It’s important to put marketing strategy into context. The diagram above provides a step by step framework to begin with a focus on markets, and complete with holistic marketing execution. The steps to think through the process are as follows:

Market Identification – pick your market. Identify the buyers, the key players and most of all the competition.

Audience Identification – identify the target audience. This includes key decision makers, influencers and stakeholders

Route to Market – identify all the elements between your company and the audience you’re trying to reach. You need to address the needs of your channel as well.

Messaging Framework – now you can define your differentiated value proposition for all of the decision makers, influencers, stakeholders and partners.

Messaging Validation – in this step you’ll confirm your hypotheses and make sure your message is on target.

Holistic Execution – you are now in a position to define your end to end marketing plan with different elements of the execution that support and reinforce each other with your audience.