Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Direction - Why your startup should choose Marketing Direction and how it will help you achieve faster growth.
A rigid marketing strategy can feel like trying to sail a ship with a broken rudder. You’ve got a course set, but when the wind changes, you're stuck.
During my career as a Marketing Consultant, I have seen this so, so, so many times. Here's how it normally goes:
CMO: "Ah, we've learned something new and should probably change our channel choices because we think we can get more growth but it might involve a drop in performance while we test. "
CFO: "But there's no extra budget for testing and, we've locked performance to your strategy and we need you to ensure that each channel brings what is expected"
CEO: "We've already committed to your strategy, and we told the board about it, they don't like surprises, so just stick to that"
CMO: "OK, we'll plan it for next year"
Competitor: "Sneaks in and steals your tactic, growing their awareness, revenues and performance"
CMO: "ok, here's the strategy for next year"
CFO: "But everything is just more expensive and the conversion rates are lower"
CEO: "I can't present this to the board, this is terrible news, you're fired!!"
Then repeat this process with the next CMO / Head of Marketing ad infinitum.
So What is a Marketing Direction?
To create a marketing direction - you will need to set out your growth strategy, this includes:
Setting your Core Values
Setting your BHAG
Creating a Milestone
Set your Go To Market Strategy
Figure out your Payback period
Work with your CMO to create impact driven OKR's
Sounds like a lot - but without this, you risk setting the wrong direction entirely - and this can definitely cause issues, so it's worth spending the time.
Note: It normally takes 2-3 weeks to set this all up if you're working with me as your Growth Marketing Consultant. It can take 2-3 months if you do it on your own (as clients have told me)
Marketing Direction gives you flexibility—a North Star to guide your decisions but freedom to adjust the sails. So, which approach is better for modern startups, particularly those navigating the volatile waters of pre-seed or Series A funding?
Let’s break down the differences between these two approaches, explore real-world examples, and highlight why a more fluid Marketing Direction is often the better choice.
TL;DR (Key Takeaways):
Marketing Strategy is a rigid, pre-planned approach, often setting fixed KPIs and relying on assumptions about what works. This can lead to silos, team friction, and missed opportunities when the market shifts.
Marketing Direction focuses on a dynamic, goal-oriented approach. It encourages flexibility, continuous testing, and cross-team collaboration to adapt to changing environments and market conditions.
Companies are increasingly switching from Strategy to Direction to unlock growth and adapt to modern digital marketing's fast-paced evolution.
For startups in the early stages, adopting a Marketing Direction approach can ensure agility and more efficient use of resources.
Want to learn more about how this approach could transform your business? Book a free discovery call with me here.
Marketing Strategy: The Good, the Bad, and the Assumptive?
A traditional marketing strategy involves extensive planning, projections, and assumptions. It sets KPIs based on the belief that certain channels or tactics will work, with metrics often tied to specific channels like SEO or content marketing. While this structure seems logical, it can create a host of issues:
Single Channel Focus: Say you’re running a campaign, and the SEO team has KPIs linked to organic traffic growth. They’re likely to push SEO harder than necessary to hit those targets, potentially leading to diminishing returns. This single-channel obsession can inflate costs and reduce overall campaign effectiveness.
Example: With one client many years ago (before I knew better), we initially set KPIs tied to PPC, but quickly noticed a lack of flexibility in our approach caused ever increasing CPL's. By switching to a more directional approach with incrementality testing (learn more about this method here), we unlocked a 281% ROAS increase, removing the silo'd teams that were driving inflated costs.
Market Changes? What Market Changes? All Digital platforms constantly evolve, just think of Google’s regular algorithm updates. A set-in-stone SEO strategy might not account for these shifts, leaving your tactics outdated and ineffective. It can take months to set up a traditional strategy, only to find the landscape has changed before you’ve even started executing.
Assumption Overload: At the heart of every marketing strategy is an educated guess. No matter how data-driven your approach is, market behavior can be unpredictable, and strategies that looked good on paper can fail in execution.
Ultimately, traditional strategies can create siloed teams, focusing too much on individual success and not enough on overall growth. This is where Marketing Direction steps in.
Marketing Direction: Agility, Collaboration, and Continuous Improvement
Instead of locking your team into a fixed set of tactics, Marketing Direction takes a goal-focused approach. It lets you pivot based on real-world data and encourages a culture of experimentation.
Continuous Testing & Learning: Rather than sticking to a year-long strategy, Marketing Direction enables you to test and trial different tactics, methods, and channels. This fosters curiosity and collaboration. Teams aren’t just looking to hit their KPIs—they’re working together to hit company-wide goals.
Example: At a Berlin-based startup I worked with, we changed their Go-To-Market model and implemented a Marketing Direction model, refocusing team targets on performance rather than tactics and focusing on the client end goal (the only one that was really important) of increasing MRR. Rather than sticking to rigid tactics, the team had the freedom to test different acquisition methods, ultimately driving a 500% growth in 12 months. Learn more about the approach here.
Flexibility in the Face of Market Changes: Because Marketing Direction doesn’t tie you to specific channels, you’re able to adjust tactics based on real-time data. Whether it’s a new Google update or a shift in customer behavior, you’re not stuck.
Incrementality Testing: Marketing Direction thrives on a test and learn philosophy. By continuously testing different channels and methods, you can measure their incremental value to your overall business objectives. Instead of looking at vanity metrics like impressions or clicks, you focus on actual business impact. Want to know more? Check out this blog post on why incrementality testing trumps traditional attribution models.
Ambitious, Curious Teams: When teams are given the freedom to experiment, they become more invested in collective success. Instead of siloed departments chasing individual KPIs, Marketing Direction encourages cross-functional collaboration. Teams are more likely to share insights and collaborate because they’re all working toward the same goal.
Curious about implementing this with your team? Let’s talk - book a free discovery call to explore how.
Examples of Companies Switching from Strategy to Direction
Several companies have realized that a rigid marketing strategy no longer cuts it in today's dynamic landscape. For instance, Spotify has continually evolved its approach, focusing more on Marketing Direction to drive its rapid growth. By testing different acquisition and retention strategies, they’ve maintained agility in an incredibly competitive market.
Example: At one of the smaller agencies I worked for in London, we shifted from a predefined digital marketing strategy to a more flexible, target driven direction approach. This enabled rapid scaling of accounts, driving a 14% increase in performance for all clients.
Choosing the Right Path for Your Startup
For startups, especially those at the pre-seed or Series A stage, flexibility is absolutely critical. By adopting a Marketing Direction, you not only increase your chance of finding the most efficient path to growth but also build a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
While a traditional online marketing strategy can give you structure, it's too rigid for the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing. As the founders I work with in Berlin and London have discovered, success in the modern world requires a more adaptive approach.
Whether you’re looking to refine your B2B marketing strategy or scale your B2C marketing strategy, shifting to a directional approach could be the game-changer you need.
Interested in learning more about how a Marketing Direction approach could transform your business? Book a discovery call here or explore how I can help as a Fractional CMO.
Acronym Glossary:
KPI: Key Performance Indicator
ROAS: Return on Ad Spend
MRR: Monthly Recurring Revenue
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
PPC: Paid Search (Pay per Click)
CMO: Chief Marketing Officer.
Growth(by)Gardner - a Growth & Marketing Consultancy.
As a Marketing Consultant, Growth Marketing Consultant and Fractional CMO for your startup I focus on helping startups create scalable growth, leveraging lean marketing principles, lightweight microservices and 18 years experience in growing successful companies to help your startup grow.
Want to see what I can do for you? Book a Free Growth Discovery call.
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