Why marketing effectiveness is about people, not just numbers

Strategic misalignment is costing your business more than you think. Marketing isn’t just about creative campaigns or catchy taglines anymore; it’s about business impact. And that only happens when marketing and business goals are tightly aligned. If your CMO doesn’t know your revenue targets or churn rates... If your marketing team is measuring likes while sales is begging for leads... You don’t have a marketing problem. You have a strategy problem. In our latest article, we explore what real alignment looks like: 💡 Reducing churn through smarter marketing 🚧 What happens when campaigns launch without operational readiness 📊 Why cross-functional KPIs are non-negotiable When marketing strategy mirrors business strategy, ROI becomes undeniable. When it doesn’t, even your best campaigns can fall flat. Read the article: https://lnkd.in/dEXNhj_6 Brigitta Long | Nicci Stewart | Laura Rapson | Jarred du Plessis #MarketingStrategy #CMO #BusinessAlignment #GrowthMarketing #Leadership #B2BMarketing #MarketingROI #CLevelInsights #StrategicLeadership

Let's Collaborate: Share Your Best Tips for Marketing Strategy vs. Tactics Here's something I've noticed: Many professionals confuse Marketing Strategy with Tactics. Today, I want to gather insights from our community about these two distinct but complementary concepts. I'll start by sharing what I know: Marketing Strategy involves: 🎯 Long-term business objectives 👥 Customer-centric approach 📊 Market analysis and positioning 💰 Resource allocation 📅 Multi-year planning Marketing Tactics include: 🛠️ Short-term action items 📈 Immediate implementation 📱 Quick adjustments 📊 Specific KPIs ⏱️ Day-to-day execution Call for Contributions: • What's your go-to approach for developing a marketing strategy? • How do you align your tactical decisions with strategic goals? • Can you share a success story where clear strategy-tactics alignment made a difference? Looking for: 1. Your best tips for separating strategy from tactics 2. Real-world examples of successful strategic planning 3. Tools you use for strategy development 4. Tactical execution frameworks I'll compile the best responses into a comprehensive guide, crediting all contributors. Let's build a resource that helps everyone understand this crucial distinction better. Share your expertise in the comments below! 💭 #MarketingStrategy #MarketingTactics #BusinessGrowth #Collaboration

Most marketing teams aren’t struggling with creativity. They’re struggling with conditions. → Too many competing priorities → Unclear ownership and decision rights → Constant context-switching → No space to focus on the work that actually moves the needle This past month, I’ve been working with marketing teams whose leaders aren’t just talking about change, they’re backing it. Their teams are walking away with the tools, language, and confidence to challenge how things get done. It wasn’t about learning a new process. It was about unlearning the chaos. Creating space for: ✅ Clearer priorities ✅ Stronger communication ✅ Faster decision-making ✅ More confident pushback on low-value work One participant summed it up beautifully: “Even though it was my second round, I genuinely enjoyed it from start to finish. I love the spirit, it’s really given me a new spark in my marketing career.” That’s what I care about most. Not frameworks or jargon. Just real shifts in how marketing teams operate, so they can focus, lead, and deliver meaningful work with impact. These are the shifts that light me up, where strategy meets reality, and teams start to feel in control of their work again. #MarketingTransformation  #WaysOfWorking  #StrategyExecution

Marketing rarely runs in a straight line. It’s a mix of creativity, critical and analytical thinking, and constant problem-solving. Budgets get cut. Deadlines get expedited. Sometimes key decision-makers change their minds after everything has been approved. It reminds me of one of those classic marketing moments where things seemed to fall apart overnight. I had inherited a project that had already cleared all internal approvals, including the brief and concept. Then a key stakeholder changed their mind, which meant the piece would either need to be cancelled or completely reworked, pushing timelines and costs far off course. While leadership discussed next steps, I took a moment to pause and think through the problem. I proposed a new direction that addressed the stakeholder’s concerns, strengthened the concept, and kept us on track without increasing the budget. The result was a stronger piece that was quickly approved. Experiences like this remind me that effective marketing requires more than creativity. It also calls for composure under pressure, the ability to see challenges from multiple perspectives, and the determination to find solutions that move projects forward. What’s a time you turned a marketing setback into an opportunity? #MarketingLeadership #ProblemSolving #CreativityInAction #MarketingStrategy #LeadershipInMarketing #Adaptability

Is your marketing team comfortable with uncertainty and given permission to share ideas, take risks and innovate? A robust marketing operating model enables organisations to ensure they have right skills, capabilities and organisational design amongst their teams - and surrounding all this is culture. Each of the interviewees in our 2025 report, Evolution of the Marketing Operating Model, shared the importance of establishing a culture that supports continuous change and improvement, and nurturing psychological safety is key. https://lnkd.in/gK6FxY8s #PsychologicalSafety #MarketingOperatingModel #MarketingLeadership

If you think a ‘marketing plan’ is just a calendar of posts, I’m not the consultant for you. What I do goes way beyond marketing. It’s not about social media schedules or a string of campaigns. It’s about: Clarifying a company’s vision, mission and values Building a communications strategy that leadership and teams buy into Creating the roadmap that connects activity directly to growth If your marketing doesn’t reflect the bigger picture, it’s just noise. My work starts with leadership because strategy has to flow from the top. That’s how you build clarity, consistency and results across the whole organisation.

Maintaining momentum and alignment across various sector marketing plans can be challenging—especially for teams busy with day-to-day deadlines. How can marketing leaders keep everyone moving in the same direction when they themselves are pulled in so many? That's the challenge Baskervill's marketing team faced entering 2025. We joined the team as a strategic partner, working as an extension of marketing leadership to create clarity around big picture goals and bring an objective and data-driven voice to eight distinct practice areas plans designed to drive focus and follow-through. In workshops with marketing and sector leaders, we challenged each team to define measurable goals that contributed to firmwide vision across three buckets: PURSUE (growing market share), POSITION (shaping market perception), and PROCESS (improving collaboration and efficiencies). Quarterly check-ins provide the structure and accountability to assess progress, clarify priorities, and keep sector and marketing leaders moving forward together. And when gaps in skill, knowledge, or resources were identified, we were there to fill them. “Dragonfly brought structure, clarity, and accountability to our annual planning, aligning leaders around shared goals and vision. Beyond strategic direction, they embedded themselves in our organization to deliver training, research, workshops, and coaching to drive progress. They’re the voice we didn’t know we needed—and now can’t do without.” Courtney Neston, Associate, Director of Marketing, Baskervill If you need added bandwidth, clarity, or perspective to move your strategic efforts from plan-on-paper to plan-in-motion, we’re here to help with a flexible model that scales with your needs and builds long-term marketing resilience.

What executives don’t expect from the marketing strategy, but they love it: → It saves them lots of time. When the strategy and the marketing plan are in place, you as a leader don’t need to: - be making decisions about marketing continuously - question whether you’re doing enough - worry if you’re doing the right things It takes the mental load off and frees up your time. Having a documented strategy and a plan means that you can: - delegate easily - outsource effectively - negotiate packages better - get things done with way less effort But it also means managing risks proactively (and not retroactively!). I find that the strategy work mitigates 9 risks that affect the marketing function. Check out the breakdown in the infographic 🔔 Follow me, Teja Sirec, for life science marketing insights

Marketing directors... are you treating brand as an optional extra? If you’re only focused on short-term wins, you’re missing the key part of what makes those wins actually matter. Right now, the pressure’s on for speed. CEOs want faster leads, quicker results and cheaper clicks. And that pressure gets pushed down, from board to MD to marketing team. But here’s the reality: Without brand, performance doesn’t scale. It spikes… and then stalls. We see it all the time: 👉 CAC goes up 👉 Trust erodes 👉 Campaigns burn out faster than they should At PTP, we’ve been around long enough to see the patterns. 50+ years of combined experience, and we’ve never seen short-term thinking win in the long run. We’re not anti-performance.. we run those campaigns every day. But when performance and brand work together, something different happens: - Growth compounds. - Spend works harder. - Results last longer. This isn’t a new idea for us, we’ve believed it from day one. We’re just seeing more people start to feel the effects of ignoring it.

In today's rapidly evolving marketing landscape, why do changes often appear slow until they suddenly accelerate? This question lies at the heart of recent insights from Marketing Week, highlighting the critical non-linear nature of marketing transformations. Experienced marketers understand that anticipating these shifts is essential for effective campaign management and brand optimization. Detecting early signs of change equips leaders to adjust strategies in real-time, fostering both agility and informed decision-making. Connecting brand-building efforts across the organization, rather than limiting them to the marketing department, ensures consistency and enhances the overall customer experience. Moreover, balancing the urgency of immediate commercial results with long-term brand development is crucial. Excessive focus on instant performance can undermine sustainable growth. Continuous cultural change and the development of skills related to data analysis, empathy, and strategic thinking are now indispensable for marketing teams striving to keep pace with the evolution. Drawing inspiration from the BBC's recent marketing revitalization showcases how intentional cultural and creative risks can breathe new life into established brands. A data-driven approach should support—not replace—human intuition and deep brand understanding, enabling more nuanced decision-making. What strategies have you found effective in navigating these rapid changes in marketing? How do you ensure your team stays ahead of emerging trends without losing sight of long-term goals? Share your experiences in the comments below. #MarketingStrategy #BrandBuilding #DataDriven #MarketTrends #LeadershipInsights