Strategy and Tactics, Marketing

The strategy and tactics part of your marketing plan is the meat of what you’ll be doing. It’s also where a lot of marketing plan writers make mistakes by forgetting that strategy and tactics are two different things. (We’ll cover this in more detail later.)

A complete marketing strategy consists of four parts:

1. Marketing positioning: an explanation of your company’s differentiators and competitive advantages and why they matter
2. Major marketing campaigns: any large or long-term initiatives you plan to run over the period covered by your marketing plan
3. Marketing tactics: an outline covering the specific activities you plan on performing to meet your marketing goals
4. Marketing calendar: dates for any marketing initiatives or campaigns you plan to run, along with any other dates you feel may be important (e.g., new store openings, new product launches, etc.)