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Quarterly Strategic Marketing Process

Run this Strategic Marketing Processes on a quarterly basis to assess your business's marketing strategy.

Introduction to Strategic Marketing Process:

Enter business information

Strategy:

Determine competitive positioning

Assess your branding

Review your pricing

Review your distribution channels

Tools:

Review brand name progress

Review messaging

Check-in on your corporate identity

Ensure your website is optimized

Assess copy and design

Manage your CRM

Calculate customer lifetime value (CLV/LTV)

Calculate ROI

Develop your sales plan

Note down major marketing campaigns

Detailed budget

View and create your report

Approval: Send for internal approval

Sources:

Related Checklists:

Introduction to 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.

Strategic Marketing Consultants- What is strategic marketing?

Enter business information

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.

Your full name

Your email address

Business name

Industry

Your business's mission, vision and values

Today's date

Report reviewer:

Strategy:

Determine competitive positioning

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.

(Subtasks)

1

The size of the market
2

Document the size of your market
3

Identify your major competitors and how they’re positioned
4

Determine whether your market is in the introductory, growth, mature, or declining stage of its life
5

Understand the problems that your market faces
6

List your competitors
7

Your competitors and their progress
8

Identify areas where your competition is vulnerable
9

Your business's stage of growth
10

Customer demographics
11

SWOT analysis of any changes in the competitive landscape
12

Your value delivery

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.

Competitive positioning: Note key takeaways

Upload competitive positioning research

Link competitive positioning research

Assess your branding

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.

The images you convey

The messages you deliver on your website/campaigns

Your voice and personality with customers

Customers reviews and opinion of your brand

Review your pricing

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

Ideally, your prices should:

Reflect the value that you provide versus your competitors.
Consider what the market will truly pay for your offering.
Enable you to reach your revenue and market share goals
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.

Method for delivering value working check in

Note pricing changes to be made (if neccasary)

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

Review your distribution channels

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.

(Subtasks)

1

Are any additional products/services needed to use your product/service?
2

Are customizations needed to improve the product/service?
3

Do your products need to be serviced?
4

Are distribution goals being met?
5

Are service requirements are being met?
6

Are reporting requirements are being met?

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.

Distribution channels: key takeaways

Tools:

Review brand name progress

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.

Does your brand name sound good over the phone?

1

Yes
2

No
3

Sometimes

Is the brand name constantly mispronounced or misspelled?

1

Yes
2

No
3

Sometimes

Does the brand name confuse people?

1

Yes
2

No
3

Sometimes

Does the brand name not convey what it needs to convey?

1

Yes
2

No
3

Sometimes

We suggest you consider re-assessing your brand name.

Review messaging

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.

(Subtasks)

1

Do all team members understand and use the brand's voice?
2

Are your messages carefully crafted?
3

Is there any way you could strengthen your messaging?
4

Is all messaging well written and flawless?
5

Do you have contradictory messaging?
6

What is the customer sentiment regarding your slogan?
7

What is the customer sentiment regarding your brand's message?

Messaging: key takeaways

Check-in on your corporate identity

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.

(Subtasks)

1

Business cards
2

Envelopes
3

Letterhead
4

Mailing labels
5

Email templates and signatures
6

Faxcovers
7

Proposal/quote templates
8

Invoices/statements
9

Memos
10

Signage
11

Promotional items

Corporate identity: improvements

Ensure your website is optimized

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.

Is your site generating sales?

1

Yes
2

No
3

Not enough

Do you use your site for internet campaigns?

1

Publicity
2

Social
3

Email
4

Webinars
5

Ongoing communications
6

No
7

Other

Is the content on your site relevant?

1

Yes
2

No

What percentage of your traffic convert into customers?

Assess copy and design

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.

(Subtasks)

1

Does your copy/design communicate your objectives?
2

Does your copy/design communicate in a memorable way?
3

Is your copy/design consistent through all mediums?
4

Does your copy/design convey your brand's personality?
5

Does your copy/design leave a lasting impression?

Copy and Design: key takeaways

Manage your CRM

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.

(Subtasks)

1

Contact & account information (contact names, emails, phone numbers, SIC code, address, etc.)
2

Lead information
3

Sales rep name and activity history (calls, emails sent, inquiries, etc.)
4

Purchase history
5

Customer service tickets
6

Sales pipeline information
7

Marketing marketing campaign data
8

Revenue tied to a certain marketing campaign
9

The number of leads you have at each step in your sales process
10

Track your progress against your goals
11

Capture leads from your website

Upload CRM report

Link CRM report

Calculate customer lifetime value (CLV/LTV)

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.

(Subtasks)

1

Set a maximum budget to acquire a particular type of customer.
2

Calculate whether a particular deal will be profitable.
3

Look at current customers who haven’t purchased according to the pattern you estimated in the calculation.
4

Plug the data into your ROI projections.

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

Strategic Marketing Process: CLV Source: http://www.marketingmo.com/

Link CLV report

Upload CLV report

Calculate ROI

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.

Quarterly Strategic Marketing Process: ROI calculation.

Notes on the ROI of campaigns

Develop your sales plan

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.

Number of sales staff you’ll need (if any)

Will you need to hire and train new personnel?

Top priority markets

Plan for managing current customers

Plans for distribution channels (existing and new)

Note down major marketing campaigns

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.

Top three campaigns

Tools, technologies and resources you'll need

Select the media platforms/customer engagement channels needed

1

SEO and SEM
2

Telemarketing
3

Online advertising
4

Social media
5

Email marketing

Estimated ROI

Other financial goals

Detailed budget

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.

Upload budget sheet

Link budget sheet

View and create your report

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.