Why Most Marketing Strategies Take Too Long and Why You Need to Simplify

Struggling to see the impact of marketing at your startup?  

Maybe you’ve been spending too long pondering your strategy and not managing to get things done.  

Or perhaps you’ve decided to skip a marketing strategy for now because you think it’s going to take too long and you just need to get stuff done.  

Either way, in this post we’re going break down why most marketing strategies take too long and why you need to simplify to gain traction in your startup. 

It still baffles us that in 2025, many companies spend months (or even years) crafting complex marketing plans only for those strategies to never deliver. Why? Because complexity kills momentum. 

Great plans, poor execution 

Marketing strategies being written and left to collect dust isn’t uncommon. Back in 1996, Robert Kaplan’s ground-breaking strategy book ‘The Balanced Scorecard’, revealed that a staggering 90% of organisations struggle to implement their strategic plans.  

Fast forward to today and things still haven’t improved. A 2024 survey by The Marketing Centre found that 67% of UK SMEs have no marketing action plan –meaning that two-thirds were effectively operating without a real marketing strategy at all. 

What went wrong? Too much emphasis on creating a sophisticated plan, and not nearly enough on how to implement it. It’s like stepping on the scales and realising you want to lose weight: instead of simply moving more and eating mindfully, you decide you’ll work out every day, slash calories and start a juice cleanse.  

Over-complication leads to failure. Whether that’s falling off a diet or producing a single, expensive document no one ever uses. 

Complexity is the silent killer 

Overcomplicated marketing strategies are long, dense, and full of moving parts. That makes them difficult to understand, communicate and implement, which leads to: 

• Confusion: stakeholders don’t clearly understand what’s expected 

• Lack of alignment: teams end up working at cross-purposes 

• Resource drain: too many initiatives = too little progress 

• Slowness: more dependencies mean slower action and slower results 

An “everything and the kitchen sink” strategy might look impressive on paper, but by the time it’s communicated, interpreted and put into motion, the world has already moved on. 

The cost of delayed (or failed) strategy 

When strategies take too long or fail entirely, the cost to a business is far more than lost time: 

• Wasted resources – time, money and energy poured into plans that never materialise 

• Eroded competitive advantage – while you’re still debating, competitors are already moving 

• Demoralised teams – unclear priorities sap motivation and trust 

• Inflexibility – rigid plans can’t keep up with rapidly changing markets  

Why simple strategy works 

Unsurprisingly, the answer isn’t more pages, more frameworks or more meetings. It’s a simpler, sharper marketing strategy that strips everything back to what actually drives momentum, and that everyone can get behind.  

Here’s why it works:  

Clarity = speed 

A simple strategy focuses on a small set of clear, high impact priorities. With fewer moving parts, it’s easier for everyone, from leadership to individual contributors, to understand, align with and act on. 

Alignment across the organisation 

When a strategy is simple and clearly communicated, teams can better see how their work contributes to the bigger picture. This improves buy in, coordination and coherence across departments. 

This still applies even if you have a large stakeholder group. You’re not reducing involvement, just keeping the strategy itself succinct, relevant and collaboratively built. That’s your fast-track to genuine buy-in. 

Agility and adaptability 

In a world that changes overnight, you don’t want a strategy that takes months to revise. A simple plan can be updated quickly so you’re ready to react immediately. Complex ones can’t. 

Better execution and results 

Simple strategies shift the focus from drafting to doing, which is where results come from. 

The progress illusion 

Most startups don’t need a six-month planning cycle. They need a sharp, clear direction they can act on tomorrow, not another deck gathering dust. That’s exactly why we created Marketing Strategy in a Day. 

Our process removes all the noise and gets you to: 

• Clarity on what actually moves the needle 

• Focus on the few things that matter, not the 47 that don’t 

• A practical plan you can implement immediately 

• A pace that matches the speed your business needs to grow 

Because if you want marketing that actually delivers, rather than getting stuck in planning mode, simplifying your strategy is the fastest way forward. 

And we can help you do it in just one day.