You know what the trap is.
You’ve been feeling it for years.
But now it’s more intense than ever.
We’ve all been adding marketing initiatives, programs and campaigns – at the expense of focus, precision and sustainable growth.
Sure, it’s a bit more nuanced than that, but here’s what we’re not gonna do anymore:
We’re not gonna add more marketing work AND continue to avoid the most impactful work because we’re now unable to focus on it.
That would be the biggest mistake you’d make as a marketing leader this year.
Right?
Here’s most likely what’s going on for you today:
- You have a sense of what the biggest blockers for growth are
- You’d like to think you can just chip away at them, but…
- You know deep down it will require real focus
We already pitched Objective-Driven Growth Sprints so we won’t do that again ?
But let’s see if we align on the thinking behind this concept…
Take Johnny for example.
Johnny believes one of his company’s biggest growth blockers is messaging.
He’s been tweaking headlines, adding content and finessing ad copy, but he knows deeper work is required. But revamping the messaging would be a heavy lift with multiple people involved, wouldn’t it? Typically, but not necessarily.
What if he could somehow set aside 60 days to focus in on everything that goes into developing strong messaging, test and validate it through paid media driving people to a Start Here page (like this one) and land on something he could bring to the rest of the leadership team?
Whether or not Johnny has the oxygen needed to do that properly, that would be the right thing for him to do, wouldn’t it?
Make real progress against a major opportunity and create his own momentum.
Then there’s Jenny (yeah, without the h) who understands that her company’s customer acquisition strategy is plain old broken. Chip away or focus deeply?
We know the right answer.
It’s just hard to act on it.
But here’s the thing:
Your #1 job as a marketing leader is to be clear on the primary way the business is supposed to grow in any given season.
So what is your growth hypothesis?
Oh, you’ll get the majority of your new customers through content? That’s how they’ll get a taste of the value your solution offers? Cool.
Or, it’s really about paid media. Great.
Whatever the answer is, it should give you confidence about the direction in which you need to go so you can lock in on your focus over these next few months.
And if you’ve ever believed focus is a bad thing in some kind of way, this is the moment to shed that thinking.
Some are saying this is the year of efficiency. We think that’s a trap. This is the year of focus. That’s the only way out of this sh!t.
Not creating the space for focus would be the biggest mistake at this point. So let’s avoid that.