Paradigm #5 - Strategies Over Tactics
This article is part of the Paradigm Shifts series where I discuss the principles that should guide the creation of your online business.
Introduction
A lot of advice on the Internet about growing an online business has to do with TACTICS.
The counsel typically centers on improving / optimizing one aspect in a long digital marketing chain: traffic, SEO, content, PPC, website, funnel, email, social media, and the list goes on.
Weaknesses of Focusing on Tactics
Though tactics may produce the outcomes you desire, there are many drawbacks to being more tactic focused.
First, they are platform or program specific. This limits how useful they are. In addition, platforms change their process, algorithms, and even their interfaces all the time. This can easily render your tactic obsolete.
Secondly, focusing on tactics only gives you a small piece of a much bigger digital marketing pie. You should be focused on mastering a few key marketing pillars.
Third, focusing on tactics makes you more susceptible to shiny object syndrome and the lure of easy money. There are countless products that promise a hack, secret or trick, to achieve a particular aim.
But these kinds of products only keep you from getting serious about your business.
Finally, when you focus on tactics, you ignore what matters for success in this game: mastering a few core skills. This requires patience, perseverance, and having a game plan.
Focus on Strategies
The solution to only focusing on tactics is to focus on strategies instead. A strategy works across all platforms, software, products, niches, markets and even different time periods.
Strategies are based on timeless principles which is why they work in almost any situation.
For example, there is a strategy (and even multiple strategies) for:
- Picking the right niche for you - Hint: Start with what makes you feel like a kid in a candy store.
- Creating a good offer - 80% is research to identify audience's deep felt needs and the gaps in market.
- Optimizing ANY portal - Use an image that conveys an emotion or tells a story and combine with your impact message for your specific audience.
- Writing compelling content - It should be audience and solution centric.
- Building an email list - Demonstrate problem solving expertise and make sure you are attracting the right audience with your free offers?
- Writing engaging emails that convert subscribers to buyers - Try to entertain, educate, and elevate someone's thinking in your emails.
Conclusions
Tactics are limited, dependent on a platform or product, and keep you from seeing the big picture. You have to learn a few of them to work in a market, product or platform. But you should not overly focus on tactics.
Strategies on the other hand are based on universal principles that work across all platforms, markets, and time periods.
In the long run, you should focus your energies on learning strategies.
Here's to your success!
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P.S. Be sure to check out the other posts in this Paradigm Series.
Recent Comments
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Yep, you've convinced me. If you can come up with a strategy to move you to the spot where you want to be, it's a win-win situation.
Agreed. For me it comes down to finding a few virtual mentors with whom I resonate, and testing / modeling some of their strategies, for whatever aspect of marketing I'm trying to master.
(This is a paradigm post in itself!)