Regardless of size, whether it be a local press release or a national launch, organisation and planning are vital to a successful marketing campaign which is why marketers use guidelines like SOSTAC and RACE.
Using SOSTAC marketing planning model
SOSTAC is an industry acronym that refers to a marketing planning model created by Paul Smith of PR Smith Marketing. This model triggers the following questions to analyse, propose and carry out a marketing strategy:
Situation (analysis)
• Where are you now?
• What marketing are you currently doing?
• How did you achieve your current status?
Objectives
• Where do you want to go?
• What do you want to achieve?
• What areas of the business do you want to improve?
• When do you want to achieve your goals by?
Strategies
• How can you achieve your objectives?
• How can you be one step ahead of competitors?
Tactics (strategy details)
• How can the marketing mix be used to support your strategy?
• How can the communications mix be used to support your strategy?
Action (tactical details)
• Who is responsible for what and when?
• What processes and/or systems will be used?
Control
• How will you measure your results?
There are many industry acronyms which support marketing strategies and they all have similar functionality but the most important ones that we use are SOSTAC and RACE.
The increasing importance of RACE framework
As the industry turns towards inbound marketing, RACE is particularly important as it outlines how to increase your customer base by asking the following:
Reach – what are the best tactics to reach your target audience?
Act – how do we provoke the audience to take action?
Convert – how do we turn visitors into leads?
Engage – how do we ensure our customer base remains loyal and guarantee repeat business?