Hard to believe that August is already a week old. Move your marketing planning outdoors, if only for an hour. You can enjoy the summer breeze, soak up some vitamin D, and get work done, too.
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— Ann Gynn
The Hotline
How Do I Know Which Marketing Opportunities Are Worth It?
🟩 ATTRACT → 🟧 CONVERT → ⬜ RETAIN → ⬛ AMPLIFY
Almost every week, someone — and often more than one — pitches me on a marketing opportunity. Someone wants me to work with their SEO agency. Another invites me to an exclusive networking group. An email arrives offering me booth space at an industry expo. I don't have time or budget to do everything. How do I decide which opportunities are actually worth pursuing?
Just in the last two days, I received an invitation to a conference, an offer to be profiled in a women’s publication, and a promotion from a marketing agency. My first instinct is practical: If it costs money, I hesitate. If it’s free, I ask if it’s legitimate.
Those questions help me eliminate bad opportunities. They don’t help me recognize the best ones. For that, I rely on this three-question framework:
What am I trying to accomplish?
Does this move me closer to that goal?
How will I know if it helped?
So, let’s start with No. 1. The answer could include your long-term vision (grow my revenue to $1M) or short-term thinking (increase client revenue by 10% next month).
Without a clear business goal, every marketing idea can look worthwhile. I’ve seen it happen. Prospective clients ask me to create a marketing tactic that will improve their business. But as we dig into it, the real problem is that they haven’t defined their business goals. Without that foundation, it’s almost impossible to know which marketing opportunity deserves your attention.
Once you know the direction, you can evaluate the idea. Not every good opportunity is the right opportunity for your business. A conference, networking group, agency, or media coverage may all have value, but only if it helps you accomplish your goal.
When I ask this question, I look at three things:
Alignment: Will this opportunity help me accomplish the goal I identified, or is it simply an interesting distraction?
Opportunity cost: If I invest my time or money here, what won't I be able to do instead? Is that tradeoff worth it?
Credibility: Is the agency, media outlet, or service provider reputable? Do they have a track record of delivering results? What do other customers or industry peers say about them?
Before you say yes, answer the final question: How will I know if this worked?
Define success before you commit. Knowing how you’ll measure results helps you decide if the idea is worth pursuing in the first place. It’s especially important for ongoing marketing investments. An SEO or GEO agency, for example, isn’t likely to transform your rankings or citations in a month. So what should you reasonably expect after a month? Three months? Six? Identifying the milestones upfront makes it much easier to evaluate whether the investment is delivering enough value to continue.
And if you decide to move forward, don’t let evaluation become an afterthought. Put a reminder on your calendar to reassess the investment.
I do this with my software subscriptions. I add the renewal to my calendar for a few weeks before it automatically happens, and I reassess the investment using the same three questions.
Most marketing opportunities aren’t obviously good or bad. They’re just competing for your limited time, money, and attention. So instead of agonizing over what to do (or ignoring it altogether), use these three questions to make better decisions for moving your business forward, not just your marketing.
Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future edition of The Hotline? Call or text Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.
The Challenge
This week: Pick an existing marketing tactic, service, subscription, or event you’re paying for simply because you haven’t stopped.
Ask yourself: What am I trying to accomplish? Has this moved me closer to that goal? How do I know?
If you can’t confidently see a positive impact, cancel it.
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What I Did With AI This Week
Though I’m a word person, I’ve found visuals are the key to better outcomes with AI agents. Every time I get stuck in WordPress, I take a screenshot of my computer and share it with ChatGPT along with my task so it can help me figure out what I’m doing wrong and what I need to click to fix it.
Have any AI tricks of your own? Hit reply, call, or text the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.
The Marketing Minute
Rename one calendar event
Reframe a marketing activity by attaching the outcome. Instead of “write newsletter,” rename it “write newsletter to connect with subscribers.” Or change “record video” to “record testimonials to build trust with prospects.” Then, you’ll always be reminded of why you’re doing the work.
The Shortlist
🎬 Visualize better: Instagram’s Edits team shares tips to improve your vertical social videos.
🦫 Dam marketing: Beaver’s Mini Mart in Beavercreek, Ohio, has a beaver mascot. The mega-hit destination store Buc-ee’s doesn’t like that, so it’s suing. Even Beavercreek City Council has gotten involved, turning more positive attention to the hometown store.
🦿 Leg up: Don’t blame agentic AI if you haven’t given it the necessary background to do well.
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Got a question you’d like me to answer in The Hotline? Email me or DM me on LinkedIn. Even better: Text or leave a message on the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.