Strategy vs Tactics

 

Tactics and Strategy are often ignored or not discussed as if it really means anything. But while the two words may be glossed over, they mean different things, especially in Marketing. And without a doubt, the distinction is crucial. The Strategy is the direction towards the goal. Tactics are the action taken to support the strategy. Strategy refers to the plan to achieve a goal while the Tactic is how you execute the plan.

Marketing is the action a business takes to create eyeballs, attention, and awareness. When creating your Marketing or Business Plan, Strategic Marketing comes first because it deals with the big picture of what is appropriate and what, where, why, who, and how. It is a long-term goal that is broad. THEN, the Tactical planning consists of the actual process involved in growing your business, increasing revenue and profits, and improving your competitive position.

Strategic Marketing and Tactical Marketing are not in opposition; they complement each other. Essentially, Strategic Marketing is the "plan" while Tactical Marketing is the action.

Let's dive in shall we ...

Strategic Marketing

To gain a competitive edge in Marketing or Advertising, you need a thorough understanding of your target customer’s demographics, psychographics, and decision-making process. You must be up-to-date on industry trends and your competitive position. Once you formulate your vision and goals, you need to develop a strategy to achieve them ...

Strategy involves recognizing your strengths, your weaknesses, the opportunities there are and what you might be missing, and the threats presented by the niche or industry (called the SWOT Analysis, if you ever heard of that) ...

Your strategy doesn't have to be everything to everyone, or all encompassing. You can focus on an element at a time, fill in the gaps, and how you can gain your competitive advantage. Fulfilling the wants and needs of your target or ideal customers becomes your goal – your strategy.

Strategic Marketing considers the long-term goals of your business such as expansion, exploring new demographics, new psychographics, and how you can create more brand awareness. Therefore, with some insight, you need to analyze if you have adequate funds to realize your goals.

Tactical Marketing

While Strategic Marketing works on your goals, Tactical Marketing focuses on the details to achieve those goals. With a strategy in place, the actions or tactics needed to reach your goals can be set into motion.

Creating tactics to support your Marketing strategies involve detailed customer or client "personas". Only by knowing their demographics and psychographics, you can choose the right Marketing and Advertising, and determine what platforms or even types would be most effective. And consider "where" your target or ideal customers are, in that respect.

Tactical Marketing often involves how you generate leads, build a website, place ads, and follow up. It includes advertising, sales promotions, and other activities that directly support your "strategy". And because your Strategic Marketing includes establishing a budget, your Tactics should take into account your financial limitations in implementing these activities.

Strategic Marketing and Tactical Marketing work the best, side by side when deployed in combination. Your Marketing plan starts with a strategy and is followed by detailed tactics. The presence of both forms of Marketing and Advertising is essential to your success in business and in life ...

But, which one will grow your business?

... Strategic Marketing ...

Most companies start with Tactical Marketing by choosing activities such as email, pay-per-click, SEO, social media, trade shows, etc. That is a big mistake!

Starting with the "tactics" without first addressing "strategy", is like building a house without a blueprint. It's based on a strategy of hope which is just about guaranteed to fail.

To get the highest impact on your Marketing and Advertising spend, start with strategy, then move to tactics. Strategy is the owners manual that drives growth. Ignoring strategy and starting with tactics is like jumping into a brand new vehicle, and trying to figure all of the controls out while you are driving. (I'm sure there are better analogies ... :) ... Maybe, like a Surgeon, operating on you JUST because you said you have a pain in your side ... And doing so WITHOUT any kind of diagnosis or discussing everything that needs to be discussed.

In Conclusion

This Strategic Marketing methodology will let you FINALLY quit competing on price … and start selling your product or service for what they are really worth. You’ll drive in more leads … and often see an increase in your advertising response by 2 to more than 100 times. You’ll also convert a higher percentage of those leads … and make your salespeople into superstars. You’ll increase the amount of your average sale … and your list of clients that pay, stay and refer will increase significantly.

In short, you’ll get a bigger bang for your Marketing and Advertising buck. But maybe best of all, you will FINALLY have total control over your Marketing and Lead Generation results. And also, the future success of your business.