A Simple Test for Marketing Advice
(Before You Waste Another 90 Days)
If marketing advice has burned you before, you’re not cynical. You’re experienced.
Most advice sounds smart. That’s the problem. It’s easy to follow. It’s hard to evaluate. And by the time you realize it wasn’t right for you, you’ve already paid the opportunity cost.
Here’s a simple filter I use before adopting any new marketing idea. If it fails even one of these tests, it doesn’t make the cut.
1. Does this start with a goal—or a tactic?
If the advice begins with:
“Post more”
“Go viral”
“Use this hook”
“Here’s the algorithm trick”
Stop.
Tactics without a clearly stated outcome aren’t strategy. They’re guesses. If you don’t know what success looks like in real numbers—sales, donations, attendance—no tactic can save you.
Good advice asks:
What are you trying to accomplish, and by when?
2. Does it work outside one platform?
If an idea only works on one platform, at one moment in time, it’s fragile.
Platforms change. Rules shift. Incentives move. If your entire plan depends on a single channel behaving exactly the same way for the next six months, that’s not a plan. That’s a gamble.
Good advice travels.
It adapts to email, video, events, conversations, and campaigns without breaking.
3. Is it rooted in story—or chasing attention?
Attention is rented. Story is owned.
Advice that focuses only on grabbing attention usually burns out fast. Advice rooted in story compounds. It helps people understand who you are, why you exist, and how you help—without forcing a sale.
If the advice can’t answer:
Why this organization exists
Who it serves
What problem it actually solves
…it’s probably noise.
4. Does it require constant switching?
If the system demands weekly pivots, new tools, or constant retooling, it’s expensive—even if it’s cheap to buy.
Momentum is fragile. Every reset costs you trust, morale, and consistency. Inside your organization and with your audience.
Good advice rewards commitment.
Not constant reinvention.
5. Can you commit to it for 90 days?
This is the final test.
If you’re not willing to run the idea for at least 90 days—six months is better—it’s not worth starting. Real signal only shows up with repetition. Everything else is just noise dressed up as momentum.
The point of this filter
This isn’t about being anti-marketing or anti-tactics.
It’s about protecting your time, your energy, and your people from starting over—again.
If you want to hear how this thinking applies to real-world marketing systems (and where most advice goes wrong), I unpack it further in this week’s episode of Portnoy Media Lab.
