Stop Performing Random Acts of Marketing

I first came across the phrase “random acts of marketing” in a book called The Next CMO: A Guide to Operational Marketing Excellence by Peter Mahoney, Scott Todaro, and Dan Faulkner, three long-time marketing executives who founded and then sold a martech company called Plannuh (now called Planful.)

After analyzing thousands of marketing budgets during the process of creating their SaaS product, they identified the five most common sources of waste in marketing plans.

1. Unused budget
2. Rush fees
3. Non-strategic spending
4. Duplicate spending
5. Over-paying

While each of those categories deserves a deep dive, it’s number three that I want to focus on—non-strategic spending—because it’s the category from which we get the phrase Random Acts of Marketing.

The phrase itself is self-explanatory, but I’ll define it anyway to ensure we’re aligned.

What are Random Acts of Marketing?

Random Acts of Marketing refers to marketing activities that are executed without a clear strategy, often on impulse or in isolation from broader marketing and business objectives.

These are the “shiny object” initiatives that seem like good ideas in the moment but don’t align with your overall marketing strategy or contribute meaningfully to your business’s financial goals.

In the industrial and B2B sectors, Random Acts of Marketing might look like:

• Sponsoring an industry event without a clear plan for lead generation or brand exposure
• Creating a social media account for your company just because “everyone else is doing it”
• Producing a batch of promotional items that don’t resonate with your target audience
• Launching a new product without proper market research or a defined target market

These activities might seem productive on the surface, and they often feel good to do, but they typically result in wasted resources, diluted brand messages, and missed opportunities for strategic growth.

This is because without the connection to a real business outcome, you’re essentially using the Hope Strategy, without any real means of justification for why you did what you did.

In other words, it was a random act.

Why Random Acts of Marketing fail

You can find Random Acts of Marketing in a variety of organizations, large and small alike.

In fact, over the years, we’ve engaged in Random Acts of Marketing here at Thrive. (They mostly didn’t work. When they did, it was luck.)

I think this is because marketing can be fun and creative and trendy and exciting. And when it’s all four of those things simultaneously, it’s hard to resist, even when there isn’t a strategy to justify the activity.

But it’s essentially just a spin of the roulette wheel.

However, if you commit to switching your focus from tactics to strategies, and get in the habit of connecting every marketing activity to a financial outcome, your marketing efforts become much more substantive—and crucial.

To what end?

In The Next CMO, the authors give a useful method for doing this—by using the “To what end?” question, which works in the same manner as the “Five Whys” exercise many people use to get to the root cause of something.

Essentially, you ask the question “To what end?” until you can connect the activity to a line on the P&L.

Here’s an example from the book.

***

We want to create a data sheet. (or downloadable white paper)

To what end? To help the sales team convert stage one opportunities into stage two opportunities.

To what end? To get more opportunities through the funnel and close new revenue.

***

By asking “To what end?” you can clarify the relationship between outcomes and activities, connecting each marketing action to a line on the P&L, even if it’s not in a direct, granular way.

As they write, “You don’t need to attribute $2.73 to each data sheet you produce, but you do need to understand that the purpose of the sales tool is to increase the conversion rate of a certain stage in the sales cycle.”

This approach underscores a crucial point: if you’re engaging in Random Acts of Marketing, you’re likely not being strategic enough.

You may be planning inadequately, misusing your budget, or relying on intuition rather than data-driven insights.

This likely goes without saying, but strategic marketing is not just an advantage—it’s a necessity.

By eliminating Random Acts of Marketing, you position your organization for more effective resource allocation, stronger brand messaging, and ultimately, better financial outcomes.

The key lies in adopting a disciplined approach that connects every marketing activity to a tangible business (and financial) goal.

Take a look at your current marketing efforts and challenge yourself and your team to apply the “To what end?” question rigorously.

It’s a simple question that can transform your marketing from a series of hopeful tactics to a cohesive strategy that drives real business results.

Remember, effective marketing isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing what matters.