The reason we spend so much more time on urgent, reactive work (read: fires) than strategic, proactive work (read, in this case: marketing) is because there are people expecting, even demanding, that we deliver on the former. We try to put out fires immediately because, by default, there is strong accountability built in (read: angry members!).

There is rarely this kind of accountability with marketing. Nobody really demands that we market. Members don’t call us, asking for our marketing.  Even at very large firms, with CMOs and marketing managers and coordinators, the accountability is in the wrong place: awareness, likes, branding, and “hits” of various kinds.

What we need is to act on this simple responsibility: every day we must put marketing out into the world that will let more people know about our value today than knew about it yesterday. Communicating our value to prospective members who can pay us for it — this is the action that leads to growth.

How will you be accountable to this? Who will hold you accountable? How will you ensure you take regular action on this priority, even if only for 15 minutes per day?

This piece ran in my Evangelist Marketing Minute short-form newsletter, which you can receive every Monday morning for free by signing up here.