Quarterly Strategic Marketing Process

This Quarterly Strategic Marketing Process provides insight and structure to your marketing activities.

Strategic marketing planning involves setting goals and objectives, analyzing internal and external business factors, product planning, implementation, and tracking your progress. Below is an example of Apple's marketing strategy:
 
Mission: Apple is dedicated to making innovative, high-quality products.

Situation Analysis: Apple’s competitive advantage is driven by its commitment to understanding customer needs, focusing on the products that are core to its mission, and fostering a collaborative work culture.

Marketing Strategy: Apple usually is first to the marketplace with new products and the company relies on brand loyalty from existing customers as a strategy when launching new products and services.

Marketing Mix: While Apple offers a range of products, it values premium pricing and relies on strict guidelines for distribution.

Implementation and Control: Each Apple product complements the others and works within the same ecosystem, so customers tend to stay with the brand, creating loyal consumers.

Use this checklist to guide you in taking the practical steps to ensure you stay on top of your marketing strategy, branding, delivery time frames, and customer acquisition.

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Check out the YouTube video below for some insight into Strategic Marketing.

This section is important as it keeps track of who has updated or edited your marketing processes. It keeps a reference of who edited what and when they did so. 

Enter your details in the form fields below. 

Use the members drop-down to assign the Quarterly Strategic Marketing Process report for review to a team member of your team.

Use the sub-checklist below to guide you in researching your competitive position within your market.

Remember, to record data for all the last 3 months. 

Competitive positioning is about defining how you’ll differentiate your product. It’s about carving out a spot in the competitive landscape, putting your stake in the ground, and winning mindshare in the marketplace—being known for a certain “something.”

Link or upload the research document.

Your brand is the entire experience that your audience has with your offering or company.

While your brand includes the logo, color palette, and slogan, these are only creative elements that convey your brand. The real power of your brand lives in the day-to-day interactions you have with your market:

Use the form fields below to assess your branding. 

Pricing is a complex subject, there are many long-term and short term factors to consider.

Ideally, your prices should:

1. Reflect the value that you provide versus your competitors.
2. Consider what the market will truly pay for your offering.
3. Enable you to reach your revenue and market share goals
4. Maximize your profits (either short-term or long-term)

Use the form fields below to record details on whether your method for delivering value is operating efficiently. 

Remember: If your method for delivering value is product leadership or customer intimacy, a low price could send the wrong message.

Consider each task in the sub-checklist below when reviewing your distribution channels.

Bear in mind that your distribution channels will be unique to your business depending on the product or service that you offer. 

Pro Tip: Distribution is particularly important when going after a new customer segment or releasing a new product.

Note any key takeaways in the form field below.

Your distribution channels should support your positioning and brand strategy. These methods of reaching your market should be natural ways to access your market segments and support the experience that your brand delivers.

Check to see if your chosen brand name is working well.

Most small-to-midsize companies select a name to open their business, then build their brand, distribution, and pricing over time. This is fine providing they are all aligned. By aligning every aspect of your business you have the best chance at delivering a repeatable brand experience.

Use the form fields below to review your brand name. 

We suggest you consider re-assessing your brand name. 

Review your brand's voice and messaging. 

Consistent messaging is essential for communicating your ideas and values to your target market. Solid messaging and a clear voice allows you to effectively communicate what you stand for and the value that your offering provides.

Pro-Tip: Your messages should have a personality, a tone, a purpose, and should align with all elements of your branding. 

Use the sub-checklist below to guide you in reviewing your brand's messaging and note any key takeaways in the form field. 

Corporate identity is an extension of your brand and includes everything that has your logo or contact information on it. 

Use the sub-checklist below to ensure that every aspect of your branding is aligned across all areas. Check off each sub-task to confirm that branding is aligned.

If any areas need improvement note them down in the form field below. 

Use this section to review and optimize the performance of your website. 

Fill out the form fields below and select the appropriate options from the dropdowns.

Brands are built by what we hear, see, and touch. Our sensory experiences mean that we perceive brands.

The way we perceive brands determines what they become "known for".

Use the sub-checklist below to guide you in assessing the copy and design progress for your brand. 

Most growing businesses will likely need a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. 

If you already have a CRM then follow the sub-checklist and create a report that covers the last 3 months below. On completion, upload the report.

If you do not have a CRM system set-up then read this blog post by Process Street's CEO, Vinay Patankar. It will guide you in choosing the right tool for you and your business.

Knowing your customer lifetime value (CLV) is helpful when evaluating your market segments to determine which are the most profitable.

This data can be used when evaluating your positioning strategy to determine if you should strengthen your position within a particular segment or market or target entirely new segments.

If you already have a CLV Formula use it to determine how long an average customer stays with you.

Create and upload/link a report below, consider the steps in the sub-checklist below when doing so. 

If you have not yet calculated a formula for CLV then use the image below as a guide. 

Return on investment (ROI) is a measure of the profit earned from each investment. 

Use the image below to help calculate your ROI for this quarter and input it into the form field below. 

Develop your tactical sales plan.

Use the form fields below to record information concerning your sales plan for the upcoming quarter. 

Pro-Tip: It’s helpful to add each sales process to your customer relationship management (CRM) software so that each account is assigned to a stage at all times. That allows you to run reports to measure your progress and improve your sales management.

Enter campaign details.

You don’t need to list every campaign—just outline your major promotional plans for the quarter. You’ll need to set your budget in the next task, so the more planning you do now, the better. 

Use the form fields below to record all data concerning major campaign plans for the coming quarter. 

Use ROI to determine the total budget for your marketing efforts and plan the budget for the coming quarter. 

Budgeting can be a difficult process. Many companies just estimate or base it on their previous year’s spend. Whilst an estimate is better than nothing, you could use your ROI to develop more accurate numbers.

Prepare your budget sheet and link or upload it in the form fields below. 

This is the end of the Quarterly Strategic Marketing Process. The data you inputted for each step along with any notes made have been compiled into a final report, accessible below.

If you wish, you can create an automation process that will export your report from this checklist as a google document or PDF using Zapier.

For instructions on how to create this automation visit our hub page.

Once you have created the Zap, whenever you run this checklist an external report will be generated automatically with one click.

Pro-Tip: With Process Street there is the option to generate a report as a pdf or google document using Zapier. By setting up a 'Zap' you can export your report from this checklist.

The following task enables you to send the report for approval should you wish.

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Sources 

• Marketingmo.com - The Strategic Marketing Process PDF
• Oliver Peterson - Marketing Process Toolkit: 10 Checklists to Crush Your Competition
• Neil Patel - 20 Uncommon Marketing Strategies That'll Kickstart Your Startup 
• Visual Legion - Digital Marketing Agency - Digital Services - Lead Generation Strategies 
• Vinay Patankar - The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Marketing
• UpSellit - Conversion Rate Optimization & Ecommerce Best Practices 
• Shopify - How to Get Your First Sale in 30 Days: A Marketing Checklist for New Entrepreneurs 
  

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