Break Free from the Tactics Trap: 5 Steps to Take So You Don’t Waste Another Dollar

Angelo Ponzi
May 26
6 min read

"There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all."

Peter Drucker sure had a way of stating the obvious in a way that punched you in the gut.

If you run a business, if you're leading a team, if you wake up at 2:17 a.m. wondering why growth has stalled even though your marketing team is "doing all the right things" — then Drucker is talking directly to you.

Too many companies are stuck in motion. Spinning the wheels. Generating reports. Launching campaigns. Running promotions. Optimizing. A/B testing. Reposting. Publishing. Automating.

All with great efficiency.

But here’s the rub: what if you’re optimizing the wrong thing?

What if you're sinking budget into Instagram reels when your customers live on LinkedIn? What if your team is split-testing subject lines while your messaging is misaligned with your actual value? What if you’re doing so many small things that you never get around to doing the right thing?

Let’s step back. Let’s get clear. Let’s talk about marketing Strategy.

Strategy is Not a Tactic

Strategy is not a playbook. It’s not a list of tools. It’s not a funnel or a hashtag or a Q2 content calendar.

Strategy is the WHY behind every WHAT. It’s the act of diagnosing what’s actually going on in your business, your market, your customer’s mind — and choosing where to focus.

Not just what to do. What not to do.

A mid-market B2B company with 72 real competitors can’t use the same marketing framework as a giant, multi-billion brand. But every day, some CEO somewhere downloads a whitepaper that worked for Samsung and asks their team, "Why aren’t we doing this?"

Because it’s not for you. That’s why.

A tactic lifted from a giant will crush a company that isn’t ready. It’s like taking a Ferrari engine and shoving it into a Honda Civic. It doesn’t fit. It’s dangerous. And it’ll blow up.

We have to stop glorifying tactics as if they exist in a vacuum. Because without strategy, they do more harm than good.

So before your team launches one more campaign, take a breath. These five steps will help you rewire the way you think about marketing so you can invest your next dollar in the right place.

1. Diagnose Before You Prescribe

A good doctor doesn’t guess. They don’t walk into the exam room with a prescription pad already filled out. They ask questions. They run tests. They observe. Then they decide.

Your marketing deserves the same care.

Before you throw more money at Facebook ads, stop and ask yourself: What problem are we really trying to solve here? Because the truth is, a $50,000 paid media campaign won’t fix a broken product-market fit. A fresh logo won’t fix the fact that your sales team is telling one story while your website tells another.

So what should you do instead? Get clarity on two things: the deeper story you’re telling and who you’re telling it to.

Strategic Narratives
What story are you telling? Is it crystal clear? Does it reflect your customers’ real problems and desires? Your narrative isn’t just marketing fluff; it’s the lens through which your audience sees your brand. If it’s unclear or generic, your message will get lost in the noise.
Audience Analytics
Look beyond simple metrics like clicks or impressions. Dive deeper to understand:
- Which customer segments are truly engaging?
- What behaviors show they’re moving closer to buying?
- Where are you losing potential buyers without realizing it?

Understanding this data helps you tailor messages that resonate—while cutting out the noise that wastes your time and budget.

This is where many businesses get stuck—doing all the things, but none of the right things. If you want to move past guessing and start making decisions based on solid data and clear stories, The Strategy Blueprint dives deep into these data-driven insights. Get your copy of this Amazon Best Seller here: https://a.co/d/bDsEFV1

So before you spend another dollar, ask yourself: What story am I telling, and who is really listening? Fix that first.

2. Ditch the Playbook Mentality

Best practices are just past practices. They worked for someone. Somewhere. In a different market. At a different time. With a different budget. A different culture. A different product.

Marketing isn’t copying and pasting. It’s not a checklist. It’s context.

Let’s say your competitor went viral on TikTok. You could spend weeks trying to reverse-engineer that. But what if your audience doesn’t care about TikTok? What if the real conversation is happening in industry Slack groups or at trade shows or inside one buyer’s email inbox at 6:45 a.m.?

Every time you copy someone else’s tactic, you’re working from their strategy. You’re playing on their field. And you’re ignoring your own.

3. Align with the Business, Not Just the Brand

There’s a hard truth many marketers avoid: branding isn’t enough.

Sure, it matters. Your visuals. Your tone. Your consistency. But your brand isn’t your business.

Your business is how you make money. How you keep customers. How you generate lifetime value. How you create margin. Marketing has to plug into that. Directly.

If your team is producing beautiful videos and clever content that doesn’t generate qualified leads or drive sales conversations, you don’t have a marketing strategy. You have a creative department.

How do we help the business win? This is the question to ask. It may mean prioritizing messaging clarity over aesthetic perfection. It may mean saying no to that award-winning video idea because what the sales team actually needs is a 2-slide explainer they can use on Zoom calls.

4. Hire and Empower Strategic Thinkers (Not Just Doers)

Take a good look at your marketing team. What are they doing?

Are they simply checking boxes—launching campaigns, hitting deadlines, ticking off tasks? Or are they asking the hard questions—challenging assumptions, digging into why those campaigns matter, and how they tie back to your bigger goals?

Most marketing teams are built for speed. And that’s not a bad thing—speed is essential in today’s fast-moving markets. But speed without direction? That’s just chaos. It’s busywork disguised as progress.

What you really need are strategic thinkers. People who can zoom out from the daily grind and see the bigger picture. Folks who connect dots no one else sees. Who aren’t afraid to ask what seem like dumb questions—only to discover those questions were the key to a breakthrough all along.

But here’s the catch: You have to give them room to lead. To experiment. To challenge the status quo without fear of being sidelined. Because when strategy gets lost in the shuffle, even the best tactics fail.

This is where hiring a fractional CMO can change the game. As The Strategy Blueprint explains, fractional CMOs bring the high-level thinking you need without the full-time cost. They help you build and empower teams that think strategically, not just execute tactically. They bring fresh perspective and experience to cut through the noise—and focus your marketing where it counts.

If your team feels like it’s stuck in the weeds, maybe it’s time to rethink who’s steering the ship.

5. Read the Book That Helps You Think Like a Strategist

Here’s the part where I tell you (once again) to read the book. Not because it’s a magic formula. Not because it’ll give you 72 tips to double your ROI by next Tuesday. Definitely not because I wrote it (*wink*).

But because it will change the way you think.

The Strategy Blueprint: Creating Value, Driving Revenue, and Building an Enduring Brand isn’t a book of hacks. It’s a book for leaders who are tired of chasing tactics and ready to start leading with strategy.

It’s for CEOs who feel like marketing should be working but can’t quite explain why it isn’t. It’s for business owners who know they’re wasting time and money but don’t know where to start. It’s for marketers who want to have a real seat at the executive table.

If that’s you, get the book: https://a.co/d/bDsEFV1

Then give it to your team. Talk about it. Use it to reset the conversation.

Because once you change the way you think, you change what you do. And once you change what you do—the future changes, too.