Marketing Fundamentals for Business Growth Training Course

Course overview

Marketing teams are often asked to increase leads, strengthen customer retention, or support a product launch without a clear view of the market, buyer priorities, channel economics, or measures that define success. This creates activity without accountability: campaigns are launched before audiences are segmented, budgets are allocated by habit, and performance reports focus on clicks rather than commercial contribution. This course equips professionals to connect practical marketing decisions to business growth objectives, customer needs, and measurable results.

Participants learn how to analyse a market, define priority segments, develop actionable buyer personas, and create a defensible value proposition. The course covers segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP), the marketing mix, customer journey mapping, campaign planning, content and channel selection, basic marketing budgeting, and performance measurement. Participants practise turning business goals into SMART marketing objectives, selecting appropriate KPIs, building a campaign measurement plan, and interpreting data from platforms including Google Analytics 4 and Meta Ads Manager.

Delivery combines instructor-led explanation with practical analysis of business cases, team workshops, campaign-planning exercises, and structured peer review. Throughout the week, participants develop an applied Marketing Growth Plan for a real organisation, product, service, or realistic case scenario. The final deliverable includes market and competitor insights, target segments, positioning, customer journey actions, channel choices, budget assumptions, KPIs, and a 90-day implementation roadmap that can be presented to a manager or stakeholder group.

The course is designed for professionals who already contribute to marketing, sales, customer experience, product, or business development activities and need a stronger working foundation for planning and evaluating growth initiatives. It is particularly valuable for people moving into broader marketing responsibility or managers who need their teams to make better evidence-based marketing decisions.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Analyse market conditions using customer, competitor, and category research frameworks
• Segment audiences and select priority target markets using size, fit, accessibility, and value criteria
• Construct buyer personas from behavioural, operational, and decision-making evidence
• Develop a positioning statement and value proposition that differentiates an offer
• Map a customer journey and identify channel, content, and conversion interventions
• Create an integrated campaign plan with objectives, messages, channels, owners, and timings
• Build a marketing budget and KPI dashboard using funnel, acquisition, and conversion metrics
• Present a 90-day Marketing Growth Plan supported by assumptions, measures, and implementation priorities

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Marketing Executives — who need a structured method for planning and measuring campaigns
• Marketing Coordinators — who support campaign delivery and need to connect activity to business objectives
• Business Development Managers — who need to identify target markets and communicate value propositions
• Sales Managers — who need stronger alignment between lead-generation activity and sales conversion
• Customer Experience Professionals — who need to improve journey touchpoints using customer insight
• Product Managers — who need to position offers clearly and plan go-to-market activity

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic workplace exposure to marketing, sales, customer service, product, or commercial planning and be comfortable discussing customers, products, and business goals. Familiarity with common terms such as target audience, campaign, lead, conversion, and budget is helpful. Participants should also be able to use spreadsheets for simple data entry and calculations. No prior qualification in marketing, no advanced analytics expertise, and no previous hands-on experience with Google Analytics 4, Meta Ads Manager, or Google Ads are required. Complete beginners can attend, but should expect an intensive week with practical terminology, planning templates, and data-based exercises.

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor-led modules followed by applied marketing workshops. Participants assess market signals, compare competitors, build personas, map journeys, and select channels using a running business case or their own organisation where appropriate. Small-group critiques test the clarity of positioning, campaign messages, budgets, and KPIs. Guided demonstrations show how campaign and web metrics are viewed in Google Analytics 4, Google Ads Keyword Planner, and Meta Ads Manager. On the final day, each participant consolidates the week’s work into a 90-day Marketing Growth Plan and receives structured facilitator and peer feedback.

Course outline

Day 1: Marketing’s Role in Business Growth

• Marketing, sales, product, and customer experience responsibilities
• Business growth objectives and marketing contribution
• The customer value equation and buying decisions
• Market structure, category dynamics, and demand signals
• Competitor analysis using feature, benefit, and positioning comparisons
• Marketing audit using SWOT and gap analysis
• SMART marketing objectives linked to commercial outcomes

Workshop: Participants complete a marketing audit for a selected business and produce a prioritised list of growth opportunities and risks.

Day 2: Audience Insight, Segmentation and Positioning

• Segmentation variables for B2B and B2C markets
• Segment attractiveness assessment using size, growth, fit, and accessibility
• Target-market selection and prioritisation matrices
• Buyer persona construction from research and behavioural evidence
• Jobs-to-be-done, pains, gains, and purchase triggers
• Positioning statements and perceptual differentiation
• Value proposition design using customer outcomes and proof points

Workshop: Participants create a priority segment profile, buyer persona, positioning statement, and value proposition for one chosen offer.

Day 3: Customer Journeys and Integrated Campaign Design

• Customer journey stages from awareness to advocacy
• Touchpoint mapping across owned, earned, paid, and partner channels
• Content mapping by audience need and decision stage
• Message architecture, calls to action, and conversion paths
• Channel selection using reach, intent, cost, and control criteria
• Google Ads Keyword Planner for search-demand discovery
• Integrated campaign briefs, workback schedules, and responsibility matrices

Workshop: Participants map a customer journey and produce an integrated campaign brief with messages, content, channels, and conversion actions.

Day 4: Marketing Economics, Measurement and Optimisation

• Marketing funnel stages and operational definitions
• Campaign budgets, cost assumptions, and resource allocation
• Core metrics including reach, engagement, conversion rate, CAC, and ROI
• KPI selection for awareness, acquisition, conversion, and retention objectives
• Google Analytics 4 acquisition and conversion reporting
• Meta Ads Manager campaign metrics and audience performance
• Test-and-learn plans using hypotheses, A/B tests, and optimisation cycles

Workshop: Participants build a campaign budget, KPI dashboard, and measurement plan for their proposed marketing initiative.

Day 5: Executing the Marketing Growth Plan

• Translating strategy into a 90-day marketing roadmap
• Prioritising initiatives using impact, effort, confidence, and risk
• Marketing governance, approval gates, and stakeholder reporting
• Sales handover processes and lead-quality feedback loops
• Brand consistency and message-control checkpoints
• Risk assessment for claims, data use, budget, and channel dependence
• Executive presentation of marketing recommendations and performance expectations

Workshop: Participants present their completed 90-day Marketing Growth Plan and receive facilitator feedback on feasibility, commercial logic, and measurement.

Tools & standards covered

Google Analytics 4, Google Ads Keyword Planner, Meta Ads Manager, Microsoft Excel

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions