Marketing is a fundamental building block of a relationship between the business and its customers. The terms strategy and tactics are generally interchangeably used when talking about marketing goals and objectives. But while the two may seem synonymous, there are specific key differences.

What is a Marketing Strategy?

A marketing strategy refers to a company’s overall game plan for achieving potential customers and turning them into paying customers. It contains the business’s main brand message, value proposition, key data related to the target audience, demographics, and other critical elements. Drafting a marketing strategy will provide the company’s marketing teams with a clear template that informs their initiatives throughout all the company’s product and service platforms.

A marketing strategy helps a business direct its resources to where it can make the most impact. The core elements of a marketing strategy include product, price, place, and promotion used to plan a new business venture, analyze current offers, or optimize sales with a specific audience. Moreover, you can use it to test an already existing marketing strategy on a new clientele.

A marketing agency Detroit can help your company create an effective strategy that will ensure cohesiveness across all marketing areas, thereby avoiding chaos and unpredictable results.

What Does a Marketing Strategy Entail?

A marketing strategy comprises various factors, including the outreach, advertising, and PR campaigns that need to be carried out. They will generally follow the four Ps. The components and functions of a marketing strategy include market search to support new market entries and pricing decisions, customized messaging to target specific demographics, and platform selection for service and product promotion – internet, trade magazines, TV, and a mix of those.

What are Marketing Tactics?

Marketing tactics are strategic actions designed to fulfill a company’s marketing strategy and accomplish its long-term goals. Choosing the right marketing tactics will depend on the company’s marketing goals, budget, and target audience.

An Example of Marketing Strategy and Marketing Tactics

A marketing strategy is devised to achieve a long-term business goal. For example, a company’s goal could be to increase the number of inbound leads referred from different marketing platforms by 30% over the next 12 months.

The marketing strategy of said business will be to drive traffic to the lead generation page on the application or website.

The marketing tactics used to achieve this goal could include:

  • launching an SEO blog with affiliate links to the lead generation page,
  • using certain CTAs throughout all the social media platforms
  • increasing the frequency of paid and organic social media posts through a content management tool.

Key Differences between Marketing Strategy and Marketing Tactics

A marketing strategy of a business defines its long-term goals and how to achieve them. On the other hand, marketing tactics are the specific steps the company takes as it moves forward.

Strategy comes first since it is an idea of how a company would like things based on its current standing and future expectations. It essentially answers questions such as “Who is the target audience?”, “How will the company reach its target audience?”, “What sales methods will be use to increase the bottom line?” and “What are the main metrics for growth?” among others.

Tactics come second since they are actions required to implement strategies. Examples of tactics include micro-influencer marketing, customer loyalty programs, referral campaigns, affiliate marketing, and user-generated content.

For instance, the marketing strategy may involve acquiring new customers at a breakeven point and making extra revenue from repeat customers. Marketing tactics will be established keeping the strategy in mind, which may include content development, direct mail, email, and telephone sales.

Understanding the Connection between Marketing Strategy and Marketing Tactics

Understanding the differences and similarities between marketing strategy and tactics is the first step to establishing a successful marketing campaign that offers commercial value. The rule of thumb is to build a marketing strategy around the company’s marketing goals and the marketing goals around the business goals. Next, introduce the marketing tactics needed to implement the strategy and accomplish those goals.

Note that this is not a top-down process; people at each level will have observations and ideas that can potentially contribute to the marketing strategy’s success. For this reason, it is crucial to

The Importance of Having the right Marketing Strategy and Tactics

Creating and following a marketing strategy and tactics are crucial for setting the direction not just for the company’s marketing-related activities but also for the entire business. The strategy helps the business keep in sync with its customer base, develop the right products, and decide how to appropriately communicate about these products.

In the absence of a proper strategy and tactics to implement it, businesses will fail to know their customers, miss out on developing the right products or services, and lose to their competition.

You need to consider numerous factors to create a well-rounded marketing strategy. These include:

  • Setting definable goals. The company’s objectives and vision are the catalysts of its marketing strategy that determines its final goals. The goal should be clear, precise, reachable, and measurable. For example, achieving a specific market share.
  • Identifying the target audience. The company goals will eventually determine which target market needs to pursue. For that, it is important to study the market size, competitors, market growth, customer behavior, and demographics.
  • Creating the product positioning and message. Product positioning revolves around its features, benefits, and how it meets the needs of the customers. It then follows through with all the messaging related to the product. The message should be concise and informative yet eye-catching.
  • Defining your marketing mix. This part includes defining what activities and channels the company will use in the marketing mix to implement the strategy. It can include different media channels and platforms, such as television, social media, print media, radio, digital channels, and mobile apps.

Conclusion

The success of every business lies in an effective marketing strategy, which defines its long-term goals, and is later use to improve the company’s marketing tactics.