Tactical marketing or strategic marketing — which is best?

Deciding on the right mix of marketing strategies is a huge undertaking for any business. Some might feel compelled to dive into the deep end and get into the weeds with all the tools at their disposal, while others might prefer to survey their options and build a thorough plan before accomplishing much of anything.

These two different approaches can be summed up in the terms tactical and strategic marketing. Whether an organization is looking to start from scratch or simply trying to beef up existing marketing efforts, knowing how to best leverage both is a huge advantage.

What is tactical marketing?

When it comes to digital marketing, the tactics a business uses can range from email blasts to blogging and from organic social posts to Google Ads. Tactical marketing means focusing on those individual elements. Some common digital marketing tactics include:

• Blogging: Keeping a blog up to date can be useful for search engine optimization (SEO) by targeting specific keywords. If SEO efforts are successful, a business will rank higher when its target audience searches for its products or services.
• Email marketing: Regular email newsletters can engage a customer base over time. Remarketing is another effective form of email marketing where those who have interacted with an organization’s site before (for example, added something to their cart but not checked out) get reminders of their previous interest right in their inbox.
• Ads: There is a wide variety of digital ad opportunities. Paid social and paid search are some of the most common. Google Ads is its own beast entirely, and each major social site has a way to run ads where your potential customers are already spending their time.
• Organic posts: We just touched on social ads, but creating an organic social following through the right message can also be an effective tactic.

What is strategic marketing?

Strategic marketing looks at the big picture. While tactical marketing can sometimes miss the forest for the trees, strategic marketing zooms out over the whole landscape. Setting goals, coordinating with other departments and creating an overarching message are all part of this type of marketing.

Research is another vital element to building a successful marketing strategy. Knowing what’s possible, what tools are available and what others in the industry are up to are just some of the important things to know before crafting a digital marketing strategy.

This research element is one of the issues some people run into when they attempt strategic marketing. There might be a steep learning curve. So, instead of struggling alone, some opt to bring on digital marketing experts in some fashion. Having a team well-versed in the field can be a huge boon when it comes to choosing the right goals, techniques and messages.

Which is better?

The bottom line is both kinds of marketing go hand-in-hand. Ignoring one or the other is a surefire way to hamstring a marketing effort before it ever gets up and running.

An overall strategy ensures cohesion between the individual tactics. Messages between different ads, posts and emails should all be in harmony with each other, and the only way to do that is to look at the broader strategy. It is also important to have a goal to work toward so that a business can measure its digital marketing success.

Without putting the tactics that build up that strategy into practice, though, no organization is going to reach its goals. Lots of businesses will decide they want to try a tactic like Google Ads or email marketing and just jump straight into building those campaigns. It might seem like diving into the thick of things is a quick way to get results, but ignoring that overall strategy is just a quick way to waste time and resources.

For more information about the success of strategic and tactical marketing, check out Beanstalk Web Solutions’ case study.