How to Reverse-Engineer Your Marketing Strategy

There’s an old adage that goes: 'There’s no such thing as an original idea'. And that very much applies in the world of business – it’s all about the execution. In today’s post, we’re going to apply that ethos to the development of a marketing strategy, and finding out how competitor research can make or break that process.

Step 1: Scoping out the competition

It’s very likely that before your start-up even got off the ground, someone on the team carried out some competitor research. This is a vital step in any business launch plan, and it’s information that you can call on at any time to use as a form of yard-stick for how well you’re doing. And it’s where the idea of reverse-engineering comes from. There’s a reason that so many marketing plans have the same basic beats – it’s because they just work. The first step to devising a marketing strategy of your own is to know your enemy, so to speak. Make a list of your closest competitors; it’ll come in very handy going forward.

Step 2: Discover what’s working (and what’s not)

The next step in the reverse-engineering process is to take a look at exactly how your competitors are approaching their marketing. By doing this, you’ll be able to put together a menu of possibilities for your own marketing plan. And beyond that, you can use the perceived success or failure of another company’s strategies to make decisions about your own. Did one of your competitors enjoy an uptick in exposure after a large-scale social media campaign? Or perhaps a sponsorship deal for a local sports team? Whatever the case, note down both the strategies as well as their perceived success (unless you have access to the actual data, which is unlikely!)

Step 3: Put it into action… and never stop testing

By this point you should have lots of lovely empirical data that will give you a good idea of where you should go with your marketing strategy. Naturally, all businesses are different, which is why testing is so important. If you’re not 100% sure about a particular strategy, why not test it on a few users first and judge the response? In this way, you can limit your risk and not be forced to put all of your eggs into one basket. With so many marketing options, from social media to good old-fashioned print advertising, there’s a lot to think about. And one other piece of key advice: just because it worked for another company, doesn’t mean it will definitely work for you. Having said that, someone else’s past success is usually a good starting point to build something that really works.

If you need a solid foundation on which to build an effective marketing strategy, the AutoVu CRM system could be right up your alley. Explore the site today to find out more.