Updated September 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team
A marketing strategy is a small number of decisions about who you serve, what you promise them, and what you will not do. Almost everything sold under the name is a plan — a list of activities with a calendar attached — which is a useful document and a different one. The test is subtraction: if the document adds activity in every direction and removes nothing, no strategic decision has been made. This page sets out what a strategy contains, how to write one, and how to tell whether yours is real.
The short answerA marketing strategy answers four questions and nothing else: who is this for, what do we promise them that others do not, how will they encounter us, and what are we choosing not to do? Everything else — channels, calendars, budgets, campaigns — is a plan that follows from those answers. The reason the distinction matters practically is that a plan built on unanswered strategic questions produces activity in every direction, which looks like thoroughness and is actually the absence of a decision.
Progression Agency is a New York City firm working with clients across the United States. This page describes how marketing strategy is developed and evaluated. Figures cited are category-typical ranges rather than results from client engagements, and no client outcomes are presented as evidence for any recommendation here.
Omnichannel consulting
A word used loosely enough to be worth pinning down before buying it.
Omnichannel consulting means designing an experience that is continuous across the channels a customer actually uses — site, app, store, call center, email, marketplace — so that what happens in one is known in the next. It differs from multichannel, where a company is present in several places that do not know about each other, and the difference is entirely in the data and the process rather than in the number of channels.
An omnichannel consultant therefore spends most of the engagement on things that are not marketing: identity resolution across systems, inventory visibility, returns handling across channels, and the operational changes required so that a promise made online can be met in a store. Omnichannel agencies that arrive with a campaign plan and no operational scope are selling multichannel.
The question to ask before commissioning is which handoff is currently broken, because that is where the value is. Most omnichannel programs pay for themselves on one or two specific transitions — buy online and collect in store, or a service conversation that starts in chat and finishes on the phone — rather than on a general improvement.
Global marketing, and a metric worth calculating properly
One strategy topic and one measurement habit.
International marketing examples that are genuinely instructive are the ones where a company changed something substantial rather than translating. Global marketing examples divide along one axis: standardization, where the same product and message run everywhere for consistency and scale, and adaptation, where product, price, channel and message are localized. An example of global marketing at the standardized end is a luxury brand holding one identity worldwide because the scarcity depends on it; at the adapted end is a food company reformulating and renaming per market.
International marketing example collections rarely say what it cost. The honest framing is that adaptation buys relevance and costs margin and management attention, and the question for any company is which markets are large enough to deserve it.
A percent of goal calculator answers a small question that teams get wrong constantly: performance against target expressed as a share. Percent to goal is actual divided by target, times a hundred. How to calculate percentage over goal is the same calculation reported differently — either as a figure above a hundred percent, or as the excess divided by the target. Mixing the two conventions inside one report is why dashboards disagree with each other.
A percentage to goal calculator and a percentage of goal calculator are the same instrument. The one worth building into a report is one that also shows pace: where you should be by this point in the period, not only where you are against the whole. A campaign at sixty percent of goal is excellent in week three and a problem in week eleven, and a percent to goal calculator that ignores elapsed time hides that.
Repurposing, link building, and strategy vocabulary
Three practical topics that sit underneath most content and search programs.
What is repurposing content: taking one substantial piece of work and deriving several assets from it for different channels and formats. How to repurpose content well is a commissioning decision rather than a post-production one — deciding at the outset that a piece of research will also become a talk, a video, an email sequence and a set of social posts changes how it is researched, because you gather the material each format needs while you have access.
Content repurposing strategies that produce something worth publishing share one property: each derived asset is genuinely made for its format rather than cropped into it. A content repurposing strategy that simply excerpts produces material that reads as leftovers, which is the reason most repurposing programs quietly stop.
Strategies for link building that survive scrutiny are the ones where the link is a byproduct of something else being worth citing: original research with a number nobody else has, a genuinely useful free tool, a reference resource kept current, or coverage earned by doing something newsworthy. Strategic link building means choosing which of those you can sustain rather than pursuing all of them, because each is a different capability.
The tactics to avoid are the ones that would embarrass you if described accurately: paid placements without disclosure, reciprocal exchanges at scale, and networks that exist to sell links. These are named in search engine spam policies and are assessed at site level, which means the risk is not confined to the pages that carry the links.
New media strategies, as a phrase, has outlived the moment when new media meant anything specific. What buyers usually mean by it now is planning for channels the organization does not already run — creator partnerships, community platforms, streaming audio, connected TV — and the useful discipline is the same as anywhere: name the audience, name what changes for them, and decide in advance what evidence would show it worked.
Creative strategies examples worth studying are documented ones, where the constraint and the reasoning are both on the record. Award case studies and published effectiveness papers are the best available source, because they state what the business problem was before describing the idea. Consulting consumer goods work is one of the more transparent sectors for this, since the categories are competitive enough that the results are measurable and frequently published.
Strategy read through published examples
Case material is the fastest way to see strategy as a set of tradeoffs rather than a list of activities, provided the examples are read for structure rather than copied.
LVMH strategy is the most instructive published example of portfolio thinking in consumer goods. The company operates dozens of houses across wine and spirits, fashion and leather goods, perfumes and cosmetics, watches and jewelry, and selective retailing, and the reported logic is deliberate decentralization: each house keeps its own creative direction and its own brand equity while the group supplies capital, distribution, retail estate and back office. The strategic consequence is that a weak year at one house does not force a repositioning of another, and that scarcity can be maintained brand by brand rather than sacrificed to group volume. The group’s own annual reports, cited below, set out the segment structure directly.
Sephora marketing strategy is usually cited for the opposite reason: it is a retailer that built a loyalty program and an owned digital experience around trial and discovery in a category where the traditional purchase depended on a counter and a salesperson. Sephora s marketing strategy is worth studying for how sampling, loyalty tiering and user reviews were used to convert a high-consideration purchase into a repeatable one.
DTC strategy is what happens when a manufacturer removes the retailer and takes on the customer relationship and its whole cost. The margin gained is real and the acquisition cost is also real, which is why so many DTC brands grew revenue for several years without ever reaching contribution profitability. A DTC strategy holds up when repeat rate and average order value together clear the fully loaded cost of acquiring a customer, and not otherwise.
Coach marketing strategy, credit unions marketing strategy and travel marketing strategy are each shaped by a constraint the others do not have: brand repositioning after discounting in the first, member-owned governance and regulatory limits in the second, and extreme seasonality with a long booking window in the third. Reading marketing strategy case studies across unlike sectors is more useful than reading five from your own, because the transferable part is the reasoning, not the tactic.
Positioning, personas, and the words a strategy is written in
The vocabulary here is loose enough that two people can agree on a plan and mean different things, so it is worth pinning down.
Positive positioning is the practice of stating what you are and what you do well rather than defining yourself against a competitor’s weakness. Asking what is positive positioning usually surfaces a real problem: comparative claims age badly, invite rebuttal, and teach the market to think in the competitor’s terms. The stronger form names the buyer, the situation and the outcome without mentioning anyone else.
Persona generation has become partly automated, and that is where it goes wrong. A persona assembled from demographic data and plausible-sounding motivations reads convincingly and contains nothing you did not already assume. Personas earn their place when they are built from interviews and from behavioral data you actually hold, and when each one carries at least one fact that surprised the team.
Intuitive strategy is the honest name for what most small companies do: a founder with deep category knowledge makes fast decisions without writing them down. It is not inherently worse than a documented process, and it fails in one specific way, which is that it cannot be delegated. The point at which a company needs strategy written down is the point at which someone other than the founder has to make the same call.
Content repurposing strategy is the operational counterpart. One substantial piece of research becomes a long-form page, a set of social posts, a conference talk, an email sequence and a short video, and the discipline is deciding that at commissioning time rather than afterwards. Repurposing planned in advance changes how the original is researched; repurposing planned afterwards produces excerpts.
Campaign mechanics: budgets, types, and bidding
Several of the terms people search under strategy are really platform mechanics, and confusing the two produces plans that cannot be executed.
Campaign budget optimization is a Google Ads and Meta setting that distributes a single budget across ad groups or ad sets automatically, moving spend toward whatever is performing. It removes a manual lever and works well when the ad sets share a goal and a conversion definition; it works badly when one ad set is prospecting and another is retargeting, because the retargeting will always look cheaper and will absorb the budget.
Google campaign types is the practical map: Search, Performance Max, Display, Video, Demand Gen, Shopping and App, each with its own inventory and controls. Understanding how do Performance Max campaigns work matters because it is the type that spans all of them: one campaign supplies assets and a goal, and the system decides placement, audience and bid across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps. The tradeoff is control and reporting granularity, which is why it is a poor first campaign and a reasonable later one.
A conquesting campaign bids on or targets a competitor’s brand terms and audiences. It is legal in the United States for keyword targeting, contested when the competitor’s mark appears in the ad text itself, and expensive because the competitor’s own brand campaign will have a quality advantage on their own name. It is most defensible where switching is genuinely common.
B2B services and the agency landscape
A large part of strategy demand is really a search for someone to run it.
A B2B growth agency sells across the funnel rather than by channel, which suits companies whose problem is that nothing connects. A B2B demand generation service is the narrower version, concentrating on creating and capturing demand rather than on brand or product marketing. A B2B PPC agency narrows it again to paid media, and a B2B content agency to the asset production that everything else depends on. The distinction matters at contract time because these four will each describe the same client problem in their own terms.
A B2B fractional CMO is a part-time senior hire rather than an agency, typically one or two days a week, brought in when a company needs judgment and structure but cannot yet fund a full-time executive. The arrangement works when there is a team to lead and fails when the fractional CMO is expected to also be the team. Firms selling access to B2B marketing experts on the same basis should be asked who specifically, and for how many hours.
B2B influencer marketing platforms are a smaller and more recent category than their consumer equivalents, and the influence they broker is different: analysts, practitioners with large professional followings, and community moderators rather than entertainers. The measure is pipeline influenced rather than reach. B2B PPC agency work and email marketing B2B programs usually sit alongside it, because the audience is small enough that the same names appear in every channel.
Comparing the tools a strategy runs on
Tool selection is not strategy, but the wrong tool constrains one.
| Search | What the category is | What actually differentiates the options |
|---|---|---|
| Taboola competitors | Content recommendation and native advertising networks | Publisher inventory quality and minimum spend |
| Klaviyo competitors | Ecommerce email and SMS automation | Pricing model and depth of store integration |
| Unbounce competitors | Landing page builders with testing | Testing method, page speed, and CMS independence |
| GrooveFunnels reviews / GrooveFunnels review | All-in-one funnel, cart and email suites | Whether the bundled tools are each good enough to replace a specialist |
Vertical strategy consulting is priced and scoped differently from marketing services. Insurance strategy consulting deals with regulated products, agent and broker distribution, and state-by-state variation, so the work is often distribution design rather than communication. Life sciences supply chain strategy sits further still from marketing, and is included here only because the phrase is searched alongside the others: it concerns cold chain, serialization and single-source risk, which is operations rather than demand.
Campaigns worth studying, and what to take from them
Public campaign examples are useful as evidence of what an audience tolerated, not as templates.
Health communication campaign examples are the best-documented category available, because public health bodies publish their evaluations. Health communication campaigns examples from tobacco cessation and vaccination programs are studied precisely because the outcome measure is unambiguous and the results, including the failures, are in the literature. Social campaign examples from commercial brands are rarely evaluated that honestly.
A celebrity campaign buys borrowed attention and borrowed risk in the same transaction, which is why the contract matters more than the creative. Event engagement strategy is the opposite trade: lower reach, far higher intensity, and a measurable list of people who attended. For B2B especially, one is usually a better use of the same money than the other.
Retrospectives are worth reading with the date attached. Round-ups of 2024 campaigns and forecasts about marketing strategy in 2025 both date quickly, and the parts that survive are the structural observations rather than the predictions. SaaS copywriting is a case in point: the advice a SaaS copywriter gave in 2019 about feature-led pages has been overtaken by search results that summarize rather than link, which changes what a page has to do before it is read.
What is a marketing strategy?
A small set of decisions about who you serve, what you promise them, how they will encounter you, and what you are choosing not to do. It is short, it is stable, and it constrains what happens next.
The word is used for almost anything, which is why so many companies have a document called a strategy and no strategy. The distinguishing feature is that a strategy forecloses options. If reading it does not tell you what you have decided against, it is a summary of intentions.
Strategy is a choice; a plan is a schedule
Both are necessary and they answer different questions. Strategy answers what we are trying to do and for whom; the plan answers what will happen in March. A plan written without the strategy underneath produces activity that cannot be evaluated, because there is no standard against which to judge whether it was the right activity.
Why subtraction is the test
Adding is easy and costs nothing to write down. A document listing twelve priority channels has not prioritized anything, and the giveaway is that no internal group loses. Real strategic choices disadvantage somebody’s preferred activity, which is why they are difficult to get agreed and why unanimous immediate approval is a warning sign.
How is a marketing strategy different from a marketing plan?
Strategy is the decision; the plan is how that decision gets executed. Strategy changes rarely; the plan changes quarterly; campaigns change monthly.
| Level | Answers | Typical horizon | Who owns it | Changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy | Who we serve and what we promise | 2-4 years | Founder or CMO | Rarely |
| Positioning | How we are understood relative to others | 2-4 years | Founder or CMO | Rarely |
| Plan | What we will do, in what order, for how much | 6-12 months | Marketing lead | Quarterly |
| Campaign | A concentrated effort toward one objective | 4-12 weeks | Campaign owner | Per campaign |
| Channel tactic | How one channel is executed | Ongoing | Specialist | Continuously |
| Test | One question, answered | 1-6 weeks | Specialist | Constantly |
Most organizational confusion about marketing sits at the boundary between rows one and three. When a plan is revised because results were disappointing, people frequently describe it as a change of strategy, which erodes the thing that was supposed to be stable.
How often should a strategy actually change?
Rarely, and for reasons outside marketing: a genuine change in the market, in the product, or in what customers value. Changing it because a quarter underperformed is almost always a mistake, and it is the mechanism by which companies end up with no consistent position at all.
How do you write a marketing strategy?
Interview customers, compare what your leaders believe, reconcile that against the numbers, choose a segment you can win, write the promise in one sentence, and name what you are stopping.
Start with customers, not with a framework
Fifteen to twenty conversations with customers, lapsed customers and people who chose somebody else will tell you more than any framework applied to internal assumptions. The most common finding is that customers value something different from what the company believes it is selling, and that gap is the strategy.
The separate-answers exercise
Ask each leader independently to write down, in one sentence, who the company’s core customer is. Compare the answers in the room. When they differ — and they usually do — every downstream disagreement about channels, messaging and budget turns out to be this disagreement wearing different clothes.
Choose winnable over large
The largest addressable segment is rarely the one to choose, because it is large for everyone and is contested by better-resourced competitors. The segment where you already win, or where competitors are weakest, produces more revenue at lower cost even though it looks smaller in a board pack.
What should the promise actually say?
One sentence, specific enough that a competitor could not honestly claim it, and true enough that your delivery supports it.
Two tests are enough. First, could your closest competitor put their name on this sentence without lying? If so, it is not a position. Second, would a customer who read it recognize their own experience of you? If not, it is an aspiration, and the gap between it and reality will do more damage than a modest but accurate claim.
Category language is where positions go to die
‘Innovative, customer-focused solutions delivered by a team that cares’ describes a very large number of companies. Vague language survives internal review precisely because it is unobjectionable, which is the same reason it does no work in the market.
A narrow true claim beats a broad plausible one
Being definitively the best option for a specific situation is worth more than being an acceptable option for everyone, and it is achievable by companies that could never win the broad claim. Narrowness feels like a sacrifice and functions as leverage.
What does ‘what we will not do’ look like in practice?
Named segments you will decline, channels you will not run, revenue you will turn down, and activities that stop this quarter.
- Customer segments you will not pursue, even when they inquire
- Channels you will not run, regardless of what competitors are doing there
- Types of work or product you will decline, and what you will refer out instead
- Geographies or verticals outside scope for the strategy period
- Activities currently running that will stop, with a date
- Metrics you will stop reporting because they drive the wrong behavior
- Feature or service requests you will not build to win individual deals
- Price points below which you will not compete
The fifth item is where most strategies fail to land. Naming future exclusions is easy; stopping something already running requires someone to lose an activity they own, and a strategy that does not survive that conversation was never binding.
What are the warning signs of a strategy that is not one?
No customer was interviewed, nothing is being stopped, it could describe any competitor, everyone agreed instantly, and there is no way to find out it was wrong.
The ‘could be anyone’ test
Replace your company name with a competitor’s throughout the document. If it still reads as true and sensible, you have written a description of your category rather than a strategy for your company. This takes two minutes and catches a large proportion of the problem.
Strategies should be falsifiable
A strategy is a bet about what will work, and a bet you cannot lose is not a bet. Writing down what would prove it wrong — and when you will check — is the difference between a decision and a statement of confidence.
How do you choose channels once the strategy exists?
By where the chosen customer already is, what the promise needs to demonstrate, and what your team can sustain. Usually two or three channels, done properly.
| Criterion | Question | What it eliminates |
|---|---|---|
| Audience presence | Is our chosen customer genuinely here? | Channels chosen because they are popular |
| Message fit | Can the promise be demonstrated in this format? | Complex propositions in short formats |
| Sustainable cadence | Can we maintain this indefinitely? | Channels requiring output we cannot produce |
| Measurable enough | Can we tell if it worked? | Activity with no feedback loop |
| Competitive intensity | Can we be distinctive here? | Saturated channels with no angle |
| Cost to compete | Is the entry cost proportionate? | Channels with a floor above our budget |
The third criterion eliminates more channels than the others combined. A channel requiring weekly output that the team can sustain for six weeks is not a channel choice, it is a project with a predictable end, and the abandoned account left behind does small ongoing damage.
Two channels done properly beats six done thinly
Every channel has a threshold below which effort produces nothing. Spreading a fixed budget across six channels frequently leaves all six below their threshold, which produces the characteristic result of a busy marketing function with nothing to show.
How should a strategy be measured?
Against the outcome it was chosen to produce, on a horizon that matches how long it takes to work, with the leading indicators agreed in advance.
| Level | Leading indicator | Lagging indicator | Realistic horizon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy | Share of inquiries from the chosen segment | Revenue from that segment | 12-24 months |
| Positioning | Whether prospects describe you as intended | Win rate against named competitors | 6-18 months |
| Plan | Pipeline created, cost per opportunity | Revenue and margin | 2-4 quarters |
| Campaign | Engagement and qualified response | Conversion and revenue | 4-12 weeks |
| Channel | Cost per qualified action | Contribution after cost | 4-12 weeks |
The first row’s leading indicator is the most useful and the least used. If the strategy chose a segment, the proportion of inbound inquiries coming from that segment should move well before revenue does, and it is measurable within a couple of quarters.
Do not judge a strategy on a channel’s quarter
Channel performance moves for reasons unrelated to strategic choice: auction dynamics, algorithm changes, seasonality, competitor spend. Revising a strategy because a channel had a bad quarter confuses the levels, and it is how companies arrive at their fourth strategy in three years.
What about digital marketing strategy specifically?
It is a subset, not a separate thing. A digital marketing strategy that does not inherit from the company’s strategy is a channel plan with an ambitious title.
The useful digital-specific decisions are about where owned, earned and paid effort goes, and how they support each other: what search visibility is being built toward, what paid media is buying that organic cannot, and what the website is actually supposed to do. Those are real decisions and they sit below the strategic ones rather than replacing them.
The website is usually the unexamined assumption
Almost every digital plan assumes the site converts adequately, and in a large proportion of cases it does not. Establishing whether the destination works before increasing the traffic to it is the cheapest sequencing decision available, and it belongs in the plan explicitly.
Who should write the strategy?
The person accountable for the outcome, with input from customers, sales and whoever will execute it. It can be facilitated externally and it cannot be outsourced.
An external party can run the interviews, structure the analysis, challenge the assumptions and write the document. What it cannot do is make the choice, because the choice commits resources and forecloses options that only the accountable person can foreclose. Strategies delivered rather than decided are the ones that sit unimplemented.
Sales should be in the room
The people having the actual conversations know which objections recur, which competitors come up and which claims fail under scrutiny. Excluding them produces a promise marketing believes and sales quietly stops using, which is a slow and invisible failure mode.
What are examples of real strategic choices?
Serving one segment exclusively, competing on a dimension the category ignores, choosing distribution over direct, or deliberately pricing above the market and delivering accordingly.
- Choosing to serve one vertical exclusively, and declining work outside it
- Competing on speed or certainty in a category that competes on price
- Choosing a single channel to dominate rather than a presence in all of them
- Deliberately pricing above the market and building delivery that supports it
- Selling through partners instead of direct, accepting lower margin for reach
- Refusing a large revenue category because it distorts the product roadmap
- Building for the buyer’s technical team rather than their procurement function
- Choosing to be the option for a specific hard situation rather than the general case
Every item on that list costs something visible. That is what makes them strategic choices rather than intentions, and it is the property most documents called strategies are missing.
Where do marketing strategy examples usually mislead?
By showing the outcome without the constraint. Famous strategies are memorable because they worked, and the published version omits the alternatives that were rejected and the resources that made the choice viable.
Marketing strategy examples are useful for illustrating what a decision looks like and dangerous as templates, because the same choice made by a company with different resources, different distribution and a different starting position produces a different result. What transfers is the shape of the reasoning, not the conclusion.
| Pattern | The choice | What must be true | Why copying it fails |
|---|---|---|---|
| Narrow vertical focus | Serve one industry exclusively | The vertical is large enough to sustain you | Copied into verticals too small to support the business |
| Compete on a neglected dimension | Speed or certainty where others compete on price | You can actually deliver that dimension | The claim outruns the operation |
| Dominate a single channel | All effort into one route to market | Your customer genuinely concentrates there | Chosen because the channel is fashionable |
| Premium pricing | Price above the market deliberately | Delivery visibly justifies it | Price raised without changing delivery |
| Partner distribution | Reach through others, lower margin | Partners have the relationship you lack | Partners with no incentive to sell you |
| Product-led growth | The product does the selling | The product is genuinely self-evident | Applied to products requiring explanation |
The third column is the one omitted from most published examples. Every pattern here works when its precondition holds and fails predictably when it does not, which makes the precondition the transferable part.
Read examples for the rejected option
The informative part of any strategic case study is what the company declined to do and why. That is almost never in the published account, which is why the most useful version of this exercise is asking somebody who was there rather than reading the write-up.
What is PMM, and where product marketing sits next to strategy
The abbreviation comes up constantly in job titles and org charts without being defined.
What is a PMM: a product marketing manager. The PMM definition in practice is the person who owns positioning, messaging and launch for a product — the bridge between what was built and how it is sold. What is PMM as a function differs from general marketing in that it faces inward as much as outward: a large share of the job is equipping sales rather than reaching buyers directly. In a small company the role is usually absorbed by whoever writes the strategy, which is why the two are so often confused.
| What people search | What it means | Where it is answered |
|---|---|---|
| personal web pages | Credibility, not conversion | One page usually beats five |
| personal page examples | Same intent | Same |
| personal home page examples | Same intent | Same |
| best personal web page | Same intent | A clear photo and a way to make contact |
| What people search | What it means | Where it is answered |
|---|---|---|
| campaigns fashion | Season and drop calendars | The launch strategy section |
| content repurposing strategy | One asset, many formats | Cheapest content lever available |
B2B against B2C, funnel stages and case studies
Three foundational distinctions that decide most of a strategy document.
The differences between B2C and B2B marketing — also typed difference between B2C and B2B marketing, differences between B2B and B2C marketing, difference between B2B B2C marketing, or difference between B2B marketing and B2C marketing — come down to three things rather than tone: the number of people involved in the decision, the length of the consideration period, and whether the buyer is spending their own money. A B2B purchase with six stakeholders and a nine-month cycle cannot be marketed with consumer tactics, and the reverse is equally true.
B2B web development and a B2B web development company face a specific version of that: the site is not a storefront but a qualification and reassurance tool, read by people building an internal case. That shifts the requirement toward documentation, proof and specificity rather than toward conversion mechanics.
Funnel stages
Marketing funnel stages are a model rather than a description of behavior, and their value is in forcing you to notice that awareness content and decision content are different jobs. Judging awareness content by decision metrics is the most common way useful work gets cut.
Case studies
Marketing strategy case studies are worth reading for the reasoning and worth distrusting for the outcome, because published cases are survivors and almost never state what else was happening at the time. Read them for the decision structure, not for the result.
Top of funnel, sampling and launch strategy
Three more strategy questions that arrive with a budget attached.
What does top of the funnel mean: the stage where somebody has a problem and is not yet comparing solutions. Top of funnel marketing, top of funnel advertising and top of funnel ads all describe spend aimed there, and the reason it gets cut first is that it converts worst on last-click attribution while feeding everything downstream. Judge top of funnel on assisted conversions and branded search volume, not on direct response.
Sampling campaigns are the physical-world equivalent and work on the same logic: the cost is high per person reached and the conversion is far better than any impression, because trial removes the main objection. They suit categories where the product is genuinely better than its description, which is exactly where advertising struggles.
Pharma product launch strategy operates under constraints most launches do not have: what may be claimed is defined externally, approval chains are long, and the audience splits between prescriber and patient with different permissible messages for each. Fashion campaigns sit at the opposite pole — almost no claim restriction, and a calendar set by seasons and drops rather than by quarters.
Target markets, funnel stages, DTC and strategy consulting by sector
Four questions that arrive whenever a strategy engagement is being scoped.
Target market strategy examples and a target market strategy example are asked for because the abstract version is hard to act on. The concrete version is three sentences: who specifically, what they are currently doing instead, and why they would change. A target market defined by demographics alone is not actionable; one defined by a situation is.
The awareness stage
What is the awareness stage of the marketing funnel: the point at which somebody has a problem and does not yet know the solutions exist. Content aimed there answers the problem rather than describing the product, which is why it converts poorly on first touch and matters enormously to everything downstream. Judging awareness content on immediate conversions is the most common way it gets cut just before it starts working.
DTC and seasonal campaigns
DTC strategy differs from retail strategy in one structural way: you own the customer relationship and the data, and you also own the acquisition cost with nobody to share it. A season campaign in that context is not a calendar exercise — it is the period where acquisition economics are briefly favorable, and planning it late is what makes it expensive.
Strategy consulting by sector
Insurance strategy consulting, pharmaceutical strategy consulting and omnichannel strategy consulting are distinct practices rather than one capability with different clients, because each is shaped by its own regulation and its own distribution. In marketing terms the common thread is that the constraint is rarely creative — it is what you are permitted to claim and who is permitted to say it.
Legal marketing
Personal injury marketing firms, personal injury marketing companies and marketing personal injury law firm searches sit in one of the most expensive paid categories in the country. The strategic answer for a smaller firm is almost never to compete on the head terms, but to own specific injury types, specific locations and the questions claimants actually ask before they are ready to call.
How does strategy survive contact with the quarter?
By separating the review of the strategy from the review of performance, and by holding the strategic review to a date agreed in advance rather than to whichever quarter goes badly.
The mechanism that erodes strategies is entirely predictable: a disappointing quarter produces pressure to change something, the most available thing to change is the strategy, and changing it resets every downstream program before any of them had time to work. Booking the strategic review in advance removes the decision from the moment of pressure.
Separate the two conversations explicitly
A monthly or quarterly performance review asks whether the plan is being executed well. A strategic review asks whether the plan is the right one. Holding both in the same meeting means the second question gets answered under the emotional conditions created by the first.
Want an outside read on whether your strategy is actually a strategy?
We will run the customer conversations, compare what your leadership believes, and tell you where the actual disagreement is — including when the honest finding is that the strategy is fine and the execution is the problem.
Video: strategy, marketing and measurement
A general library on marketing and analytics practice. The strategic material is written out in full above.
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Ad Age · 2026-08-12Why I Switched from ChatGPT to Claude
Ahrefs · 2026-06-03How to set up Performance Max for store goals in Google Ads
Google Ads · 2026-08-10How to Set Up Your LinkedIn Profile in just 10 Minutes (Using AI)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-07-27I'm Betting My Entire Marketing Strategy On This One Shift
Neil Patel · 2026-08-05Why Marketers Have Lost the Plot in the Age of AI
Think with Google · 2026-08-06Turning consumer signals into campaigns that work, with Kayak's senior VP of brand marketing
Ad Age · 2026-08-05Your AEO Strategy + Action Plan Checklist | 4.2. AEO Course by Ahrefs
Ahrefs · 2026-05-18Community Q&A: August 17 bidding update
Google Ads · 2026-08-05I Built a Complete AI Email Marketing System in 16 Minutes (Prompts Included)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-07-21The TikTok Shop Strategy Nobody Talks About
Neil Patel · 2026-07-15Frontier Brief: What it takes to lead marketing at Google during the AI revolution
Think with Google · 2026-08-03Meet the Calvin Klein CMO using 'entertainment mentality' to turn culturally resonant campaigns i…
Ad Age · 2026-07-29How to Track AI Traffic in GA4 and Ahrefs Web Analytics (ChatGPT & More) | 4.1. AEO Course by Ahrefs
Ahrefs · 2026-05-18Google Ads Spending Limits: Master Your Daily Budget [Tutorial]
Google Ads · 2026-08-035 Social Media Trends Actually Working in 2026 (HubSpot Report)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-07-14The One-Person Marketing Era Has Officially Begun
Neil Patel · 2026-07-08Inside Nescafé's Global YouTube Creator Strategy with Zach King | Nescafé
Think with Google · 2026-07-29Lessons from America's Hottest Brands
Ad Age · 2026-07-22YouTube SEO for AI Search: How to Rank your YouTube Videos | 3.3. AEO Course by Ahrefs
Ahrefs · 2026-05-13Fix disapproved Google Ads: A guide to Personalized advertising compliance
Google Ads · 2026-08-03The Free AEO Tool Stack to get Your Brand Promoted By AI
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-07-08How I Would Master Social Media in 2026 (If Starting From Zero)
Neil Patel · 2026-06-03Best of Frontier CMO: The Audience is in Charge with Colin and Samir
Think with Google · 2026-07-23Weekly Report: Starbucks' Culture Play, Predictive AI Targeting, Emmy-Nominated Ads
Ad Age · 2026-07-16Brand Mentions for SEO: How to Get Cited by AI (3 Tiers) | 3.2. AEO Course by Ahrefs
Ahrefs · 2026-05-13Google Call Ads: Supplemental Terms & Compliance
Google Ads · 2026-08-03How to Create a WhatsApp Chatbot for Your Business (No Coding)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-07-065 Signs Your AI SEO Strategy Is About to Take Off
Neil Patel · 2026-05-27Frontier Brief: Liquid Death’s unexpected recipe for marketing success
Think with Google · 2026-07-202026 ad budget check-in: where media money’s moving, with Brandon Doerrer
Ad Age · 2026-07-10How to Optimize Content for AI Search Engines | 3.1. AEO Course by Ahrefs
Ahrefs · 2026-05-13Google Ads Asset Studio: AI Tools & Asset Management Guide
Google Ads · 2026-08-03I Charge $2,000 for This Content Strategy (Copy Me)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-06-29The Old SEO System Is Collapsing. Here's What Replaces It.
Neil Patel · 2026-05-20Lightning in a Can: Liquid Death’s Killer Creative
Think with Google · 2026-07-09Why data, not AI, is driving local travel marketing decisions, with Vrbo's VP of marketing
Ad Age · 2026-07-08Keyword & Prompt Research for AI SEO (AEO) | 2.2. AEO Course by Ahrefs
Ahrefs · 2026-05-06Create effective Search ads: Responsive search ads for success (2026)
Google Ads · 2026-08-03How to Run ChatGPT Ads: The Complete Tutorial
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-06-225 AI CEOs Said the Same Thing About 2026 (Marketing Changes Forever)
Neil Patel · 2026-05-13Frontier Brief: What CMOs can learn from McLaren’s race to the top
Think with Google · 2026-06-29Why retailers should sell experiences, not products, with Macy's CMO
Ad Age · 2026-07-01How to Run a Brand Gap Analysis | 2.1. AEO Course by Ahrefs
Ahrefs · 2026-05-05How to Link accounts to your Google Ads Manager Account – Step-by-Step process
Google Ads · 2026-07-30How to Optimize Your Profile for LinkedIn's New AI Algorithm
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-06-17The Marketing Opportunity of a Decade (But Not for Long)
Neil Patel · 2026-04-22Will AI take the soul out of creative? 🎬
Think with Google · 2026-06-29What brands are missing in sports sponsorship, with Just Women's Sports Founder
Ad Age · 2026-06-24What Is AI Visibility? The 3 Types Every Marketer Needs to Know | 1.3. AEO Course by Ahrefs
Ahrefs · 2026-04-29Community Q&A: Measurement in the AI era & AI Max
Google Ads · 2026-07-29From Apartment Startup to Luxury Tech Brand
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-06-15How to Save Your Marketing Job (Stop Reporting Traffic)
Neil Patel · 2026-04-03Exclusive look at Google’s Cannes Creative House 🚪✨
Think with Google · 2026-06-25From instinct to evidence: Solving marketing's growth paradox
Ad Age · 2026-06-22How AI Search Engines Work | 1.1. AEO Course by Ahrefs
Ahrefs · 2026-04-29Google Ads: Sexual content policy guide (What’s allowed?)
Google Ads · 2026-07-226 AEO Trends To Get Your Brand Recommended By AI (2026 HubSpot Report)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-06-10You Don't Have an SEO Problem. You Have a "Brand Entity" Problem.
Neil Patel · 2026-03-25Frontier Brief: Marketing is a hot mess right now—and Mark Ritson is actively tearing it apart
Think with Google · 2026-06-24CMOs on CMOs: Hippo and Solo Stove on AI and grassroots marketing tactics
Ad Age · 2026-06-19Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Course by Ahrefs: What is AEO?
Ahrefs · 2026-04-29Community Q&A: The bidding & budgets special
Google Ads · 2026-07-22How to Use Substack as a Complete Beginner in 2026 (Full Tutorial)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-06-08Why 98% of Websites Don't Make Money (It’s Not the Design)
Neil Patel · 2026-03-12Mark Ritson on Why the Fundamentals Still Win
Think with Google · 2026-06-04How the Cadillac F1 team is racing to define its brand and fan strategy
Ad Age · 2026-06-17How This Site Beat Amazon in Google Search (3 Step Strategy)
Ahrefs · 2026-04-01GCLID Explained: What is a GCLID?
Google Ads · 2026-07-16How to Scale a Skincare Brand (Marketing Breakdown)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-05-28You're Wasting Money Trying to Get B2B Clients
Neil Patel · 2026-03-04Philipp Schindler at Google Marketing Live 2026
Think with Google · 2026-05-21Best World Cup campaigns and the new sports marketing playbook, with Tim Nudd and Jon Springer
Ad Age · 2026-06-12How to Pick a Niche If You’re Just Starting Out (SEO)
Ahrefs · 2026-03-04How to use Google Keyword Planner: Find the Best Keywords for Your Business (2026 Guide)
Google Ads · 2026-07-15How to Build Your First AI Agent (Step-by-step Tutorial)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-05-26Amazon Just Became the Google of Streaming Ads
Neil Patel · 2026-02-25Evolving a media network to meet growing advertiser demands with Marriott's Chris Norton
Ad Age · 2026-06-10Keyword Research Tutorial for Google and AI SEO
Ahrefs · 2026-02-18Paid Search Association AMA: AI Max Q&A
Google Ads · 2026-07-15How to Dominate AI Search in 2026 (Complete Tutorial for Business)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-05-20Why Google LOVES Reddit (And How Marketers Can Exploit It)
Neil Patel · 2026-02-19Publicis-LiveRamp deal: what to know and how to react, with Garett Sloane
Ad Age · 2026-06-05I Outsourced our Digital Marketing to AI. Here's What Happened
Ahrefs · 2026-02-04PPC Chat Q&A: Ads in AI Search, QFC & Creator Partnerships
Google Ads · 2026-07-096 B2B Marketing Strategies Replacing the Old Playbook in 2026
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-05-11You're Wasting Your Money on Influencer Marketing
Neil Patel · 2026-02-11Top SEO Experts Build Me an AI Search Strategy (GEO)
Ahrefs · 2026-01-21Streamline your workflow with Ask Advisor in Google Ads
Google Ads · 2026-07-0922 Genius Marketing Campaigns You Can Run Without a Big Budget
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-05-06Everything you know about Marketing is changing (2026)
Neil Patel · 2026-02-05How to Transfer Google Ads Account to a New Agency (Billing Transfer)
Google Ads · 2026-06-24Do Reddit Ads Actually Work? I Ran a $100 Experiment (Full Results)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-05-04You’re Wasting Your Time Creating Social Media Content
Neil Patel · 2026-01-29Ads Data Hub: Privacy checks explained [Tutorial]
Google Ads · 2026-06-233 Creator Economy Trends Every Brand Needs to Know in 2026 (HubSpot Report)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-04-27Google Ads Data Collection Policy: Avoid Account Suspension (2026)
Google Ads · 2026-06-22Anatomy of a Viral Campaign: How We Built Loop Marketing
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-04-22Google Ads Other Restricted Businesses Policy [Avoid Disapproval Guide]
Google Ads · 2026-06-16Claude AI for Business: The Complete Marketing Tutorial
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-04-20Google Ads Limited Ad Serving? How to Fix It (2026 Guide)
Google Ads · 2026-06-155 NEW Email Marketing Trends That Actually Work in 2026
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-04-15Google Ads Bidding Update: How to Maintain Predictable Performance (2026 Guide)
Google Ads · 2026-06-12How to Make Professional Video Ads on Any Budget (AI Finally Made It Possible)
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-04-13Google Ads for Crypto: How to Get Certified & Avoid Bans (Tutorial)
Google Ads · 2026-06-10The Marketing Playbook That Helped This Gym Beat Equinox
HubSpot Marketing · 2026-04-08Google Ads Editorial Policy: How to Fix Ad Disapprovals
Google Ads · 2026-06-09How to Dispute or Change Google Ads Invoices
Google Ads · 2026-05-28Google Marketing Live: Backstage with our product experts
Google Ads · 2026-05-28
Getting found in search
- SEO company Las Vegas
- Texas SEO company
- SERPRobot review
- Ranktracker review
- Nightwatch review
- SEO company in Dallas
- SEO company in Oakland
- SEO company in Denver
- SEO company in Houston
- SEO company in Charlotte
- SEO companies by city
- Web design companies by city
- SEO company in Hawaii
- SEO for HVAC services
- Statewide SEO services
- Small business SEO
- SEO experts
- SEO pros and cons
- What is corporate SEO?
- Does URL length affect SEO?
- Meta description length
- SEO services
- SEO agency
- What are SEO services?
- What is SEO?
- Buyer personas
- Retail market research
- Local SEO services
- Local search
- Claiming a business profile
- Local SEO vs national SEO
- SEO company in New Jersey
- SEO agency NYC
- Affordable SEO services
- Best SEO company for small business
- SEO audit service
- SEO packages and pricing
- SEO pricing guide
- How long does SEO take?
- How to rank higher on Google
- Website not showing up on Google
- Google Business Profile not showing up
- How to set up a Google Business Profile
- Why is my website not getting traffic?
- SEO content writing service
- Shopify SEO services
- How to get more Google reviews
- Google review removal
- SEO for dentists
- SEO for doctors
- SEO for roofers
- SEO for plumbers
- SEO for HVAC companies
- SEO for chiropractors
- SEO for therapists
- SEO for landscapers
- SEO for med spas
- Best rank tracking tools
- Pro Rank Tracker review
- SERPWatcher review
- SEO tools for small business
- Instagram SEO
- Saving Instagram drafts
- Checking Instagram interactions
- Instagram hashtags
- TikTok profile views
- Finding TikTok drafts
- Snapchat filters and Lenses
- Organic SEO services
- SEO company in Portland
AI, AEO and what is changing
Paid media and lead generation
- SEO and Google Ads together
- Switching agencies
- Marketing agency contracts
- Is my agency doing a good job
- Why competitors outrank you
- Why rankings dropped
- Traffic but no leads
- Instagram marketing agencies
- Marketing automation software
- Hotel PPC agency
- Freebie ideas and lead magnets
- Angi for contractors
- Email marketing for home services
- Direct mail marketing
- Lead generation websites
- Dental lead generation
- Search engine advertising
- Display advertising
- Search Ads 360
- Organic search vs paid search
- Are Google Ads worth it?
- How to stop Google Ads
- Google Ads vs Facebook Ads
- Social media advertising
- What batch work is
- Free tools for service businesses
- What digital presence is
- Website visitor tracking
- Email marketing examples
- Fear-based advertising
- The annual business review
- Twitter alternatives
- Lead generation agency
- Contractor lead generation
- Solar leads
- What is lead generation?
- What is a funnel in marketing?
- Cost per lead benchmarks
- Performance marketing agency
- What is appointment setting?
- Search ad conversion rate trends
- PPC agency
- HVAC leads
- Social media marketing pricing
- Digital advertising agency
- Media buying vs media planning
- Choosing a marketing company
- CRM software examples
- Global marketing companies
- Buc-ee’s marketing analyzed
- Product launch ideas
- Hulu and streaming advertising
- Advertising agency in Houston
- Dentist PPC
- Facebook ads agency
- Meta Business Partners
- Google Ads management agency, San Francisco
- Shopify PPC agency
- Roofing Google Ads agency
- Digital ads 101
- Meta ad specs
- Estimating landscaping jobs
- WordPress developers Los Angeles
- Digital marketing agency San Jose
- Google Business Profile posts
- Humor in advertising
- Competitors bidding on your brand
- Traffic dropped after redesign
- Rising cost per lead
- Inquiries that never buy
Websites and design
- Product configurators
- Web development services
- How much does a website cost?
- What to include on a homepage
- Website redesign services
- Website maintenance
- Shopify ecommerce agency
- Ecommerce website design
- BigCommerce vs Shopify
- Service business website design
- Healthcare website design
- Websites for restaurants
- Squarespace design services
- Squarespace vs WordPress
- Wix vs WordPress
- Web design in Queens
- Web design for small business
- Shopify agency
- Shopify checkout optimization
- Headless commerce and Hydrogen
- Shopify pricing guide
- Shopify checkout extensibility
- Squarespace pricing
- Publishing a Squarespace site
- What Squarespace is
- Learning Squarespace
- Squarespace dropdown menus
- Domain vs website
- Videography websites
- Ecommerce product configurators
- Negative space in design
- YouTube channels for web designers
- How to back up a Squarespace website
- Best dental websites
- Website dimensions and image sizes
- Web design in Charlotte NC
- Web design in Nashville
- Web design in Seattle
- Web design in Atlanta
- Retail consulting
- Product design agencies
- Digital product agencies
- Hire PHP developers
- Bankruptcy lawyer website design
- Web design in North Carolina
- Web design in Seattle
- Ecommerce web development
- Ecommerce development services
- Squarespace customization
- Consulting websites
- Beauty stores on Shopify
- Content commerce
- 404 and bad request errors
- FTP clients
- Website design and development
- Design, development and management
- Creating a gallery
- Custom CSS
- Summary blocks
- Website maintenance services
- Web design agency, San Jose
- WordPress outsourcing
- StoryBrand website framework
- StoryBrand websites
- StoryBrand website design
- Squarespace logos
Choosing and working with an agency
- Marketing agencies in NYC
- Digital marketing agency NYC
- Digital marketing in Atlanta
- Digital marketing in Connecticut
- Digital marketing in Oklahoma City
- Nonprofit marketing agency
- Pharmaceutical marketing agency
- MSP marketing agency
- App development agency
- Growth tools for startups
- How to choose a digital marketing agency
- What does a marketing agency do?
- What does a digital marketing agency do?
- Marketing agency pricing
- What does retention mean?
- How to calculate success rate
- What does backlog mean?
- Best marketing agency
- Branding services for small businesses
- Fashion consulting
- Triadic color schemes
- The 8 principles of design
- How to write a brochure
- TikTok Wrapped: what actually exists
- Full-service marketing agency
- Marketing agencies in Philadelphia
- Agencies in Portland, Oregon
- Boutique marketing agency
- Marketing agency for small business
- Digital marketing services
- Digital marketing agency in New Jersey
- Fractional CMO services
- What is a fractional CMO?
- About Progression Agency
- Startup marketing agency
- Marketing agency in Tampa
- Marketing agency in San Diego
- Digital marketing in Florida
- Marketing agency in Nashville
- Marketing agency in Portland
- Client testimonials
- Contact us
- Marketing agency near me
- Online reputation case studies
- Digital marketing agency, Dallas
- Orlando digital marketing agency
- Advertising agencies in Westchester
- Water damage restoration leads
- General contracting leads
- Home inspection leads
- Spray foam insulation leads
- Mold remediation leads
- Digital marketing agency in Toronto
- Digital marketing internships
- Marketing consulting firms
- Marketing agency in Austin
- Advertising agency, Columbus
- Advertising agency, Charlotte
- Digital transformation consulting
- Ethos in advertising
- Sales promotion examples
- Experiential marketing agency
- Small business marketing
- Brand awareness for professional services
- Healthcare strategy consulting
- Digital healthcare marketing
Social, content and brand
- The Progression blog
- Video production company NYC
- What does a video production company do?
- Video production near me
- How to make a film
- Micro-documentaries
- LED volume walls
- LED video wall rental
- AV companies, Washington DC
- Grip and electric
- Documentary filmmaking
- Post-production
- Production technology
- Real estate videography
- Film production in Florida
- Finding a web design studio
- Growing a painting business
- Business vlogs
- Social media trends this week
- B2B social media agency
- Automotive social media marketing
- Saving Instagram Stories as drafts
- What is guerrilla marketing?
- Video production services
- How green screen works
- Social media management fees
- Outsourcing social media
- Film production companies
- What video production costs
- Corporate video production
- Adding music to a Canva video
- Video production in Tampa
- Public relations agency
- PR agency in NYC
- Crisis management PR
- What is a backgrounder?
- PR firms in Austin
- Public relations in Dallas
- PR firms in Chicago
- Beauty PR agency
- Event PR firms
- PR firm services
- Crisis communications
- Media training, New York
- Healthcare PR questions
- Nonprofit public relations
- B2B PR agencies
- PR for venture-backed startups
- Proactive and reactive outreach
- Sports PR and athlete branding
- Mobile app PR agency
- Arts and culture PR
- Lifestyle PR
- Executive brand building
- Create a LinkedIn business page
- Editing Instagram Reels after posting
- Reordering Instagram highlights
- Trending Reels audio
- TikTok trends this week
- Instagram active times
- Instagram posting guide
- TikTok video length
- Instagram Reel length
- TikTok pay per view
- YouTube pay per view
- Why people use social media
- Buffer review
- Social media agency in Denver
- Social media agency in Chicago
- Publicity vs public relations
By industry and by situation
- Google Business Profile optimization
- Google Business Profile logo size
- SEO for plastic surgery practices
- Hotel SEO and direct bookings
- SEO agencies in Florida
- What is considered a small business?
- Digital marketing agency in Los Angeles
- Marketing agency in Columbus, Ohio
- Film production company
- SEO myths
- Brand activation
- Experiential marketing, Los Angeles
- Web design in Columbus, Ohio
- Marketing agency in Charleston, SC
- Logo design in Nashville
- Shopify jewelry stores
- What makes a small business website work
- What is a burner account?
- Car videography and cinematography
- How often to post on social media
- Digital marketing in Sarasota
- Marketing agencies in Atlanta
- Squarespace templates explained
- Contractor leads in Colorado
- SEO company in Washington DC
- Google Business Profile verification
- Law firm video production
- Press release examples
- Advertising agency in Raleigh NC
- WordPress developers in NYC
- PR firms in Austin, Texas
- SEO in Portland, Oregon
- Houston ad agencies
- B2B SaaS marketing agency
- Cybersecurity marketing agency
- B2B intent data providers
- Marketing for home builders
- How to start a landscaping business
- Oregon business licensing
- Landscaping contract template
- Attracting high-income clients
- Human Design coaching explained
- Minneapolis marketing agency
- Web design San Antonio
- Telecom marketing agency
- Starting a graphic design business
- Sales personality types
- Retail competitive analysis
- What is product mix?
- What is BNI?
- When your market shifts
- Virtual conference best practices
- Landscaping profit margins
- Landscaping business structure
- Landscaping marketing
- Pest control marketing
- Nonprofit marketing
- How to get more customers
- Marketing ideas for small business
- Marketing plan template
- Roofing marketing agency
- Marketing agency for contractors
- Landscaping marketing agency
- Auto dealer marketing agency
- Med spa marketing agency
- Chiropractic marketing agency
- Marketing agency for accountants
- Restaurant marketing agency
- Tech marketing agency
- Cannabis marketing agency
Frequently asked questions
What is the purpose of a marketing strategy?
What is marketing approach and how does it differ from strategy?
What is the marketing strategy business definition?
What is a marketing approach that suits a small business?
What does market strategy mean compared with marketing strategy?
What is the difference between marketing and strategy?
What is a marketing strategy?
What is the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan?
How do I know if I have a real strategy?
Why is subtraction the test?
What does a marketing strategy contain?
How do you write a marketing strategy?
Why interview customers rather than use a framework?
Should we target the largest segment?
How should the promise be written?
What does ‘what we will not do’ look like?
Why is stopping something harder than excluding something?
What are the warning signs of a fake strategy?
Why is instant unanimous agreement a warning sign?
How often should a marketing strategy change?
How many channels should a strategy commit to?
How do you choose channels?
How should a strategy be measured?
How long before a strategy shows results?
Is digital marketing strategy a separate thing?
Who should write the marketing strategy?
Should sales be involved?
What are examples of real strategic choices?
Sources and further reading
- Google Search Essentials — SEO starter guide
- Google: creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
- Google: intro to structured data
- Google: LocalBusiness structured data
- Google: FAQPage structured data
- Google: Article structured data
- Google: Product structured data
- Google: title links in search results
- Google: control your snippets
- Google: robots.txt introduction
- Google: sitemaps overview
- Google: consolidate duplicate URLs
- Google: redirects and Search
- Google: JavaScript SEO basics
- Google: multi-regional and multilingual sites
- Google Search Central Blog
- Google: get started with Search Console
- Google: how local search results are determined
- Google Business Profile: prohibited and restricted content
- Google Business Profile: address and service area guidelines
- Google Business Profile: review policy
- Google Business Profile: add or edit categories
- Google Ads: location targeting settings
- Google Ads: about negative keywords
- Google Ads: about Quality Score
- Google Ads: importing offline conversions
- Google Ads: about Smart Bidding
- Google Ads: about Performance Max
- Google Local Services Ads: eligibility and screening
- Google Ads: keyword match types
- Google Analytics 4: about conversions
- Google Analytics 4: attribution models
- US Census Bureau QuickFacts: New Jersey
- US Census Bureau: American Community Survey
- US Census: Statistics of US Businesses
- Bureau of Labor Statistics: New Jersey data
- BLS: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
- NJ Department of Labor: labor market information
- New Jersey Business Action Center
- US Small Business Administration: New Jersey district
- USA.gov: business resources
- web.dev: Core Web Vitals explained
- web.dev: Largest Contentful Paint
- web.dev: Cumulative Layout Shift
- web.dev: Interaction to Next Paint
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- Google Rich Results Test
- Google Search Console
- W3C Markup Validation Service
- Schema.org: LocalBusiness type
- Schema.org: Service type
- Schema.org: FAQPage type
- Schema.org: HowTo type
- W3C: WCAG 2.2 quick reference
- FTC: CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide
- FCC: telemarketing and robocall rules (TCPA)
- FTC endorsement guides — reviews and testimonials
- FTC: rule on consumer reviews and testimonials
- HHS: HIPAA guidance on online tracking technologies
- New Jersey Courts: attorney advertising guidelines
- New Jersey DCA: construction codes and permits
- New Jersey Home Improvement Contractor registration
- New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs
- TikTok for Business
- TikTok Creative Center
- TikTok Ads Help Center
- TikTok Community Guidelines
- TikTok Terms of Service
- TikTok Privacy Policy
- TikTok Safety Center
- TikTok Transparency Center
- TikTok Creator Portal
- TikTok Newsroom
- TikTok for Developers
- TikTok advertising solutions
- TikTok Creator Marketplace
- TikTok Business Center
- TikTok for Business blog
- TikTok Creative Center: top ads
- TikTok Branded Content policy
- TikTok Shop for sellers
- Instagram for Business
- Instagram for Creators
- Instagram Help Center
- About Instagram
- Meta Business Suite
- Meta Business Help Center
- Meta Transparency Center
- About Meta
- Meta: Instagram platform docs
- YouTube Creators
- YouTube Official Blog
- YouTube Shorts help
- How YouTube Works
- YouTube Studio
- LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
- LinkedIn Help
- Pinterest Business
- Pinterest Business Help
- Snapchat for Business
- X for Business
- Reddit communities
- Reddit for Business Help
- ASCAP
- BMI
- SESAC
- Global Music Rights
- PRS for Music (UK)
- PPL (UK)
- SOCAN (Canada)
- APRA AMCOS (Australia)
- GEMA (Germany)
- SACEM (France)
- SIAE (Italy)
- JASRAC (Japan)
- IFPI
- RIAA
- National Music Publishers Association
- Harry Fox Agency
- SoundExchange
- Music Reports
- Epidemic Sound
- Artlist
- Soundstripe
- PremiumBeat
- AudioJungle
- Free Music Archive
- Creative Commons
- Incompetech
- FTC: advertising and marketing
- FTC: disclosures 101
- FTC: endorsement guides
- FTC: consumer reviews rule
- FTC: advertising FAQs
- US Copyright Office
- US Copyright Office: DMCA
- US Copyright Office: music FAQ
- US Copyright Office: fair use FAQ
- USPTO: trademarks
- UK Advertising Standards Authority
- ACCC (Australia)
- Competition Bureau Canada
- GDPR overview
- California Consumer Privacy Act
- COPPA
- FTC: children’s privacy
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
- W3C: WCAG
- W3C: captions
- W3C: making audio and video accessible
- ADA.gov
- WebAIM
- Epilepsy Foundation
- Pew Research: internet and technology
- DataReportal
- US Census Bureau
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Interactive Advertising Bureau
- Think with Google
- Google Trends
- Nielsen insights
- Schema.org: VideoObject
- Schema.org: SocialMediaPosting
- Schema.org: MusicRecording
- Schema.org: HowTo
- Schema.org: FAQPage
- Schema.org: Organization
- Google: video best practices
- Google: video structured data
- CapCut
- Adobe Premiere Rush
- DaVinci Resolve
- Canva
- Descript
- VEED
- Kapwing
- Otter.ai
- Later
- Buffer
- Hootsuite
- Sprout Social
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics developer docs
- GA4: events and conversions
- Matomo
- Plausible Analytics
- Similarweb
- UK Information Commissioner’s Office
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
- Australian OAIC
- European Data Protection Board
- EU data protection
- EU Digital Services Act
- Ofcom
- FCC
- AIGA
- Nielsen Norman Group
- Smashing Magazine
- web.dev
- MDN: web media
- MDN: the video element
- ISO 21001 (reference)
- Buma/Stemra (Netherlands)
- STIM (Sweden)
- Teosto (Finland)
- Koda (Denmark)
- TONO (Norway)
- IMRO (Ireland)
- SGAE (Spain)
- ZAiKS (Poland)
- KOMCA (South Korea)
- MCSC (China)
- CISAC
- World Intellectual Property Organization
- TikTok: creating videos
- TikTok: exploring videos
- TikTok: privacy settings
- TikTok: growing your audience
- TikTok Creator Academy
- TikTok Effect House
- TikTok for small business
- Instagram: Reels help
- YouTube: Shorts best practice
- How YouTube recommends
- Pinterest Predicts
- Snapchat for Business
- Hootsuite blog
- Social Media Examiner
- Marketing Week
- Adweek
- LVMH — Annual report and business segments
- Google Ads Help — About Performance Max campaigns
- Google Ads Help — Campaign budget optimization
- FTC Endorsement Guides
- CDC — Health communication
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