Hi Folks,
Glad
to see you’re back.
This week I want to tell you a bit more about how to use
the SOSTAC® Model from PR Smith to set up a Digital Marketing Plan. SOSTAC® is a Marketing Model that helps companies to set up a Marketing
Strategy or improve their current ones.
The
Model was developed in the 1990s to help Marketers structure their plans in
six simple steps.
S Situation
– where are we now?
O Objectives
– where do we want to go?
S Strategy –
how do we get there?
T Tactics –
how exactly do we get there?
A Action –
details of tactics
C Control –
measure your performance
SOSTACS
gives you a logical order to coordinate and structure the processes (Chaffey,
2019).
The
Situation analysis shows what you or rather your company stands for, who your
customers are and who your competitors are. Afterwards, you should analyse
where you want to go, what exactly is your vision and mission. Generating profit? Increasing customer demand? Increasing popularity? (Cowley-Cunningham,
2016).
Well,
it’s time to figure it out before you can head over to stage three. Stage three
is the most complex one, it should point out which strategy you want to use to
fulfill your vision and mission from stage two. It’s time to define your target
groups and market segments you want to reach out to. Afterwards, the Tactics
pick up the details of the strategy and now you decide which tools (e.g.
Marketing Mix) will be used (Swan, 2019). After focusing on all the planning,
it’s now time to bring your plans to life. “The action section covers what needs to be achieved
for each of the tactics listed in the previous section of the SOSTAC® plan to
realize the objectives of your digital marketing plan.” (Swan, 2019)
After
you’ve set up everything you have to keep tracking your performances and processes.
Did
you get where you want to be? KPI’s and Metrics will help you to figure it out.
If
you reached your goals, well done, if not - go through your stages again and
try to make it better the next time 😉
Stay tuned!
Reference
List:
Chaffey,
D. (2019) ‘SOSTAC marketing planning model guide’, SmartInsights. Available at:
https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/sostac-model/ (Accessed
18.10.2019)
Cowley-Cunningham,
M. (2016) ‘Jellies & Jaffas’: Applying PR Smith’s SOSTAC Marketing Model to
an Online Confectionery Start-Up, SSRN
Electronic Journal [online].
Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315488492_'Jellies_Jaffas'_Applying_PR_Smith's_SOSTAC_Marketing_Model_to_an_Online_Confectionery_Start-Up (Accessed
18.10.2019)
Swan,
S. (2019) ‘A SOSTAC plan example’, SmartInsights, Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/sostac-plan-example/ (Accessed
18.10.2019)
Graphic: https://digitalmarketingvtos.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/sostac-mini-image1.jpg?w=487&h=486
