TAL .005: Pick the Right Marketing Activities to Focus On

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Marketing The Arete Letter

Without a system, you’re probably wasting resources on time-sinks – high effort, low impact. Here’s how to flip the equation.

In this letter, I’m going to show you how to ignore ‘time-sinks’ and prioritise solving problems that will actually move the needle.

1. The Problem

Most marketers struggle with too many problems to solve and too few resources to make it happen.

Solving every problem is an impossibility.

So we pick certain things to focus on.

For some people, it’s the things they feel comfortable with – for example, running outdated MQL plays in a world that no longer rewards lead-driven behaviour.

For others, it’s the next shiny object, like switching to the new all-in-one tool that they think will make everything better.

Smart leaders don’t do either.

They prioritise activities that support their overall goals.

But, even if you’re objectively prioritising, understanding which of the many problems to solve first is hard.

2. The Solution

To simplify prioritisation, use a system like ICE, RICE, or Value vs. Effort.

My personal favourite: ICE (Impact, Confidence, Effort).

Impact = How much of an impact will this activity have on your end goal?

Confidence = How confident are you that the activity will have the level of impact you estimated?

Effort = How much effort (read: time, money and cognition) will your team have to use to execute this activity?

Here’s how it works:

  1. Assign each activity scores out of 10 for impact, confidence and effort respectively.
  2. Run the following formula for each activity: (Impact * Confidence) / Effort
  3. Rank your activities in descending order (highest score to lowest score).
  4. Work your way down the list.

Keep in mind that ICE isn’t perfect.

Sometimes, it’s easier just to prioritise activities mentally.

It can also take time to learn how to score activities accurately, which can throw out prioritisation until you get better at it.

3. Implementation

Tech Needed: A spreadsheet tool like Airtable, Excel, or Google Sheets

Ease of Uptake: Easy

  1. Enter your activities into a spreadsheet with five columns: Activity, Impact, Confidence, Effort, ICE Score
  2. Manually assign each activity impact, confidence, and effort scores out of 10 (1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest).
  3. Add the (Impact * Confidence) / Effort formula to the ICE Score column – you should automatically get scores for each activity.
  4. Rank the tasks from lowest to highest.

By Duncan Croker

Duncan is a copywriter with a background in editing and storytelling. He loves collaborating with brands big and small, and thrives on the challenges of hard marketing.