The stop list: cutting marketing work that doesn't create pipeline
Why stopping is harder than starting
New work gets a kickoff. Old work just keeps going. The newsletter that nobody reads, the event you attend because you always have, the report that takes two days a month and informs nothing. Each one is small. Together they eat the calendar.
How to find candidates
List every recurring activity, then ask three questions of each:
- Can we trace it to an opportunity in the last two quarters?
- Would we start it today if we weren't already doing it?
- Would anyone outside marketing notice if it stopped?
Make the cut visible
Write the stop list down and share it with sales and leadership. Say what you're stopping, why, and what the time goes to instead. That keeps it from creeping back and shows the team the choice was deliberate.
Set a review date. If something you cut turns out to matter, bring it back. That's the system working, not failing.
Where the time goes
The point isn't to do less for its own sake. It's to put more effort behind the few things that reach real buyers: sales enablement for deals in flight, content that answers the questions buyers ask, and follow-up that actually happens.
The short version
If you can't trace it to pipeline and wouldn't start it today, put it on the list. Review the list every quarter.