--- title: "CEOs: How to Avoid Waste and Risk in Marketing" description: What’s the most over-promised/under-delivered marketing solution you ever invested in? Let’s put a stop to waste and risk in marketing decision-making. image: https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/hubfs/Risk.jpg --- [![White Space Marketing Group](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/hs-fs/hubfs/ws-logo-header.png?width=253&height=80&name=ws-logo-header.png "White Space Marketing Group")](https://www.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/) ![blogbanner](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blogbanner.png?width=1500&name=blogbanner.png "blogbanner") [Gray Matter at White Space](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com) [B2B Marketing Strategy for Small and Mid-Sized Companies](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com) # [CEOs: How to Avoid Waste and Risk in Marketing](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/ceos-how-to-avoid-waste-and-risk-in-marketing) ![Ilene Rosenthal, CEO](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/hubfs/IHR%20BioPIc%20643x703.jpg) by [Ilene Rosenthal, CEO](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/author/ilene-rosenthal-ceo) on Sep 30, 2021 - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) I’m curious… What’s the most over-promised/under-delivered marketing solution you ever invested in? ![Risk](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Risk.jpg?width=350&height=233&name=Risk.jpg) I’ll bet you can rattle off an entire [list of marketing initiatives](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/a-sum-of-marketing-tactics-doesnt-add-up-to-strategy) that fell short of your expectations. It’s no wonder CEOs are hesitant to invest in marketing at all. I feel terrible about this because I really DO believe in marketing. It has a job to do, and I expect it to do the job it should. But, when I say that I have three simple solutions for investing smartly, I understand when CEOs are still reluctant to proceed. ## **3 Steps You Can Take NOW** One of the things I’ve seen make a significant impact (and which I explore in [this week’s video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6V4t6nN1S4)) is when business leaders start to look inside their own company, before paying for [outside marketing services](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/whats-the-rush-why-you-should-wait-to-hire-a-marketing-services-firm) or solutions. [![Looking to reduce random acts of marketing that waste time and money?](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/176305/9dbe1cfb-3a8e-4f24-b893-19b29618de94.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/176305/9dbe1cfb-3a8e-4f24-b893-19b29618de94) What is already in place that you can use to jumpstart your marketing before putting your credit card down? 1) Do you have an existing database of prospects who you've “ignored” for the last year because you're so busy trying to acquire new leads? 2) Are there prospects in your Salesforce's pipeline that aren't ready to buy now (while your sales team is very focused on who is going to buy now)? 3) Are there LinkedIn connections you have that you just haven't nurtured consistently or your team hasn't reached out to? > *“I feel terrible about this, because I really DO believe in marketing.”* A second approach is focusing on one particular point along the buyer journey. Generating awareness is time-consuming and expensive. What about nurturing? Let’s nurture the existing database for six months and see what we can make out of those relationships. Finally, think about simplifying your messaging (and repeat it often). Many business leaders think they need to get a NEW message and a NEW story out there every day to keep people engaged with their brand. Newsflash: No one cares about our brands. They only care about what’s going to work for their goals. So, let’s meet them where they are… If this was helpful to you or your team, head over to this [Strategy Overview](https://info.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/marketing-strategy-training-video), where I review a roadmap that will help you and your team build a strategy that can really drive measurable results.   [![WATCH THE webinar: HOW TO avoid random acts of marketing](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/176305/08bb4240-2fb8-4d8e-aa07-84d9851cd4cd.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/176305/08bb4240-2fb8-4d8e-aa07-84d9851cd4cd) Topics: [content marketing](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/content-marketing), [marketing strategy](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/marketing-strategy), [strategy](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/strategy), [marketing](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/marketing), [business strategy](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/business-strategy), [CEOs](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/ceos), [B2B marketing](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/b2b-marketing), [Founders](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/founders), [B2B](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/b2b), [small business](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/small-business) About The Author ![Ilene Rosenthal, CEO](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/hubfs/IHR%20BioPIc%20643x703.jpg) [ Ilene Rosenthal, CEO ](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/author/ilene-rosenthal-ceo) Ilene Rosenthal is the CEO of White Space Marketing Group, fulfilling her aspiration to bring hybrid marketing expertise to the mid-market. With a dee... [read more](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/author/ilene-rosenthal-ceo) [![watch the WEBINAR: how to AVOID random acts of marketing ](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/176305/c5f63d26-b091-48d9-822b-8e8904eecef0.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/176305/c5f63d26-b091-48d9-822b-8e8904eecef0) Search this site on Google Search Google ## We're glad you're here. We write about our marketing passions: building digital brands, digging deep for customer insights, tracking marketing effectiveness and ROI for better results. 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