Marketing Strategy VS. Marketing Tactics
You’ve just launched your business…First, Congratulations!
Welcome to this beautiful and adventurous journey of entrepreneurship.
As you embark on this journey, you’ll discover that every day presents an opportunity to learn something new that can significantly impact your business. As an entrepreneur, you understand that marketing plays a significant role in the success of your business. It’s crucial that you learn different marketing terms and how you can apply them in your business.
In this article, we will address the difference between marketing strategy and marketing tactics. These two terms can get confusing at times and maybe confused to mean the same thing. However, we will break it down for you, let you understand the difference, and know how they connect.
What is Marketing Strategy?
“Strategy is buying a bottle of fine wine when you take a lady out for dinner. Tactics is getting her to drink it.” — Frank Muir.
A marketing strategy refers to the business’s overall goal of turning potential clients into real-time customers. As an entrepreneur, you may come across questions like:
‘How and where do you plan of getting market for your products and services?’
‘What are your business goals, and how do you intend to achieve them?’
‘What’s your competitive advantage?’
To efficiently answer the above questions, an entrepreneur needs to consider creating a marketing strategy. It creates a solid foundation while deliberating on the right marketing approach for your business and offers a sense of direction and purpose.
Why is a Marketing Strategy Important?
- Creates the Big Picture
When a business lacks a sense of purpose and direction, it is set to fail. Ideally, you cannot get to your destination if you have no idea where you want to go in the first place. Think of a marketing strategy as the business marketing blueprint. It dictates what to expect, how to expect it, and where to expect it. Here’s where you set your business goals and start creating a plan on how you intend to achieve your vision.
- Learn your Prospective Clients
While creating a marketing strategy, a business needs to carry out market research. Here you learn certain behaviors and patterns of your target audience. You also get to understand what appeals to them and how best you can implement it in your business to win the hearts of your target clients successfully. Mastering your prospective clients gives you leverage and sets your business on the path to success.
- Helps Brand your Business
A marketing strategy gives you a chance to let people understand the structure or concept of your business. It enables you to define who you are, what you stand for, and why you want them to be part of it. Here you get to give your business a personality that will later influence your marketing approach.
- Sets the Foundation
Businesses must take their time while creating a marketing strategy since it provides the baseline for marketing their business. Here you determine the approach you will make towards promotion, advertising, publicity, sales, and public relations. The decisions you make while creating your marketing strategy will influence the other measures while marketing your business.
What are Marketing tactics?
Marketing tactics are measures taken to make marketing strategies achievable. A marketing strategy will help you set your goal, but a marketing tactic will help you achieve the goals you’ve set. In simpler terms, marketing tactics are the actionable steps you take to fulfill the plans that you have already set for your business.
Why are Marketing Tactics Important?
- Influence the Success or Failure of a Business
Marketing tactics are the actions you take while implementing your marketing strategy. In some instances, a business might be having an excellent marketing strategy but fail when it comes to execution because of poor marketing tactics. It can still have a poor marketing strategy but still succeed with the right marketing tactics.
- Determine the Effectiveness of a Marketing Strategy
Based on the results attained after implementing marketing tactics, a business can also determine the effectiveness of its marketing strategy. With a proper marketing strategy, devising the appropriate marketing tactics can be achievable. At this stage, you get to make your business goals come true. You also get to implement the plans that you have set and steer your business towards success.
- It Gets you the Results!
While a marketing strategy helps you brand your business, marketing tactics help make your brand known. Depending on the approaches you will drive towards executing your marketing strategy, you can effortlessly create brand awareness. It is safe to say that the marketing tactics take your business to your end goal.
Strategy VS. Tactics: What’s the Connection
Marketing strategies and marketing tactics can be combined to steer your business towards success. When building a house, a marketing strategy can be equated with the blueprint or foundation of your business marketing. Here you get to determine the materials you want to use, the size of the house, and the custom features you intend to have. Marketing tactics can be equated with hiring out contractors, plumbers, masonry, and electricians.
A marketing strategy can be likened to the path towards your destination, while marketing tactics can be associated with the means you use to get to your destination. According to Sun Tzu, ‘Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without Strategy is the noise before defeat.’ For your business to succeed, you need to devise a plan on how the two can work together. Create an excellent and efficient marketing strategy, but also ensure that you effectuate winning marketing tactics.
What’s Best for your Business?
As an entrepreneur, you need to understand that what works for another business may not work for you. You cannot create marketing tactics without first creating a marketing strategy. You may end putting into practice tactics that may not work for your business. They may be the best tactics, but as long as they are not in sync with your brand, product, and target audience, you will likely encounter a catastrophic failure.
Do not prioritize marketing tactics over creating a marketing strategy. First, start by creating a solid foundation by coming up with your marketing strategy, then decide on the tactics you will undertake to make your business a success.
Steer your Business Towards Success!
Take your time while creating your marketing strategy and deciding on the appropriate marketing tactics. Anyone can devise a strategy and tactics, but not everyone can get it right. Entrepreneurs must do proper research and develop the winning actionable steps to take their businesses to the next level.
