Most businesses have both a strategic marketing plan and a
tactical marketing plan, and it is important to keep these
two platforms separate. People often mistakenly assume that
when you talk about marketing, you're speaking of
"tactical" marketing, which consists of placing ads,
generating leads, sending out mailers and brochures, etc.
However, strategic marketing focuses on the message and
communication of the message. Simply put, tactical
marketing is the execution of your marketing plan - the
medium by which your message is delivered, and strategic
marketing focuses on the content of your message—what
you say and to whom you say it.
The key difference is the focus on making sure overall
customer situations mesh with your overall company
direction. Not to get distracted, or veer off course of
your overall company direction, but at every step of
development for your strategic plan, and execution of your
plan, that you are indeed on course of what the overall
vision and goals of the company are.
Content vs. Execution
Many companies try to figure out how to sell more before
they find out how to provide a solution to their consumers'
needs. The procedure for accomplishing this is exactly the
same every single time, for every kind of business. It is
the advertiser's job to pay attention to human nature, to
research human nature, and to have some insight into how
people make their purchasing decisions. Strategically,
marketing programs and advertising should get the attention
of target market prospects and facilitate their
decision-making. This lowers their risk for taking the next
step in the buying process. By understanding what's
important to your target market, you can then put together
a strategy that gets more qualified prospects to call,
reduces your sales cycle, and increases your conversion
ratios. After the strategy is in place, the tactical
execution simply consists of testing and implementing your
strategic plan. Business-to-business Strategic Marketing
There is a business-to-business aspect to many companies,
in which case these business-to-business transactions count
as customer situation. For marketing to businesses who are
your clients and customers, this means combining industry
sector segmentation and product use with other factors
related to purchasing decisions. For example, this would
include purchase criteria and decision motivations that
effect larger, enterprise sized purchases. In this case,
part of your strategic marketing plan is to build strong,
personal relationships with these larger businesses, and
focus on providing customized service, products and even
anticipate the needs of your business clients. Although a
business is obviously a larger entity than a single
customer, many of the same principles prevail; the most
important being a keen sense of service, and making them
feel they are important and that you pay special attention
to them.
A strategic marketing plan encompasses developing a
message, and developing the best way to communicate this
message—and contemplates the best strategy to deal
with communicating this message. Tactical marketing is
important as it executes the strategic plan, but it is
important to keep these two subjects divided as you develop
a successful marketing plan for your company.
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Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A strategic
Collaboration Marketing consulting firm. He empowers
business owners to discover and implement Integration,
Alliance, and Joint Venture marketing tactics to solve
specific business challenges. He demonstrates how to create
your own Collaboration Marketing Strategy to increase your
sales, conversation rates, and repeat business.
Contact: christian@christianfea.com
http://www.christianfea.com
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