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How to Do Marketing Without a Clear Business Strategy

oddmorten@playmops.io (Odd Morten Sørensen) — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 11:05:57 GMT

Why Is This Such a Common Problem?

If you’re a marketer facing the daily challenge of “How do I do marketing when there’s no clear strategy?”, you’re not alone.

Many teams find themselves trying to deliver results without a guiding business plan or documented company goals. While this isn’t ideal, there are practical ways to bring clarity and drive impact, even when you’re starting with a blank slate.

Lack of a clear strategy is one of the most cited pain points for marketing teams.

It leads to:

Unfocused campaigns and wasted budget

Difficulty proving marketing’s value

Low morale and high frustration

Missed growth opportunities

But you don’t have to wait for leadership to hand you a perfect roadmap.

You can take control and build the clarity you need.

Step-By-Step:

How to Do Marketing Without a Clear Business Strategy

1. Hunt for Clues: Gather What Exists

Even if there’s no formal strategy, fragments of direction often exist:

Board presentations, annual reports, or sales targets
Leadership emails, company values, or product roadmaps

Collect these materials and look for recurring themes or priorities.

Sometimes, a strategy is there, it just isn’t written down yet.

2. Talk to Key Stakeholders

Set up short, focused conversations with leadership, sales, or product teams.

Ask open questions:

“What are our top business goals right now?”

“What does success look like this quarter?”

“What are the biggest challenges we need to solve?”

Document the answers.

Even a handful of insights can help you prioritize your marketing efforts.

3. Define Your Target Audience and Value Proposition

Without a clear business strategy, marketing can quickly lose sight of who it’s for and why it matters. Take time to:

Identify your core customer segments
Clarify what makes your product or service unique (your USP)
Map out the main problems you solve for customers

4. Set Simple, Measurable Goals

Don’t wait for top-down objectives.

Choose 2–3 clear, realistic goals you can influence, such as:

Grow website traffic by 20%
Generate 50 qualified leads per month
Increase email engagement rates

Define basic KPIs to track progress and adjust as you learn what works.

5. Prioritize Channels and Tactics

Avoid spreading your efforts too thin.

Focus on the marketing channels most likely to reach your target audience, whether that’s social media, email, content, or events.

Test small, learn fast, and double down on what delivers results.

6. Create a Simple Action Plan

Build a lightweight marketing plan:

List key activities for the next quarter
Assign responsibilities and deadlines
Set a basic budget to avoid overspending

This doesn’t have to be fancy—a one-page summary is enough to keep everyone aligned and moving in the same direction.

7. Review and Adapt Regularly

Schedule monthly or quarterly check-ins to review what’s working, what’s not, and what’s changed in the business. Update your plan as needed.

This habit of regular review is crucial for staying relevant and agile, even when the bigger company strategy is unclear.

8. Communicate and Document Everything

Make sure everyone on the marketing team knows:

The current priorities and goals
Where to find your working plan and notes
Who to ask when questions arise

Transparency keeps the team focused and reduces confusion, even in uncertain times.

Don’t wait for perfect clarity: Progress beats perfection. Action creates momentum—and sometimes even helps shape the bigger strategy.

Don’t try to do everything: Focus on a few high-impact activities instead of spreading resources too thin.

Don’t operate in a vacuum: Stay connected to other teams and keep looking for new information about company priorities.

What to Avoid

If the lack of direction becomes a major blocker, use your findings and early results to make the case for a proper strategy session with leadership.

Show how a little clarity has already improved results, and propose a simple workshop to align on business goals.

When (and How) to Push for Strategy

Conclusion:

You Can Drive Impact, Even Without a Clear Strategy

Marketing without a clear strategy is tough, but not impossible.

By being proactive, gathering clues, setting your own priorities, and communicating clearly, you can create focus and deliver value, no matter how unclear the bigger picture may seem.

For more frameworks and practical tools for building marketing operations from the ground up, visit the Marketing Operations Matrix page here .

Launch: The Marketing Ops Matrix

oddmorten@playmops.io (Odd Morten Sørensen) — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 13:43:03 GMT

Map Your Marketing Operations Maturity, Step by Step

Over the past year, I’ve spent more than 60 hours developing and refining

the MOps Matrix, a framework designed to help marketing teams cut through complexity, pinpoint their strengths and gaps, and take actionable steps toward better marketing operations.

When I first released the MOps Matrix, it was as a single, free, high-resolution PDF.

The feedback was incredible, and I heard from marketing leaders and teams who recognized themselves in the challenges described:

�� Too many martech tools creating complexity

�� Missing processes between marketing and sales

�� Inefficient workflows that drain productivity

�� Integration problems leading to data silos

�� Difficulties measuring ROI from tech investments

�� Insufficient training and competency development

But there was one thing missing. A way to actually walk through the MOps Matrix, level by level, and assess your own maturity, right on the website.

Introducing the Interactive MOps Matrix

Today, I’m excited to announce that the MOps Matrix is now fully available online .

You no longer have to download a PDF and figure it out on your own.

Now, you can go through each level, starting with the basics

- Strategy

- Organization

- Processes

- Resources

- Tools

- Training

and move up to the advanced levels

- Foundation

- Efficiency

- Integration

- Strategy & Optimization

- Innovation & Leadership

For each level, you’ll find:

- A clear explanation of what “good” looks like

- Self-assessment checklists

- Typical pain points and pitfalls

- Practical guidance on what to do next

Why Does This Matter?

Because understanding where your marketing operations stand is crucial for making the right decisions. Whether you’re a CMO, marketing manager, or part of a growing team.

Too often, teams jump to the next shiny tool or tactic without first nailing the basics.

The MOps Matrix helps you see if you’re ready to scale, where you need to shore up your foundations, and how to move from “good enough” to “best in class.”

What You’ll Get

- Insight into your current MOps state

- Clarity on your strengths and improvement areas

- A step-by-step roadmap for growth

And it’s 100% free.

No forms, no email gates, no “comment to get access.”

Just start at level 1 and see how far you get.

Ready to Map Your MOps Maturity?

�� Explore the MOps Matrix now and discover where your team stands, and what your next best action should be.

If you find the framework useful, please don't hesitate to share it with your network.

Let’s help more marketing teams get the clarity and momentum they deserve.

#MOps #MarketingOps #MarketingOperations #MarketingStrategy #MOpsMatrix

Want A Career in Marketing Operations?

oddmorten@playmops.io (Odd Morten Sørensen) — Wed, 21 May 2025 22:23:33 GMT

Then this post is for you.

As someone who has been in the field for many years, I believe that the secret sauce to thrive in marketing operations lies in getting your hands dirty - gaining hands-on experience with marketing technology.

In today’s world, it's easy for marketers to become distanced from the nitty-gritty details of the tools that drive our campaigns and activities.

With many companies outsourcing various tasks to specialized agencies, you may not be getting the chance to work directly with tools like analytics tools, search and social media ads, email marketing tools and so on.

But if you're considering a move to marketing operations from marketing (or any other job really), this hands-on experience is invaluable.

It provides you with a deeper understanding of how different elements tie together, the ability to troubleshoot more effectively, and an insight to guide strategic decisions.

So, how do you gain this hands-on experience, especially if your current role doesn’t offer you that opportunity?

Here are a few tips:

1. Explore tools outside of work hours:

Many marketing tools offer free trials or have free versions. Spend some time after work, or on weekends learning these tools. Martechmap.com is a great place to start finding those tools.

2. Start a side project:

This can be a personal blog, a small online business, or even offering to help a local business with their online marketing. This not only gives you practical experience but also can make your resume stand out.

3. Online learning:

Platforms like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, or Udemy offer courses on everything from SEO to social media marketing. You can learn at your own pace and apply your knowledge in real-time.

4. Network with experienced marketers:

Join local marketing groups or online communities. Ask questions, seek advice, and learn from the experiences of those who have been in the field longer. (Follow or connect with me for instance) Marketingops.com has a great Slack community where you can eavesdrop on the conversations between the other members.

The journey into marketing operations can be a challenging, but rewarding one.

Remember, it's the hands-on experience that will give you the skills and insights necessary to succeed.

And these experiences don't always have to come from your 9 to 5.

With a little extra effort and time, you can take charge of your learning, stand out from the crowd, and make a successful transition to marketing operations.

FREE - UTM Campaign Tracking Google Sheet

Wed, 21 May 2025 22:23:33 GMT

I want to share with you a very helpful and easy tool that I’ve used to track my campaigns for over 17 years now. This is not groundbreaking stuff, there are many versions of this tracking sheet out there. But as this is one of my most used marketing tools over the years I want to share it with you.

About Campaign Tracking

Tracking marketing campaigns is crucial for understanding their effectiveness. It provides actionable insights about customer behaviors and interactions, informing strategy adjustments for improved ROI.

UTM parameters, or Urchin Tracking Module parameters, are simple codes added to URLs that communicate with Google Analytics to provide detailed performance metrics.

There are five types:

utm_source – Identifies the traffic source, e.g., Google, newsletter.

utm_medium – Describes the marketing medium, e.g., email, CPC.

utm_campaign – Names the specific effort or promotion, e.g., summer_sale.

utm_term – Used for paid search to identify keywords.

utm_conten t – Distinguishes similar content or links within the same ad.

These parameters provide granular data about traffic sources, effective keywords, successful campaigns, and more, thus supporting data-driven decision-making.

For example, if an email campaign (medium) from your July newsletter (source) promoting summer_sale (campaign) results in a high volume of traffic and conversions, you might replicate this successful strategy in future.

Also, underperforming campaigns could be revised or discontinued, optimizing marketing resources.

In essence, UTM parameters facilitate more precise, efficient marketing.

You can get your copy of my UTM Campaign Tracking Google sheet by clicking the link below.

It is totally free, just copy the google sheet to your own google drive and start using it.

If you find it useful, you are welcome to share it to whom you may please. ��

Why Use Customer Lifetime Value in Your Marketing Strategy?

oddmorten@playmops.io (Odd Morten Sørensen) — Mon, 19 May 2025 22:23:33 GMT

Because it is a crystal ball that tells you how much moolah a customer will drop in your coffers during their lifespan.

Or in some other (boring) words:

Customer Lifetime Value

(sometimes referred to as CLTV, CLV or simply LTV),

is a prediction of the total net profit that a company can make from a customer throughout the course of their relationship.

It is a critical metric in marketing and customer relationship management, as it helps businesses understand how much revenue they can expect a customer to generate over time.

Basically, It’s like trying to predict if your blind date will turn into a life-long romance! But remember, just like dating, when calculating CLTV, there are some foot-in-mouth moments to avoid:

�� Remember the wallet:
You need to spend some to get some. If you’re spending a fortune to woo customers and they’re not spending as much back, that’s a one-sided relationship. Balance your acquisition costs with the expected CLTV.

�� Not all customers are created equal:
Applying the same CLTV to every customer is like assuming everyone loves pineapple on pizza. It’s not true (I know, shocking!). So, segment your customers, and calculate CLTV accordingly.

�� Love the one you’re with:
Focus on keeping your current customers happy, not just chasing new ones. Remember, a bird in hand (or a customer in your database) is worth two in the bush!

�� Count the pennies:
Calculate CLTV based on net profit, not revenue. Let’s not forget Uncle Sam and overheads want their share too.

�� Update regularly:
CLTV isn’t a high school yearbook photo, it should change and improve over time.

—

You: WAIT, this sounds like something I want to do! But how the #¤% do I find my CLTV??

Me: Hold my beer..

—

Calculating CLTV involves several steps and can be relatively simple or very complex, depending on the level of detail a company wants to get into.

Here’s a simplified approach:

�� Average Purchase Value:
Calculate this by dividing the total revenue over a given period by the number of purchases during that same period.

�� Average Purchase Frequency:
This is calculated by dividing the total number of purchases by the number of unique customers who made purchases during that period.

�� Customer Value:
Multiply the Average Purchase Value by the Average Purchase Frequency to calculate the customer value.

�� Average Customer Lifespan:
This is generally calculated by averaging the number of years a customer continues purchasing from your company.

�� Customer Lifetime Value:
Finally, multiply the Customer Value by the Average Customer Lifespan. This gives you the CLTV.

So there you go, CLTV (or CLV or LTV) in a nutshell

– a tool to keep your business boogieing, your customers swooning, and your accountants smiling.