strategy-first Do You Think of Marketing as a System?

Just as get-rich-quick schemes can be enticing, getting caught up in the hype of marketing tactics is easy.

• Tactics can help you chalk up some quick wins without much effort.
• They're the new shiny objects that are making someone else tons of money. And maybe they are.

But I'll tell you a secret, their success isn't really a result of their tactics alone.

And your quick wins might not add up to longer-term, sustainable, results.

Have you or your team ever spent too much time on scattershot tactics that didn't produce results?

• How much time, energy, and money did that cost you?
• And to what extent did it keep you and your team from helping your mission take flight.

CoSchedule defines marketing tactics as "the strategic actions that direct the promotion of a product or service to influence specific marketing goals."

Why is it so easy to get lost in the weeds of tactics?

Because countless blog and social media posts are sharing "How to" this and "The Latest" that. And if trendy tactics are working for others, they're sure to work for you, right?

Tactics that create crazy success for someone else's organization will often not set you up for success.

And if you're focused mainly on scattered efforts to gain someone's attention, then you're setting yourself up for failure and frustration.

The CoSchedule post showed that they also shared "35 Marketing Tactics That Work."

But they knew that by just offering you ways to "do marketing," you'd be left scratching your head, wondering what to focus on and where to start. So they offer a marketing strategy spreadsheet you can download to help plan all of your tactics.

Trust me; it will not help you create a marketing strategy from scratch.

Why? Because, as they said, tactics are strategic actions, so you need to focus on strategy first.

Marketing as a system is a mindset for tactical success.

Tactics are easy to focus on because they give the illusion that you're saving time and checking "marketing" off your to-do list.

When you think of systems, you often think of them as:

• Saving time
• Saving energy
• And saving money

So, what if you approached your marketing as a system?

Do you believe that mindset will genuinely help you save yourself time, energy, and money? We do.

When you think of your marketing, think of strategy before tactics.

Looking at your marketing through a "strategy first" mindset will set your marketing tactics up to succeed in more predictable ways which will help your mission take flight.

What does a Strategy First marketing approach look like?

1. Start with research
2. Put the plan together
3. Map it all out
4. Set up tracking to measure effectiveness

You might be wondering why starting with research is the first step.

We believe that the research and work done through a strategy-first marketing approach will uncover the best marketing priorities needed to map out a successful implementation plan.

And we'll begin unpacking more of our marketing system approach in future blog posts.

So stay tuned!