When more is less: learning to say ‘no'

I suspect almost every CMO or Head of Marketing knows the feeling. The CEO wants the company to create a podcast. Or commission a series of videos explaining the company philosophy. Or set up a newsletter. The list is endless, the logic behind it usually doesn’t run any deeper than:

“I think it would be a good idea and company x does it, so it must be”

To give just one example, I was once told by a founder that “we should do more video”, and when I attempted to dig into his reasoning I was told (and I am not making this up) that “Kim Kardashian does video and it works for her”. 

Nobody likes to be a party pooper but a good CMO says ‘no’ more often than they say ‘yes’. Saying ‘yes’ is the easy thing to do. It leads to short-term popularity and the impression that you are a go-getting all-action type. Saying ‘no’ is awkward, but nevertheless it is the right thing to do. 

Here’s two important reasons why.

Strategy before tactics

Firstly, and I really hope this is obvious, tactics should always be informed by strategy. Let’s talk about the video example above. There is nothing wrong with video: at this stage I’ve been responsible for more videos than I can count. But I still instinctively resisted being told to “do video”. Why?

Simply because a specific video is a tactic, and random tactics that don’t form part of an overall strategy are doomed to fail. If the conversation had followed a logic something like this:

• We are struggling to close deals in our pipeline (here’s the data, it’s way off industry norms)

• We are concerned that our prospects don’t see the ‘social proof’ they need to get them over the line

• Our own analysis suggests that we are weak in this area, and our sales people tell us that they are empty-handed when people ask for customer stories

• We want to support multiple channels and ensure the content can be accessed in a variety of ways

• So we think we should create a bank of video testimonials

  
  

There wouldn’t have been a problem. Indeed this is something close to what we eventually did. 

Don’t be intimidated by the word ‘strategy’ by the way. Think of it more as strategic thinking. Which just means starting from first principles, asking the “what problem are we actually trying to solve?” question, and then plotting a course of action based on the world as it is, including the resources available to us. 

That, in short, is the process that any company (or individual) should go through before committing resources to a specific project or activity. And speaking of resources…

A job done badly is worse than a job not done at all

I am an economics graduate. And one thing economics graduates all know is that resources are limited. 

On the other side of that equation, doing things takes effort. Doing things well takes a lot of effort. And all other things being equal, the more things you try to do with the same resources to hand, the more quality is going to suffer.

That matters, and it matters more than you might think. What is actually getting communicated when your company publishes a blog post, or a video? The content you include in it, sure. But also a lot of information about your company that may not be particularly flattering. 

We all know this. If we see a flyer littered with spelling mistakes we immediately make an assumption that the source doesn’t care much about attention to detail, or is too stupid to spot the mistakes in the first place. Neither is a good look. And you don’t want to be making the same mistake. 

Indeed a poorly run marketing team can actually spend time and money damaging your brand rather than promoting it. All because they didn’t ask the simple question: “do we really have the resources to execute this, and execute it well”. 

And one final thought…

I am a great believer in the “nobody cares” school of marketing. The deepest recesses of Youtube are full of corporate videos, some excellent, some terrible, that have been viewed by dozens of people at best - and half of them are probably bots.

Similarly, I dread to think how many podcasts are produced by deluded executives or agencies only to be met with almost total indifference. At least it is hard to figure out just how much of a flop they actually are. 

Of course there can be valid reasons to create videos, podcasts, or indeed blog posts that are read by a small number of people only. But there are plenty of good reasons not to. 

I recommend you have a good long think about them before committing to any given course of action. And be prepared to say “no”.