Managing Strategically Vs. Tactically – What’s the Information Gap?

Are you getting the best out of your marketing team?

One of the biggest challenges within marketing teams is the information and expectation gap between strategic and tactical thinking.

Usually both sides (the senior manager and the team or agency) are at fault. The reason is that while the team wants to think they’re providing “strategic” guidance – the reality is that before the ink has dried on the dry erase board, everyone wants to jump right into projects, hours, account management, deliverables and deadlines. All too often projects are started from the tail instead of the head.

Much of this can be chalked up to a lack of experience. It’s very easy for those that are focused on delivery to quickly jump into “what do I need to deliver”. But more attention needs to be paid to the “why” rather than the “how”.

One of the most pronounced places you can see this actually happening is how businesses deal with their marketing agencies. Studies have shown that less than 15% of agency fees go into strategy work – while 80%-90% of fees go to tactical execution. Is it any wonder that clients want “ready-made” solutions and agencies are more than willing to provide them?

So, how do we close that gap?

You’ve got to devote resources and focus for strategic work. Similarly, your agency should be challenged to focus on, and should charge you for strategy work. There should be no reason for a “b” team from your agency – because you recognize the value in the “A” team. Recognize that the teams have a common goal – and that goal is the success of your account. You hire an agency for the same reasons you hire key members of your team – for experience and the relationship that will give you the best, strategic, chance for success.

At Boyd one of the practices we commonly employ is to schedule regular meetings to review strategy and see how we apply the tactical projects to that strategy. We want to set and review the strategy with the key stakeholders and management team members. The goal is to see if we’re both reaching the objectives we jointly set. And at the end of the day, that’s what we want – for you to see us as a partner in strategy.

We strive to make sure that the strategic thinking we bring to bear is truly original to your business – and not a ready-made solution that is working its way to an efficient, but mediocre conclusion. You want and deserve breakthrough thinking – and in order to do that – we both need to invest the best people and thinking. This, will not only help you succeed – but it will also ultimately save both time and money in the execution.

So, as you look at your next marketing initiatives, let’s increase the percentage of time and resources to be more weighted toward the strategic thinking. Let’s spend our real effort on strategy - and on breakthrough creative that sells. Then, jointly figure out the best way to tactically execute that strategy – whether it’s with internal team members or Agency personnel. With your internal team, that’s how you develop the strategic thinkers that will ultimately lead the organization. And, that’s how an agency goes from being an outsourced body shop – executing tactically (and efficiently) to a strategic partner that can help you succeed.