Because the difference between marketing strategy and marketing tactics can be difficult to grasp, I thought I’d take a quick shot at defining how Fight thinks of them. I’ve tossed in goals and metrics as they are important parts of the mix and are easily confused with both each other and (typically) goals are sometimes mistaken for strategy.
Here we go:
Goal
Goals should be the first thing created for a marketing project. A goal is what you are trying to achieve. Goals often break down into two groups: business goals and marketing goals.
Business Goal
A business goal is typically (but by no means always) associated with money. So a business goal might look like this:
- Increase revenue by 5% this fiscal year
Marketing Goal
A marketing goal typically exists to support some business goal. So a marketing goal that supports a business goal about revenue, might look like this:
- Increase product awareness by 25%
Notice that neither goal gives you something specific to do. Goals are focused on the outcomes that you want, not how you want to get to them.
Metric
A metric tells how you’ll know when you’ve reached a goal as well as how the goal will be measured. So a metric for the marketing goal above might be:
- The number of potential clients responding that they are “somewhat aware” or higher on our annual prospect survey will increase from the previous year by 25% or more.
In both of the goals above, the target was given (“5% revenue increase”, “25% awareness increase”). Goals won’t always have these targets right in them, but metrics should ALWAYS include the target.
Strategy
A strategy describes the approach that will be taken to accomplish the goals and should include as much relevant information as possible about why you are taking this approach. The strategy provides the guidance for the individual actions taken on a project. When evaluating what tactics to use, you should be able to look at the strategy to determine what is “on strategy” and what is not. A supporting strategy for the marketing goal might be:
- Since our prospects spend a large amount of time online, conduct high-volume advertising on the online properties where they spend most of their time
Tactic
A tactic is each thing that you do in support of a strategy. There may be only one tactic, or there may be hundreds depending on such things as budget and timing. Some possible tactics for the sample strategy above:
- Buy run-of-site ads on ESPN
- Advertise on Facebook
- Test response to Twitter advertising
So there you go, a quick and dirty overview. Toss your questions in the comments if you have any, and let me know if there are other marketing issues that are causing you (or others) confusion.
