It’s a beautiful summer day.
You hop in the car with friends. The front seat passenger is playing DJ. The windows are down. There’s laughter, snacks, and an open road. About an hour in, someone from the backseat asks:
“So… where are we going?”
Silence.
No one discussed the destination. Everyone just wanted to go somewhere. And technically, you did. You’re in motion. But now you’re off-course, low on gas, and realizing that vibes alone won’t get you where you actually want to be.
This is what happens in marketing all the time.
We confuse activity with progress. We launch content. We join every meeting. We take on stray projects because “someone has to.” And we convince ourselves that being helpful is being strategic.
But it’s not.
Saying yes to everything doesn’t make you strategic.
It makes you directionless.
And marketers who prioritize being helpful over being directional end up overworked, under-credited, and easily replaced.
You might be the person who gets things done because “someone had to do it” Say. But if no one can connect your work to business results, you’re just in the passenger seat.
The Problem with “Just Driving”
When marketing lacks direction, it doesn’t matter how hard you’re working. Without a destination, your efforts get diluted. Here’s how that shows up:
Subpar Results
B2B marketing has lost effectiveness over the past decade. Campaigns have become shorter, budgets smaller, and media channels more fragmented. But the real issue isn’t tools or timing. It’s that too many programs launch without a clear objective. You can’t optimize what you didn’t define in the first place.
Wasted Effort
Leads might come in, but without a clear plan for what happens next, they’re just receipts. Money was spent, but value wasn’t captured.
Sometimes the failure happens early—no follow-up, no nurture, no path to conversion.
Other times, the lead does move forward… but gets misrouted, mishandled, or dropped in a sales process that isn’t aligned with the campaign strategy. Maybe the rep isn’t briefed. Maybe the handoff is clumsy. Maybe the messaging doesn’t match.
In all those cases, marketing still gets the blame. Because in the eyes of leadership, if it didn’t convert, it didn’t count.
The lead wasn’t the result. The business outcome was.
Without a strategy for guiding the lead all the way through, even great marketing looks like failure.
Work That Goes Unnoticed
A well-designed campaign with no distribution strategy disappears. And if stakeholders don’t understand what you’re trying to achieve, they’ll assume your work is just activity—not impact.
Define the Destination
If you want your work to be viewed as strategic, you need to define the destination and communicate it early. That means setting business-aligned goals and connecting each project to them.
“Start with the end goal in mind. What are we even trying to achieve? Then work backwards from there.”
—Mike Donnelly, Seventh Sense
Before you build anything, ask:
- What’s the outcome we’re trying to reach?
- Who needs to understand this?
- How will we know if it worked?
Clear communication objectives aren’t a “nice to have.” They are foundational. Without them, even high-quality execution can be mistaken for noise.
Navigate With Purpose
Once the destination is clear, the work becomes intentional. You can set priorities, say no to distractions, and frame your contributions in terms that matter to leadership.
Plan with Intention
Strategic marketing starts by asking, “What business value does this drive?” If a task isn’t moving the company forward, it might not belong on your to-do list.
Balance Today and Tomorrow
Short-term wins matter. But brands that ignore long-term brand building end up paying for it later. Roughly half your resources should go toward campaigns that create immediate lift. The rest should support broader visibility, trust, and authority over time.
Use the Right Metrics
Track performance using KPIs that reflect business progress. Conversion rates, average deal size, and opportunity velocity matter more than impressions or likes. And they tell a story leadership will actually listen to.
Stay Adaptive
Even the best-laid plans evolve. Sometimes your initial metric isn’t the right one. Or your campaign uncovers a better opportunity. Strategic marketers don’t just execute. They notice when the destination needs to shift—and they lead that conversation.
Don’t Confuse Motion With Momentum
When internal marketers get stuck in support roles, it’s rarely due to lack of skill. It’s often because no one knows where they’re trying to go—or why it matters.
If your work doesn’t make the destination visible to stakeholders, someone else will set the agenda. And chances are, they won’t choose a path that showcases your value.
So before you take on another task, pause.
Ask yourself:
Is this part of the route—or just part of the ride?
If you want to lead, you can’t just be the one who gets things done.
You have to be the one who makes the destination visible—and gets people there.
FAQ:
Q: What’s the risk of doing work without clear marketing goals?
A: Without defined outcomes, marketing becomes reactive and forgettable. This leads to wasted resources and missed opportunities to show value.
Q: How can internal marketers improve visibility with leadership?
A: Start by framing each initiative in terms of business impact, use clear metrics, and communicate not just what you’re doing—but where you’re taking the company.
-Proving value and ROI: It’s essential to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of marketing dollars if you hope to gain additional budget or gain credibility. We all realize that this is a challenge. So to ease that burden define the metrics that support your goal up front, then as you build out the campaign, determine how they will be measured. Essentially keeping metrics and measurement at the for front of your planning instead of leaving it as an after thought will help you to stay aligned with your goal.
-Aligning with Business Goals: Marketers need to align their goals with broader business objectives. We aren’t a service but a strategic function. This means focusing outward reporting on how marketing helps the company generate revenue and outgrow competitors, rather than fixating on the cost of campaigns.
Navigating the Journey: Strategic Implementation and Adaptation. Once the destination is clear, marketers can effectively plan and execute their journey.
