Every company needs a plan to win over their competitors. That strategy needs to be well-defined in order to then pour our efforts into thinking the best tactics to carry it out. We need to ask ourselves… How are we going to execute the plan?
Definition of strategy
Strategy is a long-term action plan which is designed to achieve a particular goal or even a set of goals. Strategy essentially involves first of all, analyzing your skills, analyzing the current situation, identifying the opportunities, and the challenges, and developing a specific plan, which is made of manageable steps which will guide to the desired outcomes.
To plan a good strategy we need to know a lot of different things, such as the current situation of the organization and perform a DAFO about it. We should analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, as well as the external factors that may impact its success. To complete the set of goals, we should know which resources are available and how they can be allocated or assigned to achieve the desired goals.
Definition of tactics
On the other hand, a tactic is a specific method or approach used to achieve a specific goal. We can plan to achieve those objectives with a technique that is intended to produce a particular result. Tactics is often used in the context of competition, negotiation, particular conflicts, where it is used to gain an advantage over your competitor or to achieve a specific desired outcome. Tactics refers to a smaller part of a larger plan or a small part of a strategy.
Main Difference of strategy vs tactics
The main difference of strategy vs tactics, is that strategy refers to the overall plan used to achieve a long term goal or objective, on the other hand, tactics refers to specific actions, approach or methods used to achieve the steps inside the plan and achieve short-term objectives.
In other words, strategy is the big plan that includes or outlines the desired outcomes, what we cant to achieve and how we will define the plan to achieve it, meanwhile, tactics are specific steps or actions and decisions we make to execute that plan.
We will set an example in order to understand it better, for example, a company's strategy might be to become the market leader in their industry over their major competitors, by providing high-quality products, exceptional customer service, additional products.. To achieve this, they might use different tactics such as researching, expanding their product range, improving their branding and marketing, improving their social media…
To sum up, strategy is the plan for achieving a long term goal, and tactic is the specific action that we will take in order to implement that plan and achieve shorter-term objectives.
How to make a good strategy?
Define your goals: Clearly define what you want to achieve and why it's important. Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that you will use to measure your progress and success.
Conduct a SWOT analysis: Evaluate your organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). This can help you identify areas where you need to improve and opportunities that you can capitalize on.
Develop a clear vision and mission: Define your organization's vision and mission, and ensure that they are aligned with your goals. Your vision and mission should be inspiring and communicate the value that your organization provides.
Identify your target audience: Identify your target audience and understand their needs and preferences. This can help you develop products and services that meet their needs and develop marketing strategies that resonate with them.
Develop a competitive advantage: Identify what differentiate your organization from your competitors and develop strategies to leverage these advantages.
Develop an action plan: Develop a detailed action plan that outlines the steps you need to take to achieve your goals. Assign responsibilities and set deadlines to ensure that everyone knows what they need to do and when.
Monitor and evaluate your progress: Regularly monitor your progress and evaluate your results. Use your KPIs to measure your success and adjust your strategy as needed.
How to make good tactics?
Align your tactics with your strategy: Ensure that your tactics are aligned with your overall strategy and goals. Your tactics should support your strategy and help you achieve your desired outcomes.
Focus on the most important objectives: Identify the most important objectives that you want to achieve and develop tactics that specifically target these objectives.
Develop processes to increase efficiency: Consider making step-by-step guides and save them in different folders, so if someone doesn't know how to do something, it will be as easy as visiting the corresponding folder. But do it in an automated way with Uphint (it’s free).
Identify your target audience: Identify your target audience and tailor your tactics to their needs and preferences. Consider factors such as age, gender, income, and interests when developing your tactics.
Set clear goals: Clearly define the goals that you want to achieve with your tactics. Use specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) criteria to ensure that your goals are realistic and achievable.
Develop a detailed plan: Develop a detailed plan that outlines the specific steps that you need to take to implement your tactics. Assign responsibilities, set deadlines, and establish metrics to measure success.
Use the right channels: Choose the right channels to communicate your message and implement your tactics. Consider factors such as your target audience, the nature of your message, and your budget when selecting your channels.
Test and refine your tactics: Test your tactics to see how well they work and make adjustments as needed. Use analytics and other metrics to track your progress and refine your tactics to improve your results.
Examples of business strategy
Cost Leadership Strategy: To gain advantage over the competitors, a business can focus on producing and delivering their products at a lower cost than its competitors to gain a price advantage.
Differentiation Strategy: To establish a powerful differentiation from their competitors, a business can differentiate their products or services from their major competitors offering a unique selling proposition and changing the price strategy too.
Niche Strategy: To aim your efforts into a powerful target is the number one priority and strategy to a company. A business targets a specific and small specialized segment of the market, ready to meet their specific needs providing products or services that are tailored to them.
Growth Strategy: By entering in new markets, or launching new products with a powerful storytelling or unique selling point, increasing sales and revenue, can help businesses to focus on expanding their market share.
Acquisition Strategy: Another powerful strategy, based in businesses acquiring other companies in order to expand their products or services, market reach or capabilities.
Innovation Strategy: In order to create new products or services and differentiate from the competitors, business invests in research and development to deliver powerful products that meet customer needs and drive new clients, even eventually, create a community of fans.
Customer-centric Strategy: By providing products that meet customer needs, are personalized experience and tailored products, its the result of a business focusing on understanding its customer deeply.
Examples of good tactics
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimizing website content to improve visibility and results in search engines results pages.
Content Marketing: Creating relevant and powerful content to attract a defined audience and drive customer retention.
Social Media Advertising: Using specific social media platforms such as Tik Tok, Linkedin to promote products to a specific target.
Email Marketing: Powerful tactic to retain customers by sending informative messages to the list of subscribers.
Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with micro influencers and influencers can increase the brand visibility.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): Improving the customer access to the website, improving the website design and the content tailored to our clients, can increase the percentage of visitors and make the purchase.
Conclusion
To define a powerful strategy will require precise tactics that will lead us to the achievement of short-term objectives that, at the same time, will drive us to long -term goals. Those tactics need to be well-defined and precise in order to achieve the overall plan, the strategy.
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