March is named for the Roman God of War, Mars. War has been used throughout history to achieve victory over one’s economic “Enemies.” This article will explain how modern business practices can apply some of these principles.
For businesses to succeed in today’s competitive market, they must learn to use tactics similar to those employed by military generals when planning their campaigns against competitors or other entities within their industry.
Marketing Strategies vs. Tactics
I have the same conversation nearly every day with clients and prospects. Everyone is screwing this all up by not fully understanding the difference. First, you should base all your marketing and business development plans on sound business principles that lead to good strategy. Finally, the strategies are what dictate the specific marketing tactics and techniques.
Don’t get that wrong by reversing the order, which we all tend to do. Every entrepreneur I have ever met loves shiny objects and flashy distractions. Techniques, tactics, and the latest fad are always attractive.
Let’s take an example from the tactics category to illustrate my point. You might be saying to yourself and your team:
“Tik Tok is the hot thing! We should be on Tik Tok.”
Hold on a second there, bucko. I am going to push back on you right away there. Why? Is your ideal target market actually on Tick Tok a lot?
TikTok has about 80 million monthly active users in the United States. 60% are female, and 40% are male. 60% are between the ages of 16-24. 26% are between the ages of 25-44. 80% are between the ages of 16-34.
Now, some of the statistics point to these people being from high-income households. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the individuals on Tik Tok are those who pay the bills. Can some 16 to 34-year-olds live in mom and dad’s basement?
Is your perfect customer between 16 and 24 years old?
The next thing to look at is what kind of content people are looking for and expecting on the platform.
TikTok mainly consists of short-form video content focusing on entertainment, dance challenges, pranks, and informational content.
Does your business lend itself to entertainment? Can your informational content be attractive enough to compete against prank or dance videos? Even if you can, how much time and effort will you put in to get an ROI?
If you go the influencers route (paying for people to promote you), how much are you willing to wager and test to see if you get a result, and for how long?
Have you considered your overall business and marketing plan, your core focus, your unique selling proposition, and your ideal target market so that you can build your strategy and determine if this particular tactic even fits your business at all?
Strategy and tactics are two essential concepts in business. They help you understand what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how to improve your results.
Strategies are long-term plans that guide your marketing efforts over time. Tactics are specific actions taken to pursue a strategy, including creating content or sending emails to customers (or both).
The difference between these two concepts can be confusing for some people because they sound similar but mean different things–and it’s easy to confuse them if you need a clear understanding of each one! An excellent way to think about this is by imagining yourself at war: Your strategies would be like general battle plans; tactics would be specific strategies used during battles themselves (like using cavalry against infantry).
Business Principles
The Art of War is a guide to winning wars and a book about business. Generals and politicians have used it for centuries to gain an advantage over their opponents. The principles Sun Tzu laid out in his book apply to any kind of competition, whether war or business.
You should note that The Art of War principles isn’t just applicable to military strategy; they apply to any type of competition–including business building! Many entrepreneurs have found success by applying these same principles in their ventures:
- Keep yourself from getting caught up in small details; focus on your overall strategy instead (this will help ensure that all your efforts are aligned).
- Understand who your “enemy” is before fighting them (you want as much information about them as possible so you know how best to approach them).
- Gather the best people on your team, and after getting clear on your strategy, delegate the techniques and tactics to those who have mastered them.
- You can’t do it all yourself (nor should you).
Business Principles
The Art of War is a guide to winning wars and a book about business. Generals and politicians have used it for centuries to gain an advantage over their opponents. The principles Sun Tzu laid out in his book apply to any kind of competition, whether war or business.
You should note that The Art of War principles isn’t just applicable to military strategy; they apply to any type of competition–including business building! Many entrepreneurs have found success by applying these same principles in their ventures:
- Keep yourself from getting caught up in small details; focus on your overall strategy instead (this will help ensure that all your efforts are aligned).
- Understand who your “enemy” is before fighting them (you want as much information about them as possible so you know how best to approach them).
- Gather the best people on your team, and after getting clear on your strategy, delegate the techniques and tactics to those who have mastered them.
- You can’t do it all yourself (nor should you).
Marketing Strategies
Before you can start to build your business, you need a well-defined strategy. A strategy is the action plan you will take to achieve your goals. It’s vital that your strategy is based on solid research and analysis so that it’s realistic and achievable.
To create an effective marketing strategy:
- Define what success looks like for your business (e.g., sales targets)
- Identify the resources available for achieving these goals (e.g., time/money)
- Decide how best to allocate these resources across different channels
Marketing Tactics
The tactic is a military term for a specific maneuver or action. In the context of business building, tactics are specific actions that you take to achieve your goals. Your overall marketing strategy includes targeting previous clients and customers to get them to buy from you again or to get a referral from them. You decide that a technique is to incentivize them to buy again or refer, and the tactic is to use the medium of email for communication. You then gather and clean up your list and create a campaign with a great offer and good copy to send emails to that list.
Next, add another email tactic to compound the effects to achieve your strategic goal.
For example, if your goal is to grow your email list by 10% this month and you want to do it by running an ad campaign on Facebook (a tactic), then one way of doing this would be creating an offer that appeals directly to people who have already shown interest in similar services (targeting). For example: “If you’re interested in learning how to get the best new kitchen remodel of your dreams at the lowest possible price, click here now!” (I’m not saying that is good ad copy, by the way, you’d need to test it.)
Another way might be sending out an email blast with a “special offer” attached, maybe even giving away something free as part of the deal or offering a discount code just to sign up today! Whatever works best within your industry – whether it’s services, physical products, or digital courses – there will always be numerous options available when considering which marketing tactics work best for any situation.
Business Building
Business building is a complex process that requires you to make many decisions. The first step in making those decisions is understanding the difference between strategies and tactics. Strategies are long-term plans that help you achieve your goals, while tactics are short-term actions taken to achieve your strategy.
Every business has three primary branches or departments: sales and marketing, operations, and finance. You’ll need a strategy for sales and marketing.
For example, if one of your goals is to increase revenue by 25% over the next year, the strategy might be to build a lead generation funnel and a sales process. One tactic might be hiring new salespeople (a specific action). Another tactic might be increasing advertising spending by 10% each month until you reach your goal (another specific action).
Marketing Plans
Marketing plans are important because they help you to define your marketing strategy and tactics. You can’t just “wing it” when it comes to marketing. If you do, then there’s no way for you or anyone involved in selling your product or service (including employees) to know what exactly needs doing at any given time.
The most common type of marketing plan is one that outlines a company’s goals over a set period of time–say, three years–and then breaks those goals down into measurable objectives with specific timelines attached. This type of plan also includes an analysis of what competitors are doing in terms of their strategies and tactics so that yours can be better tailored towards beating them out on all fronts: price point vs. quality, quantity vs. quality, unique selling propositions, what makes you unique, your offer, your guarantee, and of course, your ideal target market or “client avatar.”
Business Development Plans
Business development plans are essential to the success of any business. They help you understand where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there. These plans are especially needed when building your marketing strategy and tactics around a well-defined plan.
Business development plans can take many forms: some companies use them as roadmaps for their annual budgets; others use them as an outline for long-term goals; still, others use them as a guide when making decisions about hiring or firing employees (or for designing their organization and accountability charts to move people around to put the right people in the right seats on the bus). But whatever form they take, business development plans serve one purpose: helping owners and managers make better decisions about where their company should focus its resources over time to reach its goals most effectively.
