Some things in life just go together. You know what I’m talking about. Milk and cookies, peanut butter and jelly, apple pie and ice cream, biscuits and gravy. The list could go on and on (and yes, I know those are all food). But the same logic applies when you wish to achieve rapid business growth with the support of strategies & tactics.
Of course, you could have peanut butter without jelly and cookies without milk, but that would be weird. OK, maybe not too weird, since we’ve talked about how PB&J relates to your business before. So much like peanut butter & jelly, you could have a strategy without tactics, but your success would be minimal and our satisfaction likely non-existent. AKA not delicious at all.
Let’s dive into that reasoning a little bit more.
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SIGN UPDeliciously Important: Strategies & Tactics
Continuing the PB&J analogy your strategies are the peanut butter.
Think of marketing, technology, sales, and customer service.
Each of these different facets of your business has (or needs to have) a big idea that you are implementing for growth. For example, a marketing strategy would be to incorporate social media methods to grow your business.
When it comes to identifying a strategy, think big, long-term goals.
You can’t implement a strategy without tasks. That’s where tactics come in. Tactics are the jelly. Tactics are the how — all of the little things you are doing to support your strategy.
For the example above, if your strategy is to incorporate social media methods to grow your business, your tactics would be researching the best social media channel(s), identifying the ideal time(s) to post content, creating artwork and content, scheduling the content for your customers, and so on.
Tactics are what it’s going to take to make the strategy successful.
Strategies and tactics need to be in alignment. Anything less, and you might as well be eating a peanut butter and mustard sandwich.
The Importance of Strategic Alignment to Achieve Rapid Business Growth
You can’t have a sandwich without bread. As delicious as peanut butter and jelly are it’s inadvisable to hold it in your hand without bread. Your business strategies and tactics must align with SMART goals.
SMART goals are the bread. SMART goals not only contain the strategies and tactics (peanut butter and jelly) they help you measure the effectiveness of your efforts.
There’s a reason why people don’t eat peanut butter on rye.
It doesn’t taste as good. Your goals, strategies, and tactics are the same way. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Limited. SMART goals answer these questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
Your SMART goals support your overall business goals. Also, your goals help guide you as to the best strategies and tactics. My advice is to reserve one SMART goal for customer retention – always.
SMART goals also help you measure the success of a particular strategy or tactic on a specific timeline.
You want to make sure you’re allocating enough time to a specific strategy, otherwise, you might give up before it’s had time to flourish.
If you want your business to be delicious (like a PB&J) get your strategies, tactics, and goals in alignment. Only then will your business grow exponentially.
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