Like today’s consumers, today’s marketers have more choices at their fingertips when it comes to tactics. At a click of a button, it’s easy to tweet, post, share or broadcast your message to the world. Some people may find the urge to share, pin or publish difficult to stifle. With so many tactics around, it’s easy to dive right in without thinking about strategy. “Why does it matter? It’s cheap. It takes minutes. It’s instant,” some might say. But strategy matters in today’s world, just as much as it did 25 years ago.
While one-off tweets and posts may meet immediate objectives, it’s important to start with the goals first, strategy next and then move on to the tactics. Why? While a given online tactic may be relatively easy, quick and cheap to do, marketers have to stop and think. Ask a series of questions: “What do I hope to achieve? Is this the best way to meet my objectives? Am I trying to generate loyalty, drive awareness or drive revenue? What is the content that will be most appealing to my audience that will also meet my goals? What is the right mix of strategies and tactics to meet those goals with the resources we have? How can we plan and execute on them so that they work together to help us get the most impact from our marketing resources?”
It’s not easy to plan this way — especially in larger organizations where you may be able to execute on some tactics more quickly than you can collaborate on a plan, but working together on a strategy with supporting tactics will pay off. It’s the marketing equivalent of Aristotle’s quote: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
So take the time early, start with the goals, determine how to achieve them (through strategy) and then develop content, creative, messaging and offers that can be extended across multiple tactics. The hard work that you do up front will pay off and might make you a better marketer, too.