What is a Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan? Plus, tips for Both.

So many health and wellness marketers, and executives alike, use marketing strategy and marketing plans interchangeably. They certainly sound almost the same. It's easy to see why there is confusion between the two.
To help alleviate this confusion, we thought it would be good to outline the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan - and what purposes each serves.

The Marketing Strategy - The Goals or The Destination

A marketing strategy creates the outline for where you're going. It answers the big questions. It outlines what your offer is, who your audience is, what your brand stands for, and who your competitors are. 

A strategy is based on the specific goals of your business. It outlines why you’re approaching your marketing efforts in the way that you are. It’s a framework for how you will connect with your target audience to meet your business goals.

Strategy is your roadmap for success because it keeps your marketing efforts focused on supporting the overarching bigger picture.

Your strategy also outlines how to message your value and position yourself within the marketplace. It outlines how you will communicate your value and how this value will be propagated across your channels and platforms, at a high level. A strategy is comprehensive and should be since it’s the framework for all your marketing efforts. In essence, it’s your scorecard.

A marketing strategy typically includes the following - sometimes more and sometimes less, depending on the market, company, and goals.

• Business goals

• Competitive audit

• Target Audience

• Value proposition and messaging

• Channel overview

• Success metrics - KPIs

You must keep your strategy high-level. Your strategy is your foundation. Take the time to build it right. The tactics and methods should not be included, save this for the marketing plan.

After you’ve completed your marketing strategy then you can move on to the marketing plan. Many people ask if they really need a marketing strategy. People often wonder if they can get by with just a marketing plan. You can always skip over creating a marketing strategy, but why would you? 

Your marketing strategy is the foundation for driving marketing success throughout your business and is created by a Chief Marketing Officer or Fractional CMO. To skip this step is like saying you want to make some money in your business, but you don’t want to make as much as you can. 

The marketing plan outlines how you will accomplish everything you’ve outlined in your marketing strategy. The marketing plan is the how. 

The Marketing Plan - The How or The Tactics

Your marketing plan is based on your marketing strategy. The plan outlines the tactics for how you will execute against the strategy and your business goals. It outlines the campaigns, promotions, and any other initiatives that will be executed in addition to the amount of time it will take. It outlines what the team is doing and how it will track and measure success. 

The marketing plan should outline which audience segments you’re targeting and what channels you’re using to reach them. Your marketing plan should cover at least 3 to 6 months, but it needs to be agile so you can respond to changes in the marketplace, as you go.

While your marketing strategy is typically constant, it’s okay if your marketing plan changes and evolves in response to the results over time.

To recap: Your marketing plan outlines the tactics, steps, and implementation methods for the goals outlined in your strategy. 

Even though a marketing strategy and plan are different, the combination of the two is how successful marketing teams thrive. This is the difference between planning to run a six-figure business vs. a seven-figure business. Companies that take the time to document marketing strategies are 566% more likely to succeed than those that do not.

The cohesion between the plan and the strategy makes it easy for the entire organization to be on the same page (even if you're just a three person team). The two make it easy to determine if your campaigns and efforts are meeting your goals and needs so you can become agile enough to test and iterate as you need to.

It aligns your actions with your goals and allows you to measure their success in a way that is always tied back to the needs of the business.

Happy Marketing!

If you need help getting your marketing ideas down on paper, reach out to our team for a free marketing strategy session for advice.