Marketing Strategy Blueprints

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Sales Renewal Marketing Strategy Blueprints provide the foundation for strategic marketing plans for growth, designed for clients wrestling with strategic issues that can often make or break a business and who understand that analysis and planning is far more likely to succeed than “flying by the seat of your pants” or “going with your gut” when it comes to successful marketing. Led by an experienced CMO, the Strategy Blueprint process is a well-honed, comprehensive strategic dive into your business that may recommend changes to your business & marketing strategies, key messages & positioning, product & pricing strategies and delivers a marketing plan optimized for your budget and goals.
Marketing Strategy Blueprints are based on a collaborative analysis of your business, including your:

  • Business goals, strategies, brands, and competitive advantages
  • Customers, competitors, and partners
  • Current marketing strategies, programs, and tactics
  • In-house vs. needed human expertise and marketing technology

During our discussions, Sales Renewal addresses complex and challenging strategic issues that otherwise would require advice from multiple consultants (management consultants, sales strategists, marketing strategists, or product marketing consultants), an approach that we have successfully been using in our JointSourcing program since 2009.  These issues could include:

  1. Adjusting your business and marketing plan to the new Covid realities (something that has unfortunately become way too common)
  2. Repositioning your company for better growth (e.g., online seller of commodity products)
  3. Devising a go-to-market strategy for a new product or service (e.g., launching a new professional services firm)
  4. Designing and launching a new line of business to increase recurring revenue (e.g., developing a new business model)

Blueprint Process

Blueprint Phases Description Deliverables Your time needed
1. Marketing Investment Analysis What % of revenue would a rational, arm’s length investor choose to invest in your marketing? Potential marketing budgets as percentages of revenue 15-minute online questionnaire
2. Collaborative Analysis Collaborative, in-depth analysis of:

  • Business, marketing, and budget goals
  • Business strategies & branding
  • Market Segments, Products & Services
  • Customers and Competitors
  • Historical marketing performance
Summary of the discussions Two 1-2 hour
sessions
3. Competitive Analysis Reverse engineering competitors’ brands, target-ing, positioning, messaging, and more. Detailed analysis of key pages from top 2-3 competitor’s websites & social sites 1-2 hour session
4. Proposed Strategic Marketing Plan Recommended changes & enhancements to strategy, products, branding, pricing strategy, messaging, positioning, and more. The recommendations 1-2 hour session
5. JointSourcing Proposal
  1. Presentation of a marketing plan that will meet your business, growth, revenue and brand goals
  2. Recommended marketing strategies and tactics that implement your Growth Plan
  1. Recommended tactics presented in Bronze/Silver/Gold tiers
  2. Detailed JointSourcing proposal including 12-month budget
Two 1-2 hour sessions

Marketing Investment Analysis

The first step in a Strategy Blueprint is the completion of the online Marketing Investment Analysis (also available on its own) which provides a high-level, financial ballpark for your marketing program that is designed to answer the question, “how much should I be investing in my business’ marketing?” This is typically expressed as a percentage of revenue.

JointSourcing's Marketing QuestionnaireCollaborative Analysis

Next, we proceed through the 50+ questions in our proprietary Strategy Blueprint Questionnaire. This Questionnaire, through its many open-ended, pointed questions, is designed to facilitate conversation, collaborative brainstorming and critical analysis of what has and has not worked in the past. We work with you to uncover your goals and strategies, customer, prospect & industry profiles, and your sustainable competitive advantage.

Prior to the first session, we will also ask you to complete an inventory of your existing sales, marketing & technology assets so that they can be built upon and not reinvented (saving time and money).

Competitive Analysis

After the Blueprint Questionnaire is complete, Sales Renewal presents insights garnered from your competitors’ websites and social media platforms: a detailed, page-by-page review of your 2 or 3 most important competitors’ websites and social media pages, analyzing them for messaging, positioning, audience, style, functionality, and more.

This Questionnaire, through its many open ended, pointed questions, is designed to facilitate conversation, collaborative brainstorming and critical analysis of what has and has not worked in the past. It also uncovers your goals and strategies, customer, prospect & industry profiles and your sustainable competitive advantage.

Prior to the first Blueprint session, we will also ask you to complete an inventory of your existing sales, marketing & technology assets so that they can be built upon and not reinvented (saving time and money).

Proposed Strategic Marketing Plan

Based on what we learned during the questionnaire discussions, competitive review and our own independent research and experience, we will present our recommended changes & enhancements, including to your strategy, products, branding, messaging, positioning and more.

JointSourcing Proposal

While a JointSourcing proposal is optional, most Strategy Blueprint clients do ultimately choose to continue to the JointSourcing Solution an outsourced marketing program that shares risk and reward to implement the Strategy Blueprint’s marketing plan.

Whether you continue to JointSourcing or not, however, the Strategic Marketing Plan, and the good ideas it contains, are yours to keep.

Learn More About a Blueprint

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Blueprint Deliverables

At the end of the Strategy Blueprint process you will receive:

  • A Marketing Investment Summary report
  • A summary of the Blueprint Questionnaire discussions
  • A summary of how your Competitors are positioned
  • Our proposed Strategic Marketing Plan, including recommended changes & enhancements to strategy, branding, programs and tools.

Once the Blueprint is complete, you have the option to continue to our unique JointSourcing program in which we assume the role of a fractional VP of Marketing for your company to execute the Strategic Marketing Plan. We will manage a hand-picked team of subcontracted marketing experts to ensure the smooth implementation of the agreed upon marketing strategy. If you choose to continue to the JointSourcing Solution, you will also receive:

  • A proposal to put our recommended changes in place (Build Services) and manage them for 1 year (Sell Services)
    • Build Services
      • One-time set up & configuration tasks that enable & support the day-to-day marketing to be performed during Sell Services
    • Sell Services
      • The on-going, monthly marketing program as designed during the Strategy Blueprint and updated every quarter.
  • A detailed, annual marketing budget by month (e.g., “in August, $X should be spent on online ads across platforms 1, 2, 3; $Y should be spent on direct mail, and $Z spent on telemarketing”), optimized for your budget and goals. This is the marketing budget that Sales Renewal will “manage to” over the year.

Importantly, neither the budget nor the marketing strategies and plan are fixed, since conditions may change over the course of the year. In fact, every 3 months we hold a Quarterly Marketing Review and use analytics to determine what’s working and what’s not so that we can make appropriate adjustments. This continual review process leads to dramatic improvements in marketing ROI.

Time & Cost

4-12 weeks to complete (you set the pace)

$15,000 ($7,500 credit if you continue to JointSourcing)

Whether you continue to the JointSourcing Solution’s next Build & Sell steps or not, the Blueprint’s ideas & recommendations are yours to keep.

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