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Great marketing does not merely equal tactics and great execution. That thinking is a trap. Ignoring the strategy that needs to happen before we build a marketing plan can make our perfect tactical execution completely irrelevant (thread) /1
All marketing tactics have inputs - the definition of your best target customers, what your competitive differentiation is, the unique value you can deliver. These inputs are rarely trivial decisions yet we frequently treat them that way. /2
Our customer segmentation is often too superficial. Macro categories (SMB, Enterprise, etc) are too broad. We need to understand the characteristics of a prospect that make them a good fit for our offering with enough detail to build a tactical plan aimed at them /3
An actionable customer segmentation comes from understanding who cares about your unique value and why. But your value is only unique when compared to alternatives, and what customers perceive to be alternatives are heavily influenced by the market you position yourself in. /4
This the strategy/tactics trap in marketing. If we believe the market we are in is a given, then our differentiated value and segmentation are also a given. But most products can be positioned in multiple different markets. We simply haven't evaluated the other options. /5
Example: We once shifted a product from "A personal use SQL Database" to an "Embedded database for mobile devices" Same product - different customers, different alternatives, different differentiated value. Completely different marketing tactical plan, waaaay better results. /6
Another Example: We shifted from "Enterprise Project Management" to "Agile Project Management for Distributed Teams" Again, same product, same execution skill on the marketing team. But totally different customers + value, different tactics, completely different results /7
Perfect tactical marketing execution based on a weak set of strategic inputs will give you lousy outputs. If marketing is only focused on tactics and execution, you're missing a whole world of opportunity to get breakthrough results. (end)
