Operationalising marketing strategy : connecting objectives with the operational blueprint and execution

Marketers around the world are extremely busy. In my time as a marketeer, we never stopped running or chasing results or primary running to get things done. Further, we are trying to use technology to support us in the digital transformation of the function, getting more leads and creating personalized experiences. This is because we want to serve our clients and develop better results, but external trends also pressure the function to move forward.

The big challenge is to connect the strategy and objectives with the operational blueprint and execution, regardless of whether it is a simple or complex organization. Additionally, the optimise use of marketing technology and automation to drive customer conversations and facilitate the marketer to drive results. For this, you can take advantage of our framework to help operationalise marketing strategy.

A Framework to connect objectives with the operation blueprint

We built this framework to help our customers to connect their marketing strategy to the operational activities.

The frame consists of six stages that are all connected. They are not interactive, which means that information will flow back and forth. Naturally, the strategic stages should be as consistent as possible and not change direction all the time.

The first two are connected to strategy and objectives, which shall always be the foundation for any decisions later in the framework. Naturally, these can be influenced by the learnings from later stages.  The Customer Lifecycle in stage 3 is the bridge between strategy and operationalizing the strategy into customer engagement activities. The last stages are all about execution and measuring activities upon which the technology then supports. Stages 3-6 always get the direction from the strategy stages 1&2.

Below you will find a short description of the key elements of the stages.

Stage 1: Objectives 

It goes without saying that before creating a strategy, you need to find out what you want to achieve with this strategy. For marketing, it is the direct linkage to the business strategy, i.e., which part will marketing help to drive and of equal importance which part marketing will not. For larger organisations, there might be areas that feel overlooked by marketing; however, if this alignment happens upfront, any shift during the year will either require new resources or a shift from the existing objectives. Unfortunately, it is not always that way, which impacts the marketing outcomes during the year.

When setting objectives, it is important to understand what marketing drives and what might be objectives that can be impacted by other departments in the company.

This has two outcomes: 1) Having common objectives forces departments to work together to serve the customers. 2) It becomes evident that impacting this outcome is only sometimes an action marketing should take. Based on that, a measurement or KPI framework can be set up, which will impact what will be measured in order to make decisions aligned with the strategic choices and outcomes we want to create.

Stage 2: Marketing & GTM Strategies 

Strategy is all about choices, and so is marketing strategy. Strategic choices for marketing are coming out of the business strategy. Further, some objectives are set in combination with the strategic decisions to be made, which is why stages 1 & 2 are really a combined effort.

This stage is where the priorities for which products and services, markets, and segments that marketing will drive in the market are made. You align the customer touchpoints and key sales channels that will drive the marketing plan.

The strategy is key to aligning the rest of the organisation and finding out who owns and executes actions around it.  A good example is eCommerce. This initiative is often a separate digital project looking at how to digitalise purchases. It is often forgotten to see in a broader channel perspective impacting anything from marketing to service for the customer.  Following that, each customer touchpoint needs a clear role as to what the customer is offered to ensure that you can catch the conversation but also understand what touchpoints and channels are needed.

Another important element is the Routes to Market priorities. This is different in B2C and B2B, yet a key part of the marketing strategy as a foundation for success. Which Route are we sending business or leads to, and how will this be closed?  This is not a stand-alone marketing exercise but is very relevant for the future of the business. A good example is the rise of business coming from customer service. If this is the case, marketing in the marketing plan will find a way to drive customer conversations to the service organisation and enable them to execute it. This way, we are moving away from the traditional way of thinking that marketing is an input/output setup  – sticking leads into one end and outcomes the business.

Stage 3

This stage is where the strategy is translated into execution. It is critical to understand how the company will serve their customers when purchasing a product or service.

Many terms are used interchangeably – Customer Lifecycle, Customer Journey or Purchase Cycle. The core is to understand what is the path to solving the customer problem and how you, as a company, become part of this.

In Fluido, we use a Customer Lifecycle Framework to get closer to how our customers can help their customers in each stage. Naturally, it is very linked to how this customer makes decisions where there is a difference between b2b and b2c.

The outcomes of this stage are, among others:

Finding the right audiences.
Defining the pain points.
Develop the right content for the customer journey throughout the lifecycle.
Understanding the efficiencies of activities, including lead flows.
Understand what creates repeat/loyal customers.

In essence, you are shaping the foundational blueprint for engaging the customers that you set out to get in the strategy,

Stage 4

Once you understand the Customer Lifecycle or Customer Purchase Lifecycle and how you can progress the customers through the steps, you can define different campaigns and programs.

The different activities are to address the goals of each of the sections in the customers’ lifecycle to drive more business or ensure that people are coming back. While campaigns are still a big part of the way of doing marketing, the idea is to have more programs that are longer in time and take care of the customer. The program then includes different paths for the customer depending on the challenges and their behaviour. Doing this helps set up any automated flows both within your marketing automation system and linking it to any other sales or service platform, getting a unified experience for the client.

By taking a program approach, you will minimize the short-term actions that will only have a short-lived impact on your total results. At the same time, you will be more clear on what already exists. Hence stop creating new campaigns or new programs that essentially solve the same problem.  Many marketers can probably recognise this in their interaction with sales, where instant, short-term actions to drive sales are required. That said, there might be a need for short-term action. However, it does not need to be a full-fledged campaign. By looking into the details of the existing programs, the customer lifecycle stage and the aligned purchase cycle, marketing departments can identify areas to improve that, in the end, will improve outcomes.  An example can be that more sales or leads are needed. Could you, as a company, short-cut or fast-track the path for customers to get more pipelines to work with?

Stage 5

This stage is a direct outcome of stage 4, where the programs and campaigns have been defined and put in the marketing plan. Within stage 4, you may identify new initiatives and actions that can solve specific internal or external challenges.

Organising the way to communicate also includes actions that might be outside of any specific programs. As customers tend to have ongoing conversations, there will be areas that are not covered or not priorities as part of the plan. Nevertheless, there needs to be a structure to capture that.

Further, based on the plan in stage 3+4, how to organise yourself around how to get all the actions out there? This is how to collaborate around operationalising the marketing strategy collaboration within and outside the marketing organisation.

Stage 6

This stage is the end result, providing you with a customer experience blueprint that serves as an overview of how the marketing strategy has been operationalised. It will, at any given time, provide a view as to where there are opportunities to improve (efficiency and effectiveness) and find open areas to address.

The blueprint is also very important when it comes to taking advantage of marketing technology as it will help you very concrete with what you need of data and or platforms to support any automated actions for faster insights, self-service or recommendations.

In big companies with several products & services, this can naturally become rather comprehensive. Hence, it is essential to look at how to simplify, i.e. find out what are the most important elements and what cannot be served.  A big learning is that often; we try systems, campaigns, actions, and activities that have to solve and or capture everything. Working with a blueprint will help the prioritisation and only focus on the most important actions that are making the difference.

Strategic, Tactical and Operational Levels. 

The framework for Operationalizing Marketing Strategy is a way to establish a connection between strategy and execution.  Further, it emphasises the need to work at strategic, tactical and operational levels. Very often, marketing primarily works and measures the latter parts, which in the big picture is irrelevant to the rest of the business.

Also, the conversation around technology will change as to why, where and how it makes a difference to achieve the overall strategic results.

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Fluido can help

Fluido is one of the best salesforce boutiques in Europe, and we can help you get more from your marketing investments. By aligning the Frameworks and genuinely understanding the marketing strategy, we can add how the technology best supports these ambitions. We work with defining the key strategic elements of the actual Salesforce implementation.