Tactics vs. Strategy

Many people in aviation have a military background. Yet many of the people we talk with don’t apply that military experience and discipline to their marketing.

One of the key concepts in both the military and in marketing is the separation of strategy vs. tactics.

The problem is that most of the marketing materials we read (including some of ours) tends to be unclear about whether a particular suggestion is to be used is strategic or tactical in nature.

To put this very simply (and probably open us up to all sorts of controversy)

Strategy is the main idea about what objectives you’re going to accomplish.

Tactics are how you’re going to apply different methods to accomplish those objectives. Most tools, social media, and other gadgets are about tactics.

The advent of all the new social media channels and all of the “experts” recommending particular tools and gadgets as “strategies” confuses the issue. As an example, accumulating followers on Twitter may be a tactic, but it’s seldom a strategy.

A post on the Branding Insight Blog explained the problem this way:

No wonder the guy’s confused. I ran across one article that listed “search engines” as a marketing strategy and that “long term strategies such as giving away freebies will continue to pay off years down the road.”

This isn’t just a matter of semantics, it’s negligence. Advice like that would never get past the editors of a trade publication for worm farmers, much less a brand-name business magazine. But you can find it on-line!

Here’s an example.

Let’s say that your objective is to improve sales by 50% this year.

Your strategy is to reach new customers outside of your geographic area. (Something you haven’t done before.)

Your tactics could include search engine optimization to reach potential customers looking for your product or service on the web. Other tactics could include using Twitter to search for conversations about the problem that your product or service solves. Or you could send postcards to a list of potential buyers in your industry.

Some of our clients have their strategy down, and only need some help with the tactics. Some of our clients need help fine-tuning their strategy. Some need both.

To help make further distinctions, we’ll be defining content on our website and in our weekly emails, starting next week. (August 22)

Marketing Mondays will include “what” articles focused on marketing strategies, “big ideas,” systems, etc.

Toolbox Thursdays will include specific tools and “how to” information focused on the nuts and bolts of accomplishing marketing tactics.

If you already receive our emails, we’ll send you both. If you’d prefer one or the other, just reply to any email and let me know your preferences. If you don’t currently receive our emails, use the link below to get our free ebook and subscribe to our email newsletters.