Marketing Tactics vs Marketing Strategy
Why the best marketing tactics may have failed you up until now….
Ever wonder why some marketing tactics work for some businesses but not others? Maybe you heard about a business that paints their company website’s URL on the top of their delivery trucks and increased sales by 25%, yet when you try the same tactic, sales remained flat.
The reason most marketing tactics fail is that they are not part of a comprehensive marketing strategy. A comprehensive marketing strategy helps you to choose which tactics will work for your business and keep the sales coming in like clockwork no matter what the economy.
When I begin working with individual clients, one of the first things we discuss are the various marketing tactics that the business owner has used in the past.
Many of my clients are in the business of making Major Sales. Often, these clients have attended many free online classes with various marketing experts. They listen, they takes notes and they faithfully set out to implement the marketing tactics offered by these classes as a way to promote their business.
One of the first topics for discussion is to help these business understand why they can try tactifcs that are successful for other businesses yet when they put those same tactics to work in marketing their practice, they failed to see results.
The overwhelming reason these marketing tactics have failed for my clients is that these tactics were designed to be successful for a business making the MINOR SALE. Since these business owners were making a MAJOR SALE, it was possible for them to do everything “right” and still not achieve success.
Creating a marketing strategy is essential to marketing success.
Let’s begin by defining marketing strategy. Marketing strategy is very different than marketing tactics. To help illustrate marketing strategy, I use the following illustration.
Marketing your business is VERY similar to process of going fishing.
If you’ve ever fished, you know it’s possible to sit with your line in the water for HOURS without so much as a single interested “nibble”. What’s even more frustrating is to watch nearby fishermen pull in fish and fish as you sit just a few yards away. The question which BEGS to be answered is this…”What is the successful fisherman doing that I’m not?”
Of course, you can ask the fisherman… but people who fish are sometimes weird about sharing that type of information. If they tell you, then EVERYONE will know and their “secret spot” or “secret method” won’t be secret anymore! (By the way, this isn’t too terribly different than the mentality that affects many successful business people!)
When the successful fisherman heads out on the water, he (we’ll assume a male, though I know women fish too!) knows EXACTLY what kind of fish he is “targeting. ” While the newbie threads a worm onto the hook and tosses it into the water, the experienced fisherman as carefully chosen the bait he is going to use. He then carefully positions himself water where the fish are so you can “present” the bait to the fish in the course of their daily living.
The experienced fisherman know that the type of fish you’re targeting determines your choice of fishing pole, line, the size of your hook and even whether you take your boat into salt or fresh water!
So as a business owner, it’s important for you to determine IN ADVANCE who your customers are.
Marketing TACTICS are the kinds of bait you’ll use. Marketing STRATEGY is where you’ll position your boat!
Comments
One Response to “Marketing Tactics vs Marketing Strategy”
Got something to say?
Let the link love flow!
After 10 comments, comment links are followed (nofollow removed)
Please read my comments policy
[...] niche marketing tactics which may result in great success for one business may fail miserably for the next… all [...]