The other day, Dan Obregon of Intelliworks posted a great piece on strategy versus tactics:

However, like in all wars (and marketing is indeed a battle for mind share), a sound strategy will always beat out a series of clever tactics in the long run (assuming those clever tactics are not founded in solid strategy). To use another analogy, a good tactic could give you a burst of energy much like a caffeine or energy drink will before a race, but its effects may not be long lasting. Winning the race takes training and discipline, not just a burst of enery that could wear off in a short amount of time.

I think that Dan 1000% hit the nail on the head and is analogy is perfect in defining why it is so important to have a solid strategy in place.  I want to take it one step further by hypothesizing that organizations who proactively plan their marketing tactics are usually more strategic in nature whereas an organization that deals mostly in reactive marketing typically just deals in tactics.  It’s easier to be reactionary in a tactical organization, since there’s no over-arching strategy guiding your way.  You create it as you go, coming up with things on a whim and executing them with little to no thought to the big picture.  

Based on this hypothesis, I’m going to make a bold declaration: Reactionary behavior is the mark of an immature marketer.  

I’ve often said that goal-setting, which is fundamental to creating a strategy, is the most-overlooked part of the marketing process.  This step is most-often overlooked by those who consider themselves to be marketers but have little formal training or experience in the area (typically communicators who get communications confused with marketing).  They’ve never learned the impact having an overarching strategy can make on a marketing plan because they’ve never executed a plan that was strategic and goal-driven.  To them, marketing is nothing more than execution of communications tactics.  No goal-setting.  Little to no evaluation. You execute the tactic and then move onto the next one and execute that. 

Immature marketers = Lack of knowledge + lack of experience.  Get a bunch of immature “marketers” together and you have a perfect recipe for a tactical organization.  

Tactics are easy. It’s strategy that’s the hard part.  That’s way an organization that relies on tactics alone will never achieve as much as they could - they haven’t done the work required to achieve true success. 

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