Business Strategies vs Goals. Why You Need Both!

Most Companies Don't Set Goals - Almost None Create Strategies 

Strategy Defined

What is a strategy?  How does it compare with or relate to a Goal?  Which comes first, a goal or a strategy?  Can you run a business without a strategy?  Without Goals?  Is this post about an academic issue that only applies to Apple and Boeing?

In my last post I laid out the basics of goal setting.  It is a pretty big deal to really sit down and figure out what matters to you personally, and what your major goals are for your business.  Some folks are afraid to do this.  Some just can't seem to find the time.  Some seem to feel that goal setting is not important.  I make the claim that goal setting is the most important thing you will ever do in the marketing success of your enterprise. 

In case you have set your goals, what next.  I know that for me, there is a tendency to immediately go into action.  But going off half-cocked will undermine much of the benefit of having set goals in the first place.  Do I mean by this, that if you set goals, but don't follow through with strategy and tactics, then don't bother to set the goals in the first place?  Not even close!  Goals are the most important, then strategy, then tactics. 

Back to the original question:  What is a strategy?  A strategy is the meat on the bones of the goals.  It is the how of the what.  Each goal should be taken individually from the top priority to the least.  How can the company most effectively use the resources available to it to accomplish the goals.  If the goal is to achieve an increase of 20% in sales, how will the company do that.  Possibilities could include a larger territory, new products, increased prices, more sales units or dollars per invoice, more dollars per client per year, more expensive products, more sales people, etc. 

An evaluation of the choices should result in realistic approaches.  If there isn't much money to spend, then it might be better to increase prices or work to increase the average ticket, neither of which requires any expense.  However, it is important to also measure the likelihood of success of each strategy as you determine which to follow.

At this point you might have a sheet of paper or a spreadsheet with a set of goals, and each of those goals has a list of strategies under it.  You might also include a dollar amount that can be invested in each. 

Hopefully you can see that this process is anything but academic.  If you think it is, tell me in the comments.

Read next:  What is a business tactic?  After the Goals and Strategies, You Need the Tactics

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101 Marketing Secrets - Whoops! Starting Over At the Real Beginning

What a difference a week makes.  Just last week I started this list of 101 Marketing Secrets based on my 60 years of experience as a sales and marketing professional.  I know that in my pictures, I don't look like I'm 80+.  Old photo?  Great surgery?  Excellent genes?  Not exactly.  I started selling at age five when my great grandmother gave me some Christmas card samples left over from taking orders and sent me out door-to-door.  That was the beginning of an almost continuous 60 years of starting small businesses, some of which got big.

Not me!

But, I digress.  As I was researching one of the posts, I ended up down one of those rabbit trails we all go on doing internet search.  And it hit me.  Starting with profit, cost, and sales were pretty darn interesting, and counter-intuitive for most readers.  But they should have followed goals, strategy, and tactics.  Maybe these can be the prequel trilogy released after the first trilogy.  My kids are shouting "You're no George Lucas, Dad."

Goals Are the First Step in Every Major and Minor Marketing Process

The word "every" is a well considered word.  My editors sometimes point to my use of such words that may or may not be provable.  In this case, I'm saying every, and I'm sticking with it.

The first marketing goal setting session should be personal.  What are your goals.  Being 100% honest here, I haven't always, and don't always take the appropriate time to contemplate my personal goals.  At almost 100 years-old, I have not drawn up my bucket list.  But the other day I was in a conversation with someone approaching retirement, and doing a bit of counting of her available retirement funds.  She wondered out loud how she could maximize her income and net worth by age 65.  My immediate response was "Why does it matter?  What will you do with the money?"

I suspect that everyone reading this could get by in retirement on $3000 a month of after tax income if single and $5000 if married.  Maybe far less.  So what would you do differently if you had double or triple that number.  Maybe nothing.  Maybe it is just for peace of mind or a desire to leave a bunch to the kids or grandkids.  But wouldn't it make sense to have some goals so that the decisions you make are grounded in strategies and tactics that are likely to get you to the goals?

Then you come to your larger business issues.  What are the goals of your small business?  Sell out someday?  Leave to kids?  Work until you drop?  Why?  Generate a certain amount of income?  Value?  Why?

Now, let's drop down another level.  Goals for a new product launch.  Goals for an event.  Goals for an advertising campaign.  Goals for an expansion.  Goals for sales.  Goals for profits.  Goals for the next hire.  Goals for each employee position.  Goals for a new equipment purchase.

The Point - Whether you are having a team meeting or make all decisions on your own, start each decision process with a statement of the goal.  As you write down the goal, there should be some ability to see that this goal coincides with the overall goals of your company and your personal aspirations.

If you would like to learn more about goal setting, purchase a copy of my most recent Warner Business Book offering, Running a 21st Century Small Business.  I will admit that some of the internet portions are outdated, but most of the book is still 100% on point.  And the cost is nominal.

Next we will review the difference between strategies and tactics.  Do you know the difference?  Does it really matter?

How are you doing at setting goals before making decisions?  Do you suspect that setting goals would make a difference in outcomes?  Let me know in the comments.

YouTube Videos Custom Produced for Your Business As Low As $100 Each

Which would you prefer for your next ad if all the costs were the same?  Mail, Newspaper, Radio, or TV?   Nobody questions to reach and power of television compared to radio or print.  That very fact is being dramatically exhibited every single day as everyone from the local handyman to Pepsi and Apple utilize the most important component of social media, YouTube, to advertise and promote their products and services.  Are you taking advantage?

We will produce 6 short videos for you, edit them, add music, text, links, descriptions, great titles, and upload them onto YouTube and other video depositories for just $600.  These can be done in your facility if you are within a one hour drive of Los Angeles International Airport.  Or we can do them remotely (it's a secret how we do this.) if you are in another city.   Call us Now at 310-910-1848 to get started.


Over 50% of my incoming phone calls are from YouTube videos and I have multiple websites, blogs, articles, pr releases, and other content all over the web.  Many of my clients are experiencing exactly the same thing.

Your videos will show up on YouTube Search.  This is the second most important search engine after Google.  But the good news is that your video will also show up on Google Search.  Sometimes even on the first page.



Moreover, our videos are high enough quality that many of our clients place these videos on the front page of their website.  They almost always use the videos as the reason for a post on their blogs.  You can also put them up on FB.  One video can result in multiple uses.  We'll show you how 6 videos might result in your company being found on 100's of search results for the keywords you care about.

The reason YouTube is so amazing as an advertising resource is that your potential clients are more likely to trust your company if they see you telling the story.  We train our clients to come across on their own YouTube videos as very authentic and trustworthy.  By using multiple videos you are also able to show that you have a depth and breadth of knowledge that gives the potential customer the confidence they need to pick up the phone or come to your store.

Call us today.  Remember $600 is all it takes to get started with 6 videos.  Call 310-910-1848 right NOW!

Marketing in 2011 - The Brave New World Of Small Business Marketing

I can't find my Yellow Pages Book.  No idea where it is.  I used to take two newspapers and 10 magazines.  I worry about the young kids who are still trying for mag subscriptions door-to-door.  Remember commercials on TV.  Some still Tivo through the commercials.  Now I Hulu on my IPad.  The Airline Magazines don't get touched anymore as everyone turns on their mobile devices.  Amazon, Ebay, and other online retailers may not ever get all the retail business, but don't tell the bookstores that.

And what about the pace of change?  Who can keep up?  I can tell you that as a marketing professional, we spend hours per week just reading about the changes and the possible impact.  Facebook ads, Google Places, YouTube channels, the Google Panda change, Smart Phone effect.

Small business owners who do their own marketing are more foolish than the proverbial lawyer who handles his own legal matters.  At least the lawyer has training.  But the statistics tell the tail  Somewhere around half of all small local businesses do not have a website at all.  Another huge percentage of those who do have a website are not visible.  And the ones that aren't visible are probably so old and out of date they wouldn't convert visitors into action if they ever got anybody to show up.

Every stat I see says that YouTube and Email to a customer list represent the highest potential return on investment for any marketing that a small business might undertake.  Would you like to venture a guess as to the percent of lawyers, accountants, bakeries, and pet shops, much less restaurants and hotels have done anything with YouTube or even have an email list.

If you are reading this and you resemble these remarks, check out how we can help.  You can hire a $250,000 per year marketing executive and a full staff of marketing experts for just $750 a month.  We will keep up to date on what you need both online and off line, and we have the skills to provide you with the results you need to make the phone ring and the door swing.

Read the details of how we can help you with your small business marketing here or just call me now at 310-910-1848.  No receptionist.   No salesperson.  You'll talk to me.

Ten Reasons for Using YouTube for Local Small Business Internet Marketing

Yelp.com and CitySearch both maintain that having a YouTube video on their listing for your company doubles the likelihood that the visitor to your listing will take some kind of action. What their claim leaves out is that a poorly created video will not produce those kinds of results and might have a negative effect. On the other hand, there are dozens of other good reasons to create one of more YouTube videos for your local small business other than its effect on Yelp.com.

2. Not every business, but most, will generate more customer calls and decisions to shop if the client has a reason to trust you. The written word is good at this, because folks tend to trust what has been made permanent on paper or screen. But you can really increase trust by allowing your customers to hear and see your personal passion about your products and services through a video.

3. The internet is hungry for information. If your YouTube video has information that your client base is seeking, they will find the video to get that information.

4. YouTube has a search function. If you do a good job of Titling your video, creating a good description, and providing relevant keywords in the title, description, and tags, your potential customers will find you through the search mechanism on YouTube. They may also find you because you are related to other searches they do and videos they watch.

5. YouTube videos show up on Google Searches and other similar search engines. It is not uncommon for a thoughtfully keyworded YouTube Video to show up higher than your $5000 website.

6. By adding YouTube videos to your Google Maps Local Business Center listing, MerchantCircle listing, Yelp.com and others, you improve your ranking on those local search engines, and that helps to improve the ranking of your website.

7. You can add your YouTube video to your website as a URL link, like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-0VIHJCRk, or as an embed (see below). By putting the video on your website, you generate far more chances of it being seen. This is where you can really build trust and increase reasons for your customer to shop with you.

8. You can add your YouTube video to your blog, your facebook, you can Tweet about it, and you can socially bookmark the original video, the article on your blog, and the facebook entry. All of these increase the chances of the video being seen, and also benefit your activities on these other web tools.

9. Daily Motion and other video depositories similar to YouTube may pick up your video and add it to their listings. But if you don't want to wait and see if they do so, you can upload the same video to each one, or you can use an aggregator to put the video up on numerous of these sites all at once.

10. A single YouTube video that we did for a client for less than $300 resulted in the sale of a $6000 bicycle. This is just one of many such examples. The best part is that the YouTube video is listed on page one of a Google search for Specialized Transition and is going to still be selling bicycles for this client a year from now.

You can create your own YouTube video. But I caution you that it needs to be thoughtfully created, edited, superscripted, titled, keyworded, described, and uploaded. Please take a look of one we did recently for an apartment management company on this page. We can do a video like this for you for $300. If you are not located within driving distance of our headquarters, you may need to send us some raw footage or we can work from pictures and create a slide show with voice over.

Give us a call. We can dramatically impact your business with a single YouTube Video