Sophisticated Wandering Is Wrong

Most marketing campaigns are lots of activity and noise, but there's no real sense of where they're headed. We launch campaigns because that's what we do.

This is misguided.

Try starting with the end in mind. Not just "we want more sales" (that's lazy thinking), but a crystalline vision of what transformative success looks like. When you're fuzzy about success metrics, every A/B test is just guesswork (most A/B tests are done incorrectly but I digress). Every piece of content is just content for content's sake. You're throwing post-its of varying sizes at a wall, hoping something sticks.

I propose (and practice) asking what "done" looks like before you start moving towards done. This practice gives every decision context and each choice either moves you toward that vision or it doesn't. It eliminates needing meetings to debate comma placement and obliterates the "we should do this because our competitors are doing it." trope.

Why wouldn't you want clarity? Why wouldn't you want to know exactly what winning looks like? Why wouldn't you want to be attracting the kind of leads that become vocal advocates for your brand? Why wouldn't you want to become the go-to thought leader in your niche? Only you can try to answer these questions.

However, when you define success at the outset with this level of precision everyone knows exactly what they're working toward turning the campaign from a collection of loosely integrated tactics into a cohesive journey toward a compelling destination.

Get clear on where you're going. Because without that clarity, even the best execution is just sophisticated wandering.