Plans and lists. Successful marketing outcomes rely on a breadth of planning activities that can’t be underestimated, even if no-one outside the marketing team really cares about or needs to see what’s involved. Any campaign or event, from the single blog post to the largest trade show needs so many simultaneous actions from initial awareness to ultimate delivery, that sometimes the list is scary.

The marketing leader’s job? To devise and oversee the ‘list’, selecting and pulling the strands together with the right deliverables from the team, working in parallel to get the job done on time.

There’s an element of judgment here; where do we test before we commit to the spend, can we pilot a message, its creative and media to the target segment before a bigger commit? Mitigating risk plays a big part but marketing’s an unpredictable game – so you have to bite the bullet, assess the likely outcomes and take the steps to get going. Then measure, tweak the strands with the team and continue towards the best outcomes.

So many comms choices, from digital to in-person, are in play that there’s no right formula, just a reliance on experience and reality-weighted common sense. Nothing beats crossing things off the list and seeing the steps go live. The tapestry may be complex, but the outcomes are there.