The risky business of only using short term tactics

 ‘Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.’

Sun Tzu, Chinese philosopher and military strategist

Unfortunately this pearl of wisdom, which I came across recently whilst studying Marketing Week's Mini-MBA in Marketing, is too often ignored when it comes to marketing activity.  There is a tendency for some businesses to bypass any real strategic planning and go straight to what is seen as the ‘good stuff’ – the tactics and quick wins.

Forgetting about any segmentation of the market, research into the customer base, or real understanding of the different propositions for the different target markets, organisations jump straight into implementing a price promotion or undertaking a social media campaign on nothing more than guess work. These short-term tactics will lead to nothing but short-term gain – at best.

And that might be fine. But for most people who are in business they’re in it for the long haul, to develop a product or service that will continue to grow and develop. One tactic alone cannot work effectively in isolation. The power of an integrated marketing campaign that involves several strands of marketing activity in a coordinated approach, with clear SMART objectives (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and timely), is far more likely to generate a positive return, and a more rewarding, longer term relationship formed with the customer.  

Once you’ve determined who, what and why of your strategy, you can look at the ‘how’ and ‘when’ – the marketing tactics and resources needed to address your business strategy.   

It’s important to know the part any tactics will play in your customer purchase process and be able to respond effectively once they start generating results. This again comes down to having a strategic plan in place.

Are you trying to generate awareness? Increase enquiries? Develop loyalty? Looking at the process, or sales funnel you can Identify where are the weakest links and which ones would be the easiest to fix. And don’t try and fix too many in one go! Focus is key. 

Once that has been determined you need to ensure you can follow through the desired interaction and move the customer along the next steps of the funnel, removing any barriers along the way.

For example, if you’re encouraging customers to visit your website to enter a competition as part of an awareness campaign, is the competition entry page clear? Do the instructions make sense and do all the links work? Are all the details being collated correctly?

Or, if clients are starting to engage on your social media platforms and enquiring about a product promotion, is the sales team briefed and in place to respond to the leads? Are the different departments or people involved talking to one another to ensure any problems are followed up such as incorrect contact details provided? Is feedback being regularly shared and results being reviewed to look at what messages and platforms are working effectively.

These seemingly simple steps can easily be missed with the penchant for a tactical quick fix superseding a longer term, integrated strategy.  

So, before you start your next tactical campaign, take a step back and look at your aims and objectives, who are trying to reach, how does this complement your positioning strategy and understanding of your customer's purchasing process.

It can be tempting to try and win the smaller battles in a time of little resource, tight timeframes and small budgets, but ultimately winning the consumer war will be far more rewarding.  

The Customer Purchase Process and the relevant Marketing Tactics