a solid strategy in place, one that aligns teams and provides direction for the business.

Strategy is as much about what you say "no" to, as it is what you say "yes" to. The art of strategy is about knowing when to say no. Elimination is necessary for focus.

The advantages to carving out time for developing your marketing strategy include:

1. Better-performing comms

The level of clarity plus the consistency of your communication make for far more successful marketing. A clear understanding of who you are and what you do in your customer's mind (along with the desired immediate associations) have a direct impact on your bottom line.

We increased this scale-ups ad performance by 421%, thanks to our solid strategy and expert execution.

2. Gain more, loyal, higher-paying customers

This brings us on to the next point: by deep-diving on your customers and shaping the key messaging to them, logic dictates are they are much more likely to have an affinity with your brand, and buy more from you. In fact, research shows that businesses with a strong brand enjoy 306% higher customer lifetime value than those without.

3. Less wastage

A good strategy is about what you say "no" to. Without a strategy, you and your team are knee-jerking around, firing off all over the place, wasting spend without really having a solid game plan in place. This results in both time and money lost.

Bloom saved a tech scale-up literally £100s of thousands thanks to our clear direction. We said no to specific sponsorship opportunities and partner deals that weren't right for the business - plus of course the cost-saving of our vCMO service as opposed to hiring in-house.

4. Attract better talent

Showcasing your brand's personality, communicating your company vision, and demonstrating the plan to get there will attract and excite the right candidates for your growing team.

5. Team alignment

Startup life is frenetic, fast-paced - as well as being fun! But as businesses go through a period of high-growth, new joiners or team changes while startups go from startup to scale-up can be stressful.

A clear strategy that's seen everyone's involvement is invaluable in aligning the C-suite, key stakeholders, and team members for the scale-up's next period of growth.

If you want to find out more on how Bloom can help with your marketing strategy then simply book a no-obligation, 30-minute call here. We'd love to hear from you!

*Kenichi Ohmae is Japanese organisational theorist who coined The 3C's Framework, which starts with the Customer, followed by the Competitors, and finally looks at the Company. These areas and in these stages provide a solid toolkit for robust strategy development.