While recently reading “The 1-Page Marketing Plan“, author Allan Dib frequently came back to the same concept of explaining the difference between a strategy and a tactic.
In his words:
Understanding the difference between strategy and tactics is absolutely key to marketing success.
Strategy without tactics leads to paralysis by analysis.
Tactics without strategy leads to the “bright shiny object syndrome.”
A great example of this is with social media. In talking to a business about their strategies for the new year, a common one is “social media”. Perhaps they want to spend more time on there, be more engaging, widen to other networks, or other ideas. In all cases, those are tactics, not strategies.
A strategy is much more broad than that. Who is your target market? Where are they? How will you reach them? What will appeal to them? Is there a funnel to put them in? How will you impress them so they don’t leave?
It’s very possible that being more engaging on social media is a great tactic to help reach more of your target market, but it’s an awful place to start. Focus on the strategy first, and then use some great tactics to help get you there.
