Overcomplicated Marketing Strategy? Use This Checklist To Simplify It.

I've seen businesses of all sizes struggle with marketing strategy planning. And even the most well-intentioned marketing efforts can turn into wasted budget without understanding what a strategy is, how to create one, and how to bring it to life.

In the spirit of making strategies easier to understand, here are a few tips to make the most of your next strategy build (without getting caught in the weeds).

Planning requires action (and vice versa)

To be honest, I've seen a lot of businesses — of all sizes and experiences with marketing — sink excessive time and money into developing an elaborate marketing strategy. And the worst part? They never execute it. Some clients will even produce a hefty document full of insightful research and future plans, but it just gathers dust on a shelf. All that hard work amounts to a hollow exercise in navel-gazing rather than driving actual results. 

On the flip side, a strategy has to be more than a list of tactics. What you're doing is bigger than creating content for media, email campaigns, blogs, ads, and other mediums without any overarching vision tying it all together. It's easy to get bogged down in buzzwords and complex frameworks and lose sight of simply connecting with their customers in an authentic way.

(Watch the video above to find out where most clients get lost during strategy planning.)

The reality is that an effective marketing strategy requires finding the right balance between thorough planning and pragmatic action. The secret I've discovered is treating strategy development as a sprint, not a marathon. Give yourself and your team a hard deadline — I recommend 4-6 weeks — to complete the initial strategy. Then immediately move into execution mode with the understanding that you'll refine as you go.

Don't get paralyzed by research

You need to start with a solid foundation of research to deeply understand your brand, customers, competitors, market trends, and opportunities. Simply winging it is a recipe for wasted effort.

Remember: In today's fast-moving market, the risk of overplanning often exceeds the risk of imperfect execution. The key is finding the balance between thoughtful strategy and decisive action.

However, you also can't get paralyzed by trying to make your strategy perfect or overly complicated. There's no single comprehensive framework that works for every business. The goal should be creating a clear, actionable roadmap tailored to your specific situation — not checking boxes on some bloated template.

I now advise many executive teams to focus on the critical 20% of research that will inform 80% of our strategic decisions. This typically includes:

• Deep-dive interviews with your top 10 customers
• Analysis of your three biggest competitors' positioning
• Review of the market forces most likely to impact your business in the next 18-24 months

Be open to making changes

I would argue that the most important step in implementing your marketing strategy is watching how customers actually respond. Don't be afraid to iterate and optimize based on real-world data, especially if something isn't working in your favor. Even the most thoroughly researched plan will need tweaking once you put it into practice.

The biggest misstep for businesses is sinking excessive time and money into an elaborate marketing strategy ... and then never executing on it.

Do the homework to craft an informed marketing strategy, but stay lean and focused on moving to action quickly. Avoid costly delays in launching customer-facing efforts while also preventing a rudderless, scattered approach. Sure, it's important to constantly learn, evolve your strategy, and improve. But don't get so bogged down looking for the perfect plan that you never get anywhere. An imperfect strategy that you actually execute will always outperform a brilliant strategy that sits stagnant.

The companies that find that marketing strategy sweet spot are the ones that drive sustainable growth and stay ahead of the competition. With the right balance of insightful planning and agile real-world efforts, you can make your marketing dollars work smarter for your business.

Your foolproof marketing strategy checklist

Every successful marketing strategy will do the following:

Get help finding efficiencies in your strategy planning process

It can be hard to find opportunities to improve your process on your own — much less figure out ways to resolve issues you run into time and time again. I have some lessons learned to share that can help.

Sound like something you could benefit from? Let's talk.