Strategic Marketing VS. Tactical Marketing Q&A

If you’ve come to this blog, you may be wondering what exactly is strategic and tactical marketing. Are they the same? What’s the difference? How should I be using them? This month, we sat down for a Q&A with brand3’s Strategic Directors, Matt Christ, and Orsi Herbein to dive deeper into what these two types of marketing really are.

What’s the difference between strategic marketing and tactical marketing?

Orsi:

A lot of business owners think about marketing in a tactical matter. If you ask them, “Tell me about marketing,” they may instantly think about socials, websites, SEO, ads in the paper, or direct mail. While if you were to ask us, we would say there’s a strategic piece to it and there’s a tactical piece to it. The strategic piece is finding your ideal customer, defining a unique positioning for your brand, value-based clear messaging that’s easily understood, you not being the hero but being the guide. We are taking into consideration a lot of facets of the business and it is only then that we determine what tactics to use in order to get in front of the right audience and read the right message and image.

What approach do you find best for helping them transition from the idea of all marketing is tactical to understanding the importance of brand and those additional strategic marketing pieces?

Matt:

I think it’s always a challenge. Because most people only know the terminology and the components of marketing. We’re trying to show that it’s more. You don’t know us, so we have to convince you that this whole plan and package will work right. Whereas if you come to us through an advisor or referral, you’re coming off of a testimonial from someone else’s experience. Someone may say “You’ve got to use these guys, what they’re doing is fantastic.” And you come to us and say “I don’t know what all of this means but I trust [you]. It worked right for them, so do it for me.”

What is an effective way to teach clients the importance of brand awareness when it comes to bridging that transition from strategic to tactical marketing?

Orsi:

Brand awareness still needs to happen no matter the size of the client. From national clients like Geico to smaller businesses, it is so impactful and important to stay consistent in message and image. By matching your marketing material to your website, your socials, your vehicles, etc. you’re giving a person more opportunities to potentially run into your brand more and more times. Brand awareness is a huge driver of engagement. It allows you to build up trust, which is the number one driver for engagement.

Do you feel that a brand is successful after launch? What are things that you see as success?

Orsi:

We once had a client come to us asking for help with an ad in a magazine. Matt had said, “No way, not until we rebrand you.” We then rebranded the client and used the same tactics that they had in the past and the same budget they had used, and generated much, much better results. The ability of not having to spend more on your marketing budget, or the number of quality leads versus the number of unqualified leads, are all ways to measure whether we have succeeded. Customer loyalty and customer referrals can also measure that. Because now, we are seeing evidence that the customer experience is aligned with what we promise.

Matt:

The flip side of customer experience is cultural experience. If the two aren’t working together, you really don’t have anything because the one delivers the other. I’ve seen employees of our clients connect with the market and show empathy towards what the customer is experiencing. Those are the doors we create to help the culture, see the customer experience, and see the value of what the brand does.

We hope this Q&A helps you to understand what exactly strategic and tactical marketing are and how they can be useful in your overall strategy. If you’re ready to take the next step in your brand’s journey, reach out to the Brand3 team!