Demystifying Marketing Strategy & Tactics for Solopreneuers
When you’re first starting out, marketing your business is a lot of throwing spaghetti (and penne and rigatoni…) at the wall just to see what sticks. But there comes a point when your business has matured beyond the eff around and find out phase and Random Acts of Marketing™ will get you just that: random results.
That’s where having a sound strategy comes in.
However, it’s common for strategy – a high-level plan of action – to be confused with tactics, the individual actions that bring your strategy and goals to life. It’s an easy mistake to make. While the two are separate and distinct, they are also interconnected; two sides of the same coin.
To be successful, you need both.
What is a strategy?
A strategy is the plan, the high-level map that is setting out how you will reach your goals and objectives. Once you’ve landed on your strategy it will help to frame future decisions, including those about tactics.
If you think of your goal as the final destination, the strategy determines your mode of transportation – are you walking, driving, taking public transportation?
For a small business thinking about marketing, your strategy could be to leverage relationships or to use content marketing to establish yourself as a thought leader or industry expert.
To be effective, a strategy needs to align with your goals, as well as the phase and type of business that you run. There is no single strategy that is going to work for all businesses or all business owners. Your preferences and strengths are an important factor in the equation and count for a lot more than you might think! After all, if you’re not jazzed about your strategy chances are slim that you’ll follow through on the implementation.
What are tactics?
Your tactics are the individual actions that animate your strategy and bring you closer to your goals: the articles or blog posts you’ll write, the social media content you’ll create and post, the partnerships and relationships you will nurture, the emails you’ll send.
Think of it this way: a tactic is something you can cross-off your to-do list!
Keeping with our map analogy, once you know you’re going to be driving to your destination you still have some decisions to make about your journey. You could take the highway or drive in-town. Or maybe you’re going to take the scenic route, taking the long way because you’re not in a rush.
Why you need both
It’s definitely possible to execute on tactics without a strategy – in fact, it’s something that I see all the time happening in businesses of every shape and size. When you’re working hard, doing all the things, but not seeing the results you probably have a strategy problem. Either you don’t have a clearly defined strategy or if you do, it’s not aligned with your goals and the type of business you run.
Think about it: if you just hop in your car and start driving, making random decisions to turn this way or that, who knows where you’ll end up.
On the flipside, if you want to go somewhere but you never take the leap and get in the car you’re going to stay in the same place forever.
Without tactics to put it in motion, a strategy is just a wish!
To reach your goals, you need both a strategy and tactics. Your tactics will tell you what to do and when, your strategy will tell you why you’re doing it. And it’s not random - your strategy will guide your decisions about which tactics to use and how to use them.
For example, if your strategy is to position yourself as an industry thought leader you will use tactics that allow you to share your point of view in your area of expertise: being a speaker on a panel, publishing a book, being interviewed in the media.
That’s what I often see missing: a deep understanding of how each individual action contributes to achieving your goal. This leads to inconsistent effort, which leads to inconsistent results.
The clarity of defined goals and strategies gives you the confidence that you’re focusing on the right actions at the right time, which leads to consistent effort and in turn consistent results.
Ask yourself, why am I going to do this? How does this help me reach my goals? If you’re not sure, do not pass GO. Get that clarity before you go anywhere!
Marketing Strategies & Tactics in Action
Now that you understand the difference between a strategy and a tactic (and why you can’t have one without the other), let’s look at some examples of how this might look in a small business based on a few Slow & Steady clients.
Julie, Knitted Bliss Stitching
Strategy: Develop a diversified marketing ecosystem that doesn’t rely on social media algorithms
Tactics:
Implement an email newsletter with exclusive subscriber discounts and early access to sales
Build partnerships to open new retail and distribution channels and revenue streams through in-person workshops and events
Leverage collaborations with other makers to tap into new audiences
Emily, 11:11 Wellness
Strategy: Position Emily as a thought leader and authority in her industry
Tactics:
Develop a signature talk to pitch and deliver at relevant industry events
Attend industry and community events to meet new connections and follow-up with personalized outreach
Use LinkedIn as a platform to share her point of view and relevant news articles to be a go-to source of information in her industry
Applying This to Your Business
Before jumping into a new strategy or plan, take a step back and assess your current marketing. Are you executing random tactics without a clear strategy? Do you have a strategy in place but struggle with the tactics to bring it to life?
The key to consistent results isn’t doing more – it’s making sure every action is intentional and aligned with your goals.
If you’re ready to cut through the noise and build a marketing plan that actually works for you, check out a Strategy Roadmap and together we’ll map out the next 90 days in your business.
