Do you have trouble explaining to people who aren’t marketers what marketing actually is? A lot of people think they know what marketing is. Marketing is advertising. Marketing is sponsorships. Marketing is lead generation. 

Marketing is none of these things and all of the things. Tricky isn’t it?

Marketing is strategy. Advertising, sponsorships, lead gen… those are all tactics. Today, Jon-Mikel Bailey shares five ways to transition from tactical to strategic marketing.

Also, if you haven’t taken a few minutes to respond to the 2025 State of Your Stack Survey, please do so. We’re going to wrap it up soon so Scott Brinker and I can pore over the results to prepare for our MarTech Conference keynote

Mike Pastore
Editorial Director

 
Financial firms innovate with AI to boost efficiency in 2024. - Adobe Experience Cloud

Marketing management

5 ways to transition from tactical to strategic marketing

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Move from busywork to a strategic approach that builds meaningful connections and drives sustainable growth.

Marketing management

Data literacy for marketers: What you need to know

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The ability to understand and work with data is crucial for marketing success. Here’s how to build your data skills to stay ahead.

Marketing management

Embracing a little chaos produces a lot of marketing creativity

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Let your marketing team’s entrepreneurial spirit shine. Create space for controlled chaos to drive change and spark progress.

Agencies

2024 Conversion Benchmark Report

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Unbounce’s 2024 Conversion Benchmark Report is packed with insights marketing agencies can use to deliver even more value to clients.

Marketing technology

Mobile marketing with RCS: What you need to know

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RCS is game-changing technology for mobile marketing. We've updated our article to include news of RCS tools from Twilio.

Be a part of the marketing revolution. See what's in store. - MarTech Spring

Conversations with MarTech

Voice agents will change how you think about your brand and your website

EP2-landscape

You invest hours in images, design and color schemes. But what happens when customers explore your website without ever seeing it?

Watch it now!

Start 2025 strong with data-powered insights to elevate your marketing

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Learn how leading brands are using cutting-edge techniques to drive results—and how you can apply these insights to your own strategy.

Marketing artificial intelligence (AI)

Is your marketing team AI-ready? 8 steps to strategic AI adoption

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Make AI work for your team with a structured approach to adoption, training and implementation. Here’s how.

Free online event

Have you seen the MarTech agenda?

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Meet the speakers you’ll learn alongside — and the topics you’ll discuss — at MarTech, online March 25-26. Your agenda sneak peek is here!

See what’s in store

What else we're reading

Good reads and conversations to help good marketers get better.
 

MarTech research

Surveys and research reports to make you a more-informed marketer
 

What they're saying

 

From Search Engine Land