Using YAGNI to Drive Marketing Efficiency

The Gist:

• Budget constraints ahead. Marketing leaders face shrinking budgets, so efficiency and strategic resource allocation are crucial for success.
• Focus on essentials. Apply the YAGNI (You Ain’t Gonna Need It) principle to avoid unnecessary marketing activities and improve focus on core objectives.
• AI and efficiency. While AI can drive marketing efficiency, it’s important to apply it strategically with clear goals in mind to avoid unnecessary complexity and improve ROI.

As we rapidly slide into the end of the calendar year, the holidays will arrive before we know it. Either you are deep into Q4 (I feel for you, holiday Q4ers), or you are gearing up for the end-of-year push in the new calendar year.

In either case, the end of a calendar year is a great time to take stock, and that doesn’t mean just good housekeeping. As the new year rolls around, marketing leaders are likely to need to “do more with less” (I bet you’ve not heard that before) and improve marketing efficiency.

Back in May, Gartner shared the results of a survey of CMOs that reported average marketing budgets in 2024 falling by 15% — accounting for just 7.7% of total company revenue (compared to 9.1% in 2023). Similar research from Marketing Profs, which surveyed 2,400 B2B marketers, shared that 52% of respondents expected budgets to remain the same or shrink. Of course, with inflation, “stay the same” is the same as a decrease.

As employees are often a significant budget line item, let’s not shy away from this truth: The pressure is on employees to perform. Plus, in the competitive markets where most products are sold, we have to out-market our competitors and improve the impact marketing makes on our business.

The phrase “doing more with less” has become a bit hackneyed, but it’s the experience right now. That’s why having clear priorities and strategic goals as a marketing leader is important for a successful strategy.

As a subtle twist, maybe the trick is not “do more with less” with a focus on budget. Maybe it’s actually “achieve more by doing less.” There is a subtle distinction between focusing on what we do and simply focusing on what we spend.

Marketing Magpies

Marketers are like magpies, known for collecting shiny things, and we have complex relationships with these shiny new things. On the one hand, we must stay fresh and current with what’s happening, but at the same time, a successful marketing function has to avoid distractions — especially the shiny ones.

The fast-moving nature of marketing means we must operate with an eye on the next shiny thing, whether that’s a new channel, new tool or the latest best practice. This is, we should probably admit, driven by some healthy FOMO (fear of missing out) or FOFU (fear of f’ing up).

It’s a well-worn trope (and being well-worn makes it no less true) that we sometimes have to deal with a bright idea from an executive outside marketing. These leaders — who, having read something in an inflight magazine or their social media bromance with Gary V — insist that we need “a Tikface strategy,” more video or a webinar series.

My chum Cathy McKnight describes this as “more cowbell.” (If you are not familiar with this, it comes from a classic “Saturday Night Live” skit.) We collect more and more things, some good and some that distract us from our mission, and we say a lot more “yes” than “no.”

Is AI the Answer?

The question we probably have to answer is whether AI is part of the solution to any problem. And when it comes to the topic of marketing efficiency, most of the oxygen around this discussion is being sucked out of the room by AI, and AI certainly has the potential to make us more efficient.

However, we still need efficient practices to know where to deploy any technique or technology (including artificial intelligence) and to make good decisions about where we use our resources. Very little in marketing is free beer. It’s free puppies, in that the more things we introduce into our marketing, the more maintenance, feeding, watering and walking it needs.

Related Article: AI Trends: Is AI Meeting Your Most Pressing Needs?

YAGNI

I’d like to share an idea with you: Marketing YAGNI (You Ain’t Gonna Need It).

I did not invent YAGNI. I recently discovered this term from the discipline of extreme programming (XP).

As is our habit in marketing, we take stuff from other business disciplines to describe what we do. Agile was the most notable thing we took from product development and bent to our needs.

Now, don’t get me started on “Agile marketing.” I mentioned my skepticism in a previous article on CMSWire, which sparked quite the reaction. I think it’s broadly bullshit because I believe B2B marketing is, by its nature, already agile (small a).

However, if you did get me started, it would bring me back to YAGNI, because we ain’t gonna need it.

My understanding is that in the world of extreme programming, the guiding principle is, “A programmer should not add functionality until deemed necessary.” And that’s the premise that I want to adopt in marketing: Is it necessary?

In asking that question, we need to know what’s necessary for our business and what’s needed to deliver on our goals — not just what we’ve always done, what marketing is expected to do or what’s cool and shiny.

This is starting to sound a bit like Marie Kondo for marketing. But rather than following her famous rule of getting rid of stuff if it doesn’t “spark joy,” our criteria is whether it’s necessary. If it’s not, YAGNI! — You Ain’t Gonna Need It.

YAGNI Step 1 – The Mission

As I’ve shared on CMSWire before, my view is that our B2B marketing mission is to create ART (awareness, revenue and trust). I use this model to build my marketing objectives and key results. It’s easy to have a conversation with the leadership team using this model because ART uses a language they can understand and it easily aligns with their objectives.

Does this new thing create ART? No? Then it’s not necessary. YAGNI.

Of course, you may have different OKRs, objectives, KPIs or SMART goals — whatever method you pick to guide what you consider necessary.

You do have this framework in place, right?

That, my young padawan, is the first step toward finding YAGNI.

(P.S., Sorry for calling you a padawan. For some reason, saying “YAGNI” makes me think of a sensei or Yoda-type character. If you are a “Star Wars” fan, I suspect Yoda would say NIYAG “Need It You Ain’t Gonna.”)

Data-Driven YAGNI

Aside from having those high-level goals, deciding if something is necessary is not the work of gut feelings, anecdotes or HIPPO (highest paid person’s opinion). It requires data.

Ooooh! Data-led! Do I hear someone on the buzzword bingo shout “house” from the back of the room?

No, I am not going to suggest we become data-driven, unthinking and unfeeling marketing zombies. There must be scope for creativity and experiments. We are, after all, agile, right? Being a YAGNI practitioner shouldn’t stop experimentation. Rather, we must decide what performance goal this experiment needs to meet to make it necessary. And if it doesn’t, you guessed it: YAGNI.

Related Article: Martech Stack Resolutions: Tips for Decluttering

Applying YAGNI

Applying YAGNI to content production and technology can yield results that significantly impact our stressed budgets and improve marketing efficiency. Technology audits specifically can yield results by applying a bit of YAGNI, as this is often where we marketers hoard our shiniest of things.

A few years ago, Forrester published a case study about Kenna Security, whose marketing technology audit resulted in a reported 52% savings and helped fund new initiatives, tools and systems. This helped the organization “see true marketing ROI.” In the context of this article, this means the organization could focus their time and money on what marketing is really for.

I suspect it would be a struggle to get Forrester on board with the term YAGNI. But, hey, they picked up “Agile,” so you never know.

In any case, you can apply this marketing Marie Kondo cleanse to all aspects of marketing, from content production and campaigns to the metrics and reports that the business believes are necessary.

You Ain’t Gonna Need It.

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