Tactics vs. Strategy: How To Use Tactics to Build Your Strategy (2024)

People often use the terms “tactics” and “strategy” interchangeably. In fact, most thesauruses list them as synonyms. It makes sense: Both words describe approaches people use to achieve their goals, and they’re intimately related. In the military, for instance, a strategy is a big-picture plan, while tactics involve on-the-ground maneuvers. There’s a similar distinction in business.

Here’s a look at how tactics and strategy differ and relate, and how you can use both to realize goals for your small business.

Tactics vs. strategy: What’s the difference?

Strategies outline your overarching objectives, whereas tactics focus on small, actionable steps. In other words, your strategy refers to the plan your business follows to achieve its long-term vision, like growth. Tactics are the specific components that make up your strategy—the concrete, short-term actions you take to reach your broader strategic goals.

For example, you might have a broad customer engagement strategy, within which your tactics might include partnering with social media influencers or launching a customer loyalty program.

Strategic plans tend to be more rigid, developed with specific long-term objectives in mind, while tactical plans are more flexible and can adapt to changing strategic goals or conditions. If your social media partnerships don’t increase sales, for example, you might pivot to tactics like video content or email marketing—all within your broader strategy to increase engagement.

Ultimately, the right strategy composed of the right tactics will help you achieve your business goals.

What makes a good strategy?

Good strategies share certain characteristics. Keep the following in mind as you craft yours:

Alignment with values

Aligning your strategic and tactical planning with your business’s core values can guide your decision-making processes and ensure your team are all on the same page—especially if you change tactics on the fly.

For example, if you’re co-branding an initiative, identify a strategic partner that’s aligned with your business’s core values. This can lead to a stronger, more authentic partnership that amplifies both brands and prevents miscommunication or conflicts that hamper your strategy.

Clear vision and well-defined goals

Strategies are first and foremost about reaching articulable organizational goals. For a well-defined strategy, develop a clear understanding of your objectives, set realistic timelines for achieving these strategic goals, and establish methods to measure progress.

Say you sell compression socks, and your goal is to sell 5,000 pairs during Q4. To achieve this, you might develop a strategy to release one new print or pattern each week of the quarter. To prepare, you set a six-month timeline for creating, approving, and producing around a dozen different designs. By clearly defining your objective and timeline, you make it easier to measure progress.

Contingency planning

Strategies are about long-term objectives, but the longer your strategy execution period, the more likely something is to disrupt your plans and necessitate adaptation. Envision a contingency plan—or multiple—for every business strategy.

For example, at the start of the year, you might set a sales goal for Product A. But, by April, a supply chain issue—like an uncontrollable weather event or international political disruption—arises, affecting a critical input. With a strong contingency plan in place, you can make up lost sales revenue. For instance, you might pivot your marketing strategy for Product B, for which you have plenty of inventory and materials.

What makes a good tactic?

The tactics you can employ are nearly endless, and it’s unlikely that any two of your strategies will use the same combination. Here are a few characteristics of good tactics:

Alignment with strategy

Just as your core values drive strategic decisions, your strategies should guide tactical decision-making. Ensure that all of your tactics actively contribute to your strategic objectives since excess or ineffective tactical actions can waste precious time and resources.

Say your shirt brand’s overarching strategy is to increase online sales by 20% within six months by targeting eco-conscious consumers. As a tactic, you launch a digital ad campaign featuring new products. Focusing the campaign solely on your new line of sustainable, organic cotton t-shirts—instead of introducing shirts made from various materials—ensures your tactics are closely aligned with your big-picture strategy.

Adaptability

A strategy can’t adapt to changes in the business environment if its underlying tactics aren’t adjustable and adaptable. Choose tactics that are flexible enough for you to respond to feedback and unexpected external factors in real time.

Suppose your company wants to increase sales by 15% within the fiscal year by being more responsive to changes in product demand. It implements a semi-automated pricing system that analyzes and responds to fluctuations in demand based on website purchases. This dynamic pricing system lets you be more responsive to changes, while a manual override function lets you disable automation if your pricing strategies need adjustment.

Iterative applicability

Adaptability is a key feature of any good tactic, but it’s just as important to be able to reapply your tactics if they’re successful. You may see a substantial increase in sales after one of your social media campaigns goes viral, but you can’t expect the same results with every campaign. Instead, choose tactics that you can replicate consistently with reliable results.

Let’s say you want to raise brand awareness by boosting newsletter signups by 30% over the next year. A good iterative tactic would be to offer discounts to customers who provide their email at checkout. You might apply the same basic tactic in other strategic and tactical planning situations. For example, you could reward customers who attend live events or potential customers who provide their cellphone numbers during specific marketing campaigns.

How to track the success of your business strategy and tactics

Tracking progress provides valuable data you can use to later replicate successful strategies and tactics and avoid ineffective ones. Here’s how to devise a tactic tracking system:

Set KPIs

An effective strategy defines your key performance indicators (KPIs)—specific, measurable metrics that reflect your business goals. These might be financial benchmarks, growth percentages, concrete milestones (like a product launch or website redesign), or any other factors to quantifiably measure strategy.

Build a dashboard

Numerous project management tools offer dashboards for tracking the progress of individual tactics and your overall strategy. Whether you choose a robust online platform or a basic spreadsheet, keep your team organized and all necessary information reviewable at a glance.

Monitor in real time

Monitor your strategic and tactical outcomes in real time to get ahead of any problems. Maybe engagement is lower than you hoped for the first of several social media posts you publish. Regularly monitoring data gives you time to refine your content before publishing your next posts.

Establish feedback loops

Create feedback loops to help team members and stakeholders identify poor strategies and weak tactics before they cause too much damage. Real-time feedback mechanisms, like weekly check-in meetings, reporting requirements, or a customer feedback system can go a long way.

Reassess regularly

Schedule periodic strategy and tactic reviews after implementation. Did you and your team achieve your strategic goals within the finite timeline? Could you have been more efficient? Take everyone’s opinions into account and determine how you’ll proceed with the next phase of strategic planning.

Document and share progress

Archive your tracking reports somewhere easily accessible—like a shared drive—so stakeholders can reference them in the future. Making these materials available to your entire team fosters transparency, keeps everyone on the same page, and invites collaboration in developing strategies.