When should a company create a marketing strategy?
Answer: ALWAYS!
Whether you’re launching a startup, trying to grow an established brand, or just feeling stuck, having a clear strategy is essential. Without it, you’re not aiming at anything. And when you aim at nothing, you hit it every time.
There’s a quote often attributed to Abraham Lincoln: If I had six hours to cut down a tree, I’d spend the first four sharpening the axe. That first four hours is strategy. Done right, it makes the execution sharper, faster, and more efficient.
When a strategy is in place, everyone knows where they’re going. There’s alignment. There’s focus. And there’s clarity around what matters and what doesn’t. That clarity also makes it easier to stop doing the things that aren’t working. Many businesses stay busy with marketing activity that doesn’t drive results. A solid strategy shows you what to prioritize, what to drop, and how to move forward with purpose.
If your business feels like it’s spinning its wheels, this is usually the missing piece.
Why Is Marketing Strategy Important?
Answer: Because the cost of guessing is high.
Many businesses try to skip straight to execution. They show up saying, “We need a new website,” or “We want to run ads,” or “We need better content.” But without a clear strategy, those are just assumptions. It’s like diagnosing your own illness on Google and handing the treatment plan to your doctor.
Without strategy, the risk isn’t just wasting money. It’s spending time and resources on the wrong problems. It’s creating content that doesn’t resonate, launching campaigns that don’t convert, and building systems you’ll eventually need to rebuild.
In some cases, businesses try to shortcut strategy by asking AI tools for a plan. But unless the inputs are deeply specific, the output is often generic, off-brand, and ineffective. Used carelessly, AI can actually accelerate bad decisions.
A strong marketing strategy solves for that. It gives you a decision-making framework. It keeps your efforts aligned with business goals. And it allows you to execute with focus and confidence, instead of hoping something works.
What Are Some Marketing Strategy Examples?
Answer: Strategy isn’t a template. It’s not something you copy and paste from another business. But there is a process you can follow to build one that fits your company, your audience, and your goals.
Here are a few guidelines of how to approach it.
- Start with your audience
Everything begins with understanding who you’re trying to reach. A clear strategy defines your most important audience groups and ranks them by priority. Go beyond basic demographics. What are their mindsets? What motivates them? What outcomes do they care about?
It helps to give each audience group a short, memorable name. Add a subtitle that describes who they are in plain terms. Then write a short paragraph that captures how they think and what they need. Prioritize your top three groups and speak to them directly. - Get honest about your business value
Ask yourself: If your business closed tomorrow, what would your clients lose that they couldn’t find elsewhere?
It’s a tough question for a reason. Generic answers like “great customer service” or “we care more” won’t set you apart. Strategy starts with clarity and honesty. The more specific your answers, the more powerful your strategy becomes.
This kind of thinking often comes out during focused leadership sessions. It takes real conversation to uncover what matters most—what’s working, what’s being overlooked, and what value the business truly delivers. - Build a Strategy Around the Customer, Not the Offering
The most effective marketing strategies don’t start with what you’re trying to sell. They start with the problem your customer is trying to solve.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of outlining your services and building campaigns around them. But real strategy begins on the other side of the table. What is your customer experiencing? What are they frustrated by? What do they wish someone would just take off their plate?
Strategy helps you map your solutions to those real-world needs. It helps you create content, messaging, and campaigns that meet your audience where they are—before they’re even ready to buy. That’s how trust is built. That’s how positioning gets reinforced.
If you’re leading this work inside your organization, focus less on showcasing your offerings and more on communicating value in a way that feels relevant and useful to the people you serve. The more clearly your audience sees themselves in your strategy, the more effective your marketing will be. - Use strategy to lead execution—not chase it
When a strategy is built correctly, it becomes a guide. You know what success looks like. You know what to prioritize. That clarity makes it easier to assign work, hold people accountable, and track progress.
Whether your team is internal or external, someone has to lead. Not just to check boxes, but to ensure the work stays aligned with the plan. That leader could be a marketing director, a business owner, or a fractional CMO. What matters is that someone owns the outcome and is willing to protect the strategy from distraction.
Final Thoughts
Most businesses don’t need more content, more ads, or more noise. They need clarity. They need direction. And they need a strategy that actually fits what they’re trying to build.
The best time to build that strategy is before you take your next step.
