The downfall of a marketing department.

In hindsight. “You don’t get results by focusing on results. You get results by focusing on the actions that produce results.” – Mike Hawkins

A year ago, it had ruthless focus more than anything. Too little resources meant that it had to focus on the actions that produced results, today. On top of this it also strived for great frugality, cutting expenses like a sous-chef.

This may not have been the correct move, as growth came higher in the priority hierarchy. But it damn sure had a positive effect  on the philosophy of the department. And the results came (in extreme amounts) which meant more resources and a need for better infrastructure.

The  resource increase meant that the need to focus on the actions that  produced results was now a motto instead of something vital. And thus it became neglected. It was on good track to, with focus, start investing in a new channel that  would show results within six months.

This new channel would have had a  synergetic uplift on the foundation-channel as well. Unfortunately, the resource to execute this project became bogged-down in vanilla marketing-work.

Politics and internal pressure are to blame, but it damaged the focus-driven nature nonetheless. The increase in resources, that aimed to sustain (and further improve) the great trajectory, wasn’t spent on the actions that produced results.

The need for a better infrastructure paved way for a terrible investment in a new software. In hindsight, it should have been spent on acquiring a talented developer to fix and improve the current software. Now the rant is over, and chances are that none of these mistakes are applicable for you. But, the lessons from them definitely are:

• Focus on the actions that produce results.
• A great, ROI-focused marketing department always has too little resources.
• In the darkest moments, the ray of light shines the brightest. Don’t make big decisions when the situation is at it’s worst, confirmation bias will be at it’s peak

‍