Delay Is the Death of Good Marketing

The longer a marketing project sits, the worse the outcome. Here’s why.

I’ve been working with financial advisors in one form or another for 20 years. One of the biggest stumbling blocks I see is delay. Those are the marketing projects that start with excitement and momentum and then stall out for weeks, months, and sometimes years. I see it with everything from big projects like websites to small tasks like email blasts.

Why is delay a problem? Because when a project stalls:

You lose the context. Even if you took notes, the thinking behind the decisions fades. When you come back to a half-finished project two months after letting it sit, you can’t remember why you made certain decisions or what feedback was already given. So you repeat the process, which slows things down even more.

You miss the window of opportunity. Marketing is often tied to seasons and opportunities. For example, a new law is passed that creates new opportunities. But you sit on it for a year, and it becomes old news. Delay long enough, and the opportunity passes.

People lose enthusiasm. A project that felt exciting at the beginning feels like a chore when it hasn’t been completed six months later. That includes you, your team, and any vendors involved. The energy that would have produced great work gets replaced by “let’s just get this done.”

The output suffers. A project completed with full attention from the beginning is almost always better than one that was picked up and put down five times. The thinking and the feedback are sharper, and the final product reflects that intentionality.

If you’re going to pursue a worthwhile marketing project, do it now and do it fully until completion. Focus on that one thing and see it through before you pick up something else. And if you find yourself trapped in a delay, that might be a sign the project isn’t worth finishing. Cancel it and move on to something that is.

The takeaway: Delay doesn’t just slow your marketing down. It makes it worse. Pick one project, commit to it, and finish it before starting the next one.