A Marketing Strategy is so much more than just plain advertising!  The beginnings of a good marketing strategy lie in building a firm understanding of the market you will be serving; only then can you begin to formulate the specific strategies that will serve you well in growing your business.  Knowing your market will tell you what sort of advertising will be most effective; perhaps neighborhood newspapers instead of a big daily, for example.  It will help you with pricing decisions, with sales and promotional decisions, and certainly with such basic decisions as to where to physically locate your business.