Imagine this: you’re gearing up for a cross-country road trip. You’ve got a flashy new car, a trunk full of snacks, and a Spotify playlist curated to perfection. Sounds great, right? But there’s one catch—you have no map, no GPS, and no idea where you’re going. Would you just start driving? Probably not. Yet, in the world of marketing, I see businesses do this all the time. They jump headfirst into tactics—Google ads, social media campaigns, email blasts—without a clear strategy to guide them.
And just like that aimless road trip, the results can be costly and frustrating.
Beware the Vendor Pitch
To make matters worse, there’s no shortage of marketing vendors ready to jump in and “help.” They’ll sell you on flashy promises:
- “We’ll triple your leads!”
- “Your sales will skyrocket by 5x!”
- “Our ads will crush the competition!”
It’s enticing, right? Who doesn’t want to see those kinds of results? The problem is that many of these vendors offer only pieces of the puzzle—isolated activities like running ads, building websites, or posting on social media. What they don’t provide is the glue that holds it all together: a cohesive marketing strategy.
Without that strategy, these activities can become just noise—money spent without meaningful results. Worse, these vendors might be solving the wrong problem entirely.
Here’s a real-world example. Let’s say a flooring company hires a digital advertising agency to drive traffic to their website. The ads might be beautifully designed and expertly targeted, but if the website doesn’t have tools to capture leads or guide visitors toward a purchase, all that traffic will simply “leak out.” It’s not the agency’s fault; they delivered on their promise. But without a strategy in place, the effort won’t translate into sales.
The Buyer Funnel: Understanding the Journey
Before we dive into why you need a strategy, let’s revisit a marketing fundamental—the buyer funnel. Yes, it’s been written about endlessly, but the basics haven’t changed for a reason.
- Total Addressable Market (TAM): These are all the people who could buy your product. They have the problem your product solves but may not even know you exist.
Example: A flooring company’s TAM might include homeowners who want to change their flooring for aesthetic reasons or repair old flooring after damage. - Potentials: People in your TAM who now know about your product and believe it could solve their problem.
- Leads: Potentials who have engaged with you—signed up for a newsletter, downloaded a brochure, or attended a webinar.
- Opportunities: Leads who are actively evaluating your product or service, comparing you to competitors.
- Customers: Opportunities you’ve closed. They’ve bought from you—congratulations!
Why Strategy Matters
Marketing isn’t just about tossing ads into the void and hoping they stick. It’s about moving people through the funnel, step by step. And each step requires specific activities:
- Demand Generation: Activities that expand your TAM.
- Discovery: Tactics that turn TAM into Potentials.
- Lead Generation: Efforts to convert Potentials into Leads.
- Lead Qualification: Processes to identify which Leads are ready to become Opportunities.
- Sales Enablement: Strategies that convert Opportunities into Customers.
Here’s the kicker: if you skip a step or focus on the wrong activities for the wrong audience, you’re creating a leaky funnel.
The Leaky Funnel: A Cautionary Tale
Many businesses I’ve worked with fall into the same trap: they focus on marketing operations—Google ads, email campaigns, or social posts—without thinking about how these activities connect to the bigger picture.
Let’s say you hire a vendor to run ads to drive Potentials to your website, but your site lacks a clear next step—no lead magnets, no calls to action. Those ad dollars? They’re probably not converting into meaningful leads.
Or, maybe you’re offering discounts (a sales enablement tactic) to people who are still in the discovery phase. They’re not ready to buy yet, so your discounts fall flat. Worse, they might even devalue your brand in their eyes.
This is the danger of diving into activities without a strategy: the pieces don’t fit together, and you end up wasting time, money, and effort.
Vendors Aren’t Always the Villains
To be clear, this isn’t a knock on marketing vendors. Many of them are excellent at what they do—whether it’s running ads, building websites, or creating social content. But without a cohesive plan to guide these efforts, even the best marketing activities can fall short.
Think of your strategy as the conductor of an orchestra. The individual players (vendors) can be world-class musicians, but without someone directing the performance, the music will never come together.
Where to Start: Bottom-Up
Overwhelmed? Don’t be. The best way to build a marketing strategy is to start at the bottom of the funnel and work your way up.
- Sales Enablement: Create materials that help close deals—FAQs, case studies, pricing sheets, and objection-handling scripts. This ensures you’re not losing valuable Opportunities.
- Lead Qualification: Add systems like email drip campaigns or CRM workflows to nurture Leads into Opportunities.
Once you’ve plugged the leaks at the bottom, you can safely ramp up demand and lead generation at the top. This approach not only prevents wasted effort but often leads to immediate revenue gains.
Reflect and Engage
So, before you dive into your next campaign, take a moment to reflect:
- Are you focusing on tactics without understanding their place in the buyer journey?
- Is your marketing strategy aligned with your sales goals?
- Do you have the right activities to move people smoothly through your funnel?
Marketing isn’t just about doing more—it’s about doing the right things in the right order. I’d love to hear your thoughts. What’s worked (or not worked) for your business? Let’s start a conversation—drop me a note in the comments or connect with me directly.
And remember, strategy isn’t a roadblock; it’s the map that gets you where you want to go.
