A client recently asked for help developing a marketing strategy to help grow their business to the next level. I started by asking my client to articulate their business strategy. By business strategy, I mean a broader, directional view of business goals and how to achieve them. These may include:

• A definition of what business you are in
• What products and services you offer, and to whom, and what new ones you plan to offer over the next 1-3 years, and to whom
• Revenue, profitability and market share goals for your business overall and for specific product/service lines
• Means of growth: organic, partnership, merger/acquisition

My client quickly realized that what his company needed was not a marketing strategy — at least not yet — but a business strategy.

Only with a business strategy in place can you create a marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy is a summary of what products and services you offer to what target customer segments. It also positions your company and products in relation to competitors and the overall market, by articulating what differentiates you in the market and makes customers want to do business with you. Your differentiator could be product functionality or breadth, price, support and service, market coverage, or other attribute.