You guys, I’m embarrassed to admit this but I get marketing “strategy” and “tactics” confused ALL THE TIME. I’ve been doing this for years, yet I still struggle to keep the two straight.
So I wrote out some examples. And in doing so I realized the reason strategy and tactics are so confusing: they have a lot in common! They are different but closely linked.
Picture a Venn diagram with strategy on the left side and tactics on the right. Where they overlap in the middle could be called “getting shit done.” It’s when strategy and tactics come together that effective marketing happens.
But before we get to analogies, here’s some shorthand:
- Goals: goals are THE REASON you’re doing what you’re doing. The goal is your desired outcome, what you want to achieve. Goals are easy to understand. Goals are the WHY.
- Strategy: strategy is the HOW. If your goal is to take a trip to Italy, HOW are you going to get there? What’s your plan?
- Tactics: tactics are individual action steps you take to put your plan in motion. Tactics are the WHAT.
It sounds simpler when I put it like that, but it’s easy to get the HOW and WHAT confused. The HOW/strategy might include a list of action steps that describe the plan, which throws me off because then I wonder if I’m thinking tactically instead of strategically?? I check myself by asking, what am I trying to do by taking this action step? If I have an answer, that means it’s connected to my strategy and my goals.
Strategy and Tactics: 5 Examples
House-training Your Dog:
- Goal: a dog that never pees or poops in your house
- Strategy: using repetition, teach your dog to associate going outside with praise, and going inside with rebuke.
- Tactics: let the dog outside frequently, praise her when she pees or poops and maybe give her a treat, tell her “no!” when she pees or poops inside and immediately put her outside.
Baking a Princessa Torte
- Goal: bake complicated, memorable cake to give to your friend for her birthday
- Strategy: clear your schedule for a day, find a really good, well-tested recipe, make a list of the tools and ingredients you need to buy, schedule time to rest and get dressed before the party.
- Tactics: go to the grocery store, follow each step in the recipe carefully, eat snacks and drink water so you don’t get overwhelmed, wash the dishes.
(Note: my friend Emily actually did this. She also created an Instagram story for every step in the process, but sadly it’s expired by now.)
Buying an Elegant Dress
- Goal: get a well-made, ethical dress within your price range that makes you feel fantastic
- Strategy: start wide and go narrow. Survey what’s available for rent and purchase, identify favorite colors and cuts, cull for availability and price, test until you find your favorite.
- Tactics: research your favorite retailers for what’s available in your price range and size, double-check for ethical sourcing, make a spreadsheet of your options including links, find locations nearby where you can try the dresses on.
Writing a Blog Post
- Goal: make a bold statement about your opinion on a topic to position yourself as a thought leader.
- Strategy: write to ONE person for conversational, relevant, engaging tone. Show, don’t tell, using real-life stories. Be empathetic. Share widely online to spark engagement and conversation.
- Tactics: choose and picture a specific person while writing, use first and second person for informal, approachable tone. Research other perspectives on the topic so you can agree with or refute them. Write compelling social copy for all social media networks; post them and tag anyone who might have a perspective on the topic. Send your blog post to a few friends who you think would like it and be willing to share it.
Selling Your Event
- Goal: sell 100 tickets to your annual workshop
- Strategy: build up anticipation for weeks before sales begin, sell discounted tickets for a short time to incentivize action, offer affiliate options for people to bring their friends.
- Tactics: start mentioning the event in emails to your list, on social media, in Live and recorded videos and in podcast interviews. Write empathetic, relevant emails to sell the event, which include testimonials from previous events. Ask previous event attendees to join you on Facebook Live or similar, so they can speak to what they love about the event.
I hope this helps you keep strategy and tactics separate in your mind. Rest assured that I got confused at least seven times while writing these examples. Because they’re closely related and work together, the difference between strategy and tactics still eludes me sometimes. My best strategy (or IS IT A TACTIC!?) for remembering the difference is to think about how and what.
