I often talk about the waste of talent, time, and energy by jumping directly into tactical marketing implementation before developing a strategy. But there is another step before you can, or should, develop a strategy that is often overlooked, and that is determining the organizational strategic priorities. 

When people use the phrase ‘strategic priorities’ there is usually an ambiguous response, like “We want to grow.” My response to that is, “Cool… How?” Growth looks different for every organization, and some don’t have any interest in growth at all. 

Determining strategic priorities before writing a strategy ensures alignment, effective resource allocation, informed decision-making, performance measurement, and enhanced communication and engagement. It lays the foundation for a coherent and actionable strategy that drives the organization toward its desired outcomes. So let’s take a look at some of the more common strategic priorities. 

Generating High-Quality Leads

A marketing strategy to increase high-quality leads is to attract potential customers who are more likely to convert into paying customers. A marketing strategy designed to increase high-quality leads typically involves targeting specific demographics and using various tactics to engage with them. This could include creating valuable content such as blog posts, social media posts, videos, and infographics that provide useful information and solve customer problems. It may also involve using paid advertising, email marketing, or search engine optimization (SEO) to drive traffic to your website and increase conversions.

Increasing Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is an important part of marketing because it creates recognition and trust for your brand, which can lead to increased sales, customer loyalty, and a competitive advantage in the marketplace. A brand awareness strategy may include various tactics such as advertising, public relations, social media marketing, content marketing, and influencer marketing. These tactics aim to increase exposure for your brand by reaching your target audience through various channels and touchpoints.

Acquiring New Customers

A strategy to acquire new customers is to attract and convert potential customers into paying customers for your products or services. A customer acquisition strategy typically involves various tactics and channels to reach and engage with potential customers, educate them about your offerings, and persuade them to make a purchase. Those tactics may include targeted advertising, content marketing, SEO, email marketing, referral programs, and sales promotions.

Establishing Industry Authority

A strategy to increase industry authority is to establish your brand or company as a thought leader or expert in your industry. This approach typically involves creating and sharing high-quality content that demonstrates your expertise and knowledge in your industry. This could include publishing blog posts, white papers, case studies, webinars, research reports, or other types of content that address industry trends, challenges, and solutions. Additional tactics include podcasts, speaking engagements, events, and guest blogging or contributing in notable publications.

Increasing Cross-Selling with Existing Clients

A strategy to cross-sell clients is to increase the value of each customer by encouraging them to purchase complementary or related products or services to increase the revenue generated from each customer and improve the overall profitability of the business. A strategy to increase cross-selling will rely heavily on data and analytics to analyze the customer's purchase history and behavior to create customer journey maps to help better identify cross-selling opportunities. It would also require sales training programs and materials, and personalized marketing efforts to segmented audiences.

Increasing Website Traffic

A strategy to increase website traffic is to attract more visitors to your website, which can lead to increased brand awareness, engagement, and revenue. If you have a website that converts this might be the direction you want to go. It will employ a large number of tactics including, SEO, content marketing, social media, PPC advertising, email marketing, influencer marketing, and referral marketing. The success of a strategy to increase website traffic depends on understanding your target audience, identifying the most effective tactics for reaching them, and consistently tracking and analyzing your results to make improvements.

This by no means covers every strategic priority an organization could have, but it’s a good place to start for opening the conversation. If you and your teams aren’t already having these types of conversations, you need to be. Sometimes it’s helpful to have an unbiased third party facilitate those conversations and help the team land in one place. If you feel your organization could benefit, please reach out. Once there is strategic alignment amongst the leadership team, the organization significantly increases its chances of delivering against its strategy.