As a business owner, you may be excited about all of the strategies you are planning to use to promote your business and attract customers. LinkedIn, Facebook ads, and webinars are on the top of your list. What you might not understand, however, is that these are NOT strategies. They are tactics. There is an important difference between your company’s strategy and its tactics that we’ll explore in this post.
What is Business Strategy?
Your business strategy is your action plan, created to achieve your vision, mission and goals, and to guide your decision-making processes. As an organization’s master plan, it incorporates your long-term goals with a specific path on how to reach them.
Elements of your strategy should include the following:
Vision: Vision is your visualization, or mental image, of what you want your business to look like, and what you want it to be at a specific point in the future. It defines your company’s core values and its long-term goals for growth and impact, based on what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. It’s the big-picture, multi-year goal.
Mission: Mission defines your company’s purpose and intention, with the aim to communicate its direction to employees, vendors, stakeholders and customers/clients. It supports the vision and aids in development of measurable goals and objectives that track the organization’s success. It’s the multi-year “how to” of making the vision happen.
Goals: Goals are defined by your ultimate desired outcome. For most businesses, it is financial success.
What are Business Tactics?
Tactics are the tools you use in order to carry out your vision and mission and execute your strategy.
A company may have four or five, hundreds, or even more tactics in their arsenal, however, each must align with your business strategy to be successful. Your strategy will define the message: what you need to say and why you are saying it. Only when you understand this goal should you choose the tactics or mediums through which to deliver that message.
Business owners should beware of the “next, new shiny thing.” They may be tempted to scramble to be the first to hop onto the bandwagon, thinking that a new technology will help them reach potential customers faster, with a broader reach, and before any competitors. Any new tactic must align with the original strategy. Misuse of even one tactic can derail a company’s vision and mission.
The Difference Between Strategy and Tactics
Defined simply, a business strategy is singular. You can have only one strategy. The mediums and methods through which you implement that strategy are your tactics.
Examples of business strategy statements include:
- Kellogg Company: “Win in breakfast; be a global snacks powerhouse; double our emerging market engine; and win where the shopper shops.”
- Microsoft: “Driving and expanding innovation to achieve market excellence.”
- Amazon: “To meet every customer need and want with a superior experience.”
Examples of tactics include:
- Kellogg Company: TV & print mass advertising; coupons; packaging color choices; recipes and nutrition tips; product sneak peeks
- Microsoft: Paid ads in search results; advertising; events & experiences; public relations; direct marketing; personal selling
- Amazon: Free shipping; the Amazon Prime Loyalty Program; data-driven upselling and cross-selling to promote recommended items; holiday sales; print & digital advertising; promotion of user-generated content like product reviews; associates programs; social media
Hone your Business Strategy and Define Tactics with the Association for Enterprise Growth
At the Association for Enterprise Growth (AEG), we help our members define their business strategy and develop the right tactics to reach their goal. Through trusted relationships with our AEG advisors and meaningful interactions with other members, company owners learn to grow their businesses, build personal wealth, and exit on their own terms.
We’ll look at how your business is currently running, and target high-ROI activities to help you grow your value significantly and sustain growth. To learn more about how AEG helps members grow their companies, contact AEG today.
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