9 key differences between strategy vs tactics
‘What is the difference between strategy vs tactics?’ is one of the most common questions that 'crops up' when I’m running training workshops or discussing creating marketing plans with businesses.
It’s no surprise since the difference between these two activities often isn’t distinct. Yet, it’s an important question to answer since our research shows that so many businesses don’t have a clear marketing strategy or plan.
Without a clear strategy, it’s likely some of your tactics may be poorly directed, so may not be propelling the business in the direction needed.
9 key features that distinguish marketing strategy vs tactics
In this article, I will show the difference between strategy and tactics by looking at the characteristics of marketing strategy, which distinguish it from tactics. I’ll give examples that help show the difference between the two based on essential strategic activities.
What's the difference between strategy vs tactics?
Strategy dictates…
Discover our top 7 recommended different types of marketing plan options for developing and streamlining your marketing planning activities
Planning is a must for any business that wants to succeed, but choosing the right type of plan to define your strategy and structuring it can be difficult. Especially since there are so many different types of marketing plan within marketing and business, all with a different scope.
The challenge is compounded if you are new to creating plans, or to the culture of planning within a business. It seems that the difficulty of choosing the right type of plan and how to structure it to deliver results stops many in their tracks.
Our research shows that, shockingly, as many as half of businesses don't have a digital marketing plan or, perhaps worse, a marketing plan on which to base it.
Our free marketing plan template, structured around RACE, helps…
Learn how to create a PESTLE analysis to identify threats and opportunities in the macro environment to guide your marketing planning
You may have heard PESTLE mentioned when studying marketing theory or in your workplace. It is a powerful, yet simple, analysis tool for overall business and marketing planning. In this blog we explain what it is, why it is useful, and how you can create your own PESTLE analysis for marketing planning today.
What is a PESTLE analysis?
PESTLE is an acronym that covers 6 key areas in your macro (external) environment. Each letter stands for a different factor, as shown in the graphic below:
Did you know? Sometimes it is referred to as a PEST analysis, or spelt ‘PESTEL’, but the most common acronym is PESTLE.
A PESTLE analysis is a framework to help you identify external factors - happening outside…
7 steps to creating an effective marketing plan
A marketing plan is a bit like a job description for your company. Everyone should have one, but they’re often not fit for purpose, out of date, and reviewed infrequently...
Research has shown that businesses with plans succeed, outperform competitors, and retain staff, more than those with no plan.
Without a plan there’s no direction for the company or its employees, decisions can be uninformed, opportunities can be missed and threats can damage or destroy the business.
Whether you are looking at creating a traditional marketing plan or a multichannel digital marketing plan, we've got resources to help you.
What is a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is your place to document the process of defining and implementing your marketing strategy and creating a roadmap for future growth and business development. A marketing plan should be customer-centred, focused on your target audience and the value propositions…
What is the 7Ps Marketing Mix and how should it be used?
The marketing mix is a familiar marketing strategy tool, which as you will probably know, was traditionally limited to the core 4Ps of Product, Price, Place and Promotion. It is one of the top 3 classic marketing models according to a poll on Smart Insights.
It's an essential part of a marketing plan structure that defines the tactics to be used to implement the marketing strategy.
The traditional 7Ps of marketing consist of:
Product
Promotion
Price
Place
People
Process
Physical evidence
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Who created the 7Ps marketing mix model?
The 7Ps marketing model was originally devised by E.…
AIDA model explained: Examples and tips for using this strategic marcomms planning model the real world
The AIDA model, tracing the customer journey through Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action, is perhaps the best-known marketing model amongst all the classic marketing models.
Many marketers find AIDA useful since we apply this model daily, whether consciously or subconsciously, when we're planning our marketing communications strategy.
What is the AIDA model?
The AIDA Model identifies cognitive stages an individual goes through during the buying process for a product or service. It's a purchasing funnel where buyers go to and fro at each stage, to support them in making the final purchase.
It's no longer a relationship purely between the buyer and the company since social media has extended it to achieving the different goals of AIDA via information added by other customers via social networks and…
What are the essential parts of a marketing plan template?
A marketing plan is a strategic document that specifies your organization’s target markets, marketing objectives, programs, and activities to achieve them, expected timescales, resources to be utilized, according to defined budgets, and how success will be measured.
What is the purpose of a marketing plan?
The purpose of a marketing plan is to define strategies to engage audiences in order to achieve business objectives.
The goal of a marketing plan is to ensure marketing activities are structured, relevant, and timely to achieve an organization’s objectives.
It’s a plan defining your company's sustainable competitive position, structuring and setting marketing goals, and defining the resources necessary to achieve your business vision.
Context of a marketing plan
Here’s another way of understanding the context of a marketing plan, to put it into context with other types of plans, as shown in this table:
…
How to use Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP) to develop marketing strategies
Today, the STP marketing model (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) is a familiar strategic approach in modern marketing. It is one of the most commonly applied marketing models in practice, with marketing leaders crediting it for efficient, streamlined communications practice.
STP marketing focuses on commercial effectiveness, selecting the most valuable segments for a business and then developing a marketing mix and product positioning strategy for each segment.
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As Martech continues to develop, so do opportunities for segmentation, targeting, and positioning. So whether you're brand new to STP or a seasoned veteran, it can be useful to take stock and double-check you're utilizing…
Introducing 3 key methods for an integrated sales and marketing strategy
Marketing and sales teams have a reputation for not getting along. Working towards the same ultimate goal in different ways means there is often friction. That's why we recommend an integrated sales and marketing strategy.
We’ve all heard that when the sales are coming in it’s because the sales team is doing a great job and when the sales slow then the marketing team needs to pull its socks up. How do we fix this?
The key levers are regular and open communication, an understanding that each team needs the other in order to succeed, and well-implemented systems that help, rather than hinder performance for both teams.
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Traditionally, sales and marketing have different priorities, you can see some examples below. Of course, in an integrated approach, both teams are aware of and support each other's functions too.
…
Three Go-to-Market models to help you strategize, plan and deliver
Business and marketing go-to-market strategy is an essential component in the delivery of any successful product, service, or promotional launch/campaign.
We’ve written extensively at Smart Insights about the importance of defining a target audience, producing a clear value proposition and optimizing the right marketing mix; just three elements of good marketing strategy to help ensure brands create a competitive advantage, deliver value for customers and generate profit for the business.
However, the success of any strategy is dependent on how this is ultimately executed and within this post, I’d like to look at a few different ways this can be brought to life as part of a Go-to-Market (GTM) plan.
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