Okay, so the inspiration for this article has been the number of people I hear saying things or posting online comments like “so how do I do Facebook better?” “Should I boost my Facebook post?” or posts on a similar thought pattern. These questions often show a distinct lack of understanding of the marketing process. I am not saying this to be critical. The use of social media platforms can be valuable but I think many business owners miss out on key opportunities for success by skipping some steps.
Technology has had a dramatic effect on our everyday lives and marketing tactics have evolved accordingly, but, in my opinion, the overall marketing process has not changed significantly. All that has really changed is some of the tactics that you may use as part of the marketing process. No matter what anyone tells you, social marketing does not exist in isolation – it’s a potential tactic of the “traditional” marketing process and it’s not necessarily a tactic you should be using.
In order to explain myself and what I am trying to argue here, I am going to talk about Goals, Strategies, Objectives and Tactics. When you have a better understanding of what I mean by each of these terms, you’ll have a better understanding of the marketing process and be able to achieve better results – or know if you are hiring the right person to achieve these results for you.
Here are the definitions that I am going to work with for the rest of this article.
Goal – A goal is what you want to achieve. A goal is your desired outcome. When setting goals I recommend following the SMART principle – goals should be Specific, have Measurable results, be Actionable (i.e. task oriented), be Realistic and have a Time-focussed deadline.
Strategy – A Strategy is your broad approach to how you will achieve your goals. Strategies may include things like; increase brand awareness, be persuasive in convincing others of the value of your product.
Objective – Objectives are like mini-goals. You have your overall goals but then you have a measurable objective for each of the strategies you are considering implementing.
Tactic – The tactics are what you use to achieve your core objectives.
In explaining how the idea of goal, strategy, objective and tactic works, let me talk about my own industry of telecommunications.
Goal – to increase sales revenue of hosted PBX systems to 45% of company revenue by June 2015.
Strategy – Here I might go with two strategies because this is a relatively new product. 1. Increase awareness of the product in the marketplace. 2 Build credibility by persuading people that this new technology is an improvement on their current conditions.
Objective – Objective 1 might be to increase web traffic to the appropriate page by 100%. You might also look at increasing enquiries by 100%.Objective 2 could be to collect testimonials from a certain number of existing clients.
Tactics – There are a number of different tactics that I could look at implementing here for each objective. Using the increasing web traffic objective, tactics could be Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Blogging, Forum Posting etc. Aligning tactics to specific strategies and objectives is a post for another day but the purpose of this post is to ensure that you understand how everything fits within a framework.
I’ve been asked before in presentations why I continuously refer this process and harp on about the importance of examining all four points. It’s because I want people to avoid what is commonly referred to as “Shiny Object Syndrome.” If people are not clear about their goals, strategies and objectives they get blinded by tactics. When one tactic “doesn’t work” they move onto another tactic until that one bores them too.
I really want to emphasise in writing this article that social media is not a goal, social media is not a strategy nor is social media an objective – social media is a tactic. You may develop a “social media strategy” but this is just how you use this tool as a tactic to achieve your overall objectives.
Let me be clear here. I am not telling you not to do social media. Social media platforms are a very powerful tool and can give you access to a very wide audience. What I am trying to say is that unless you set your goals, your strategies and your objectives clearly first you will not be using your time on social media platforms most effectively.
If this talk of Goals, Strategies, Objectives and Tactics is making you throw your hands in the air and scream “WTF?” then do I have an amazing offer for you.
Yes, I charge clients for coaching. But, until the end of July I am offering those interested a free 20 minute Skype consultation where I will answer one burning question you have and we can explore whether there are opportunities to work together.