What Your Marketing Strategy Will Do (And What It Won’t Do)

Marketing is an interesting area of business. We all have some experience with it - businesses are marketing to us every day on our phones, on TV, in storefronts, and more. So most people tend to think they have an understanding of what marketing is: it’s how you sell things, right? On a basic level, yes. Traditionally marketing can be defined by “the 4ps”:  product (name, design, packaging), promotion, pricing, and placement. More simply, marketing is how and where you tell the story of your company, and how you position your product or service in the marketplace.

But there’s an important step that companies sometimes miss, and that is product-market fit. Does the thing you are selling actually match up to what your audience is seeking? 

What your marketing strategy won’t do for your business

Occasionally clients come to me and ask not only how they can build their brand and promote their company, but also what their product or service offering should even look like and whether it is something the market wants. To me, this is really product-market fit, and the questions are more fundamental to your overall business strategy rather than your specific marketing strategy.

Your marketing strategy will tell you which audience to focus on, it won't tell you if they want your product or service. Your marketing strategy will tell you how to position your product or service within the marketplace, it won't tell you if your product or service is better than the competition. Certainly there are ways your marketing can help inform and refine these areas. But ideally there’s a level of research and testing that provides you with this critical information before you start developing your product or service and certainly before you start marketing it.

Why should you address product-market fit first? Because if you face any problems with product-market fit your marketing strategy won’t solve them for you. You can design beautiful campaigns, invest in advertising, and spread your message far and wide, but if there isn’t a fit between what you are selling and what the market values, or if the market isn’t as large as you expected, you won’t see the results you want. 

What your marketing strategy will do for your business

The good news is, once you have product-market fit figured out, there’s a lot your marketing strategy CAN do for you. Contrary to what many people might think, a marketing strategy is more than just your social media and email content. It’s more than just messaging or public relations. It’s about understanding your audience - figuring out who they are, what they care about, and why they should care about your product in particular. It’s about how you position your company based on the unique value behind your product-market fit. It’s about figuring out the right marketing channels and how you use those marketing channels to your advantage.

A solid marketing strategy, built on product-market fit, will have your audience singing your praises for you. It will create efficiency in your business, help you answer tough questions about how to grow your business, and provide opportunities to connect with your target audience. In other words, it will be worth the initial upfront investment.