Three Types of Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategies can be categorized based on their area of focus. The three most popular types of strategies focus on outcomes related to metrics, revenue, or profit. This article describes, compares and contrasts the goals, advantages and disadvantages of these three popular strategies. 

Strategy is simple to debate and difficult to determine. Ample resources exist for exploring strategy including 90,000 books from Amazon and 2 million search results from Google. A common ground is useful, so the following two reference definitions are proposed.

First, a fundamental definition:

“Strategy achieves outcomes.”
—Omar Barraza

Next, a derivative definition:

“Marketing strategy achieves outcomes using marketing.”
—Omar Barraza

It is important to notice that a marketing strategy is not restricted to achieving marketing outcomes only. Rather, marketing strategy achieves diverse outcomes using the resources of marketing. This distinction seems subtle but becomes vital for realizing the potential benefits of the strategy.

Finally, let’s consider that many marketing strategies focus on achieving outcomes related to metrics, revenue, or profit.

​Marketing for Metrics

Businesses using a marketing for metrics strategy achieve outcomes related to marketing activities, especially the improvement of marketing metrics. Examples of activities include email marketing and metrics include the percentage of messages opened.

A marketing for metrics strategy involves changes to marketing initiatives, campaigns, and activities, (and often agencies, contractors, and staff) and before-and-after comparisons of metrics.
​
The presence of this strategy is likely when the marketing team is focused on executing marketing projects and tasks (including sending emails) and determining resulting actions (including tracking opens).
Inherent characteristics include:

• Goal: Surpass marketing metric goals while spending less than allocated budget. 
• Advantage: Maximizes engagement with marketing campaigns and activities. 
• Disadvantage: Better marketing metrics is independent of better revenue and profits.

Success or failure is mostly determined by marketing since they determine the outcomes to achieve (marketing chooses activities, sets metrics goals, reports metrics changes, etc.). Marketing is the primary beneficiary since this strategy improves marketing efficiency— increasingly better activities result in better metrics, ideally with less budget.

Marketing for Revenue

Businesses using a marketing for revenue strategy have marketing and sales collaboratively focus on improving forecast and actual revenues. Collaboration examples include coordinated activity planning and consolidated management reports.

A marketing for revenue strategy involves supporting the entire revenue generation process and this requires providing marketing services ranging from branding to demand generation to sales tools.

The presence of this strategy is likely when the marketing team is monitoring sales productivity (opportunities, wins/losses, etc.) and the sales team is monitoring marketing productivity (contacts, leads, etc.).

Inherent characteristics include:

• Goal: Surpass revenue goals while spending less than allocated marketing budget.
• Advantage: Maximizes revenue through customer acquisition and retention.
• Disadvantage: Direct contribution of marketing to revenue generation remains vague.

Success or failure is mostly determined by sales since they complete the outcomes (sign customers, retain customers, win opportunities, etc.). Marketing and sales are joint beneficiaries since this strategy validates the effectiveness of marketing and sales.

Marketing for Profits

Businesses using a marketing for profit strategy focus on achieving outcomes that maximize profitability. Examples include promoting the most profitable products and services (especially to individual customers), supporting up-selling and cross-selling (to increase average deal sizes), and supporting the retention of profitable customers.

A marketing for profit strategy involves marketing accessing confidential and sensitive business information, operating as a private marketing agency, and reporting similar to a profit center.

The presence of this strategy is likely when marketing participates in long-term business planning (beyond marketing budgets and sales forecasts) and monitors key performance indicators (KPIs), customer histories and forecasts, pricing and costs, etc.

Inherent characteristics include:

• Goal: Surpass profitability goals without decreasing revenue or increasing expenses. 
• Advantage: Maximizes profit through the most efficient and effective use of marketing resources. 
• Disadvantage:  Risks conflict among teams when business goals and objectives are ambiguous.

Success or failure is determined by executive management since they set business outcomes (profit goals, revenue goals, budget limits, etc.). The entire business is the beneficiary of better profitability, but marketing especially benefits from improvements in efficiency and effectiveness.

Best Marketing Strategy

Regardless of whether your business is using a marketing strategy focused on metrics, revenue, or profit (or some combination), there are inevitable questions that result during strategy reviews.

Regardless of whether your business is using a marketing strategy focused on metrics, revenue, or profit (or some combination), there are inevitable questions that result during strategy reviews.

With Almost Free Marketing, the answer to a common question becomes surprising:

A key reason why current marketing strategy is usually best seems self-evident— experience, expertise, skills, and resources will diminish during a change. Making a change risks a costly outcome if actual losses overcome potential gains and a worthless outcome if marketing losses match or surpass gains.

This leads to a related question:

Making a change to marketing strategy risks a costly outcome if actual losses overcome potential gains and a worthless outcome if losses match gains.

Businesses considering marketing strategy changes are interested in improving marketing effectiveness and efficiency—and these are the key benefits of Almost Free Marketing, so a strategy change becomes optional.

Almost Free Marketing offers a unique opportunity for optimizing marketing productivity and avoiding change risk whether a strategy is current or new.
​
If you decide to change your current marketing strategy, be sure to add Almost Free Marketing too. We propose you consider the following process whenever making changes:

Begin with a collaboration of subject matter experts, then involve relevant experts in developing a detailed plan. Next, focus on completing the entire plan without making significant changes. Finally, review and update the plan to implement lesson learned, fresh ideas, and other enhancements that will keep things moving forward.