Today’s marketplace is no longer receptive to the traditional marketing strategies that worked in the past. Thanks to the burgeoning of the Internet, marketing has evolved tremendously over the years.

Outbound marketing tactics are getting less and less effective over time.  Inbound Marketing is one of the up-and-coming marketing buzz words in the digital world.

There has been a lot of online discussions regarding Outbound vs. Inbound marketing, with many people claiming the death of Outbound tactics. This infographic from Voltier Digital (acquired by BlueGlass) highlights the differences between the two concepts of marketing.

Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Marketing

Well, there are probably already too many debates on this and we will not be elaborating with details here.

We are literally surrounded by all sort of Outbound marketing noise – TV, newspapers, ads in magazines when we are offline. Simultaneously, we are bombarded by mammoth amount of inbound marketing noise – blogs, ebooks, infographics online virtually every day.

There are just too many products, too many companies and too much marketing noise. And now the million-dollar question is how to rise above the noise, differentiate your brand, and build an outstanding online presence through well-crafted Internet Marketing strategy?

What consistently separated winners from losers in creating blue oceans was their approach to marketing strategy. How to design a company’s strategic planning process to go beyond the competition and continue to build a viable marketing strategy to maintain profitable growth?

We are in the world of homogeneity and abundance where everything tends to be replicable. The availability of new technologies has enabled companies to easily duplicate the products, systems, services and processes of others, generating a huge strategic problem of differentiation for businesses. Henceforth, it is becoming increasingly important to identify the right marketing strategy that can create memorable brands out of some “almost identical” products.

To be successful in the marketplace today, you need to connect with your customer. Marketers begin to realize that it is a wise move to understand more about what customers have in mind. A sound marketing strategy focuses on the customer. It is your plan of action – what you will sell, to whom you will sell it, how often, at what price, and how you will get the product to the buyer. It is how you plan to use the resources available to you to build an ongoing case that your business, products and services are the most obvious choice for a narrowly defined ideal customer.

Without an effective and winning marketing strategy you won’t achieve the best results you yearn for, no matter how much time and money you spend.

If you accept this embellished view of the current state of marketing, then I would suggest you answer the following questions before you start to build your marketing strategy:

1. Who are you?
2. What is your goal?
3. What do you do?
4. Who is your ideal customer?
5. Do you have a USP(Unique Selling Proposition)
6. What are the benefits of your product/services?
7. What marketing material do you have?
8. What is your sustainable competitive advantage?
9. What makes customers buy from you the first time (acquisition)?
10. What keeps them coming back (retention)?

With this statement of intent laid out in place, it will be much easier and effective to plan out your marketing strategy and efforts.