There are two main components to any marketing plan: strategic and tactical marketing. Strategic marketing is the content of your message. It's what you say and how you say it, including the concepts that you choose to focus on, the words and images you use to communicate those concepts, and the tone in which the message is delivered. 

Tactical marketing is the execution of the strategic marketing; like ad placement, building a website, and attending trade shows. If I ask a business owner about their marketing plan, the answer almost always comes back in terms of tactical marketing: They send direct mail, run radio ads, and create a website.

But the key to effective marketing is to master the strategic side NOT the tactical. What you say in your marketing and how you say it are always more important than where you say it. Both are important of course, but the real leverage is in the messaging itself and that's the strategic side of marketing. In fact, when a marketing campaign fails, the tendency is almost always to blame the marketing medium like the TV or radio station, which is the tactical part of the plan, without any regard to how good or bad the strategy behind that marketing piece was.

Mastering tactical marketing will finally help you get a leg up and start selling your product or service for what you're really worth.