Is Your Marketing Plan Strategic or Tactical?

Every page, post, postcard, banner ad, email or tweet needs a purpose.

I’ve learned this lesson the hard way… and class is still in session.

Whether you are creating marketing for yourself or for someone else, the pressure to produce can drive you to do just that – to just produce. It’s a double-edged sword. You need to be marketing, but without perspective, each postcard, email or tweet will only convert a fraction of the customers it could (if it were part of a larger plan or system).

Go back and look at your previous marketing pieces. Was the desired action clear? Did the piece fit into a larger plan? Was there a larger plan?

I’ll admit, I am continually trying to improve in this area.

When I was in commercial real estate, I created a series of postcards and a series of newsletters. They were effective. At the time, I felt like a marketing genius, but I lacked a larger view. Each piece was designed to sell by itself rather than to be a cog in a machine that would build a relationship with a total stranger to the point that it just made sense for them to do business with me.

My marketing was tactical, not strategic.

So how do you make your marketing more strategic?

One method is to study and dissect marketing campaigns that have converted you from a prospect to a customer.

• How did you enter the marketing funnel?
• What was it that hooked you and caused you to pick up the phone, submit your email address or send for more information?
• What caused you to be receptive to the messages that followed your first interaction?
• What path did you take from the initial interaction to the moment of purchasing the product or service

Another approach you can try is to draw a time-line that represents your customer relationship. One axis represents time and the other axis represents the level of trust and respect in the relationship. Now, figure out what kind of value you can deliver to your customer over time to take the relationship from zero trust and respect to a high-level of trust and respect.

What should you deliver? At least two things will help build the relationship: something your prospect perceives to be valuable and anything you can do to help your prospect move closer to what they want.

In practice, the challenge is to zoom in an out between the tactical piece in front of you and the overall strategic plan to make sure each piece you or your team creates supports the strategic plan while building relationship momentum.

Pssst…
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