Seriously most of us are probably trying tactical stuff as we think of it. If it works, we continue. If not, we discontinue. But without strategy that requires a real knowledge of your desired customer, we never really know why one thing works and another doesn’t. That is what makes marketing seem so “squishy”.
Cigarette ads from long ago.
A strategy is what you will do. A tactic is how you will do it. Sometimes I have to go through a few examples to get the distinction right.
The purpose of this exercise is to look at the tactics that worked and decide on the overall strategy these tactics contribute to. THEN you can brainstorm more tactics that fit into that strategy.
What the rest of the world thinks of marketers.
You’ve put in hours upon hours spreading the word about your product, but has all your hard work been worth it? Small businesses often commit one of two marketing blunders.
You have to look back objectively at the past year before you can accurately plan for the next. To help you do that, I’ve created some questions to ask yourself about the sales and marketing you’ve done in 2011.
Instead of beating ourselves up, let’s take stock of all the things we learned in 2011. For me, it was a year of rebuilding after a couple years of just hanging on by my fingernails. Now there’s a bit of cash and a bit of energy for marketing to new prospects (and to the existing customers.)
Google’s recent announcement that it will be encrypting search queries for users signed into their Google accounts is troubling to some observers. The search giant has cited user security as their main motivation for the change, but it will have serious impacts on SEO.
