Tactical versus Strategic Marketing

Tactical and strategic marketing are two very different things, though they do have the same end result, and are often part of the same overall marketing approach.

The main difference between the two marketing approaches is the scale of them both; tactical marketing is a number of separate methods which are all geared towards a common marketing end. According to the definition of marketing tactics on businessdictionary.com, “good marketing tactics typically result in substantial customer satisfaction while facilitating the business in focusing its limited financial resources in the most efficient manner to maximize the effective promotion of its products.” In other words, tactical marketing focuses on specific parts of a marketing campaign in order to increase both customer satisfaction and the bottom line of the company.

Strategic marketing, on the other hand, refers to one particular method of marketing, rather than a set of methods which can be used in tandem. To use strategic marketing is to identify one single way of increasing sales or bringing a product to a new section of the population, and then allocate all resources to bringing that to fruition.

Both of these methods have their place in marketing campaigns – it all depends on what the business in question is trying to achieve.

Strategic marketing is a form of marketing which is concerned with the big picture – what market should a business target next, how should they approach the next quarter, in what ways do they need to increase sales, and so on. Having a strategy is a very effective method for a business to control their marketing projects, as the ‘big picture’ approach can showcase where a business is prospering, and where it is not.

Tactical marketing, then, is concerned with the smaller picture, to continue the analogy. It offers businesses the ways in which they can target new markets, the ways in which they can approach the next business quarter, and the ways they can increase sales. While tactical marketing cannot handle the entire marketing campaign of a business, it can offer some very effective tools in which to do so.

Both of these methods quite often appear in tandem with each other, with a strategic marketing approach being used to define the approach that the tactical marketing should take. To give an example, the strategic marketing lays out in detail who is to be targeted, when it should happen, and what should be said. Tactical marketing is then used to determine what methods would be most effective – i.e. should the target audience be reached via offline advertising, online advertising, trade show attendances, and so on.

The reason for the merging of strategic and tactical marketing is that they offset each other extremely well. While strategic marketing can give a business a goal (a target to market to), tactical marketing gives a business the means to achieve that goal, or in other words gives them a way to market the aforementioned target.

Melting tactical and strategic marketing is perhaps the most effective means of approaching these two approaches. In much the same way as marketing cannot be described as having a separate ‘digital strategy’, these two methods should not be separated. In a digital society, having both an overall strategy and the means to carry it out is a blessing for any business which wants to maintain a coherent marketing campaign, as the melding of both methods will better allow that business to keep all its marketing efforts contained under one brand and one soul.

// Arnt