Ever feel like your marketing plan is a thousand-piece puzzle scattered on the floor, with no edges in sight?

You try different tactics, hoping they’ll fit. Maybe even put pieces into place simply because someone else said it was the missing piece for your business.

But all you end up with are mismatched pieces and a whole lot of frustration?

Chances are a big part of the frustration is you’ve never flipped the puzzle box over to find the picture of what you’re building. And without a clear purpose for your efforts, your marketing ends up being a jumble of chaos.

Diving into the next shiny marketing tactic without knowing the purpose is like building a puzzle without knowing what it’s supposed to be.

Sure, you might connect a few pieces here and there. You might even get a few scattered “wins.” But it will never truly come together. And marketing your business ends up being a frustrating, time-consuming mess.

But when you start with the picture on the box, everything changes. Each piece has a place and a purpose. It’s not about forcing things to work together. It’s about testing things out to find the perfect fit for you and your business.

So, take a few minutes … ask yourself what’s the purpose of each of your marketing efforts? What’s the picture you’re trying to create? If you know the purpose of each, great. You’re ahead of a lot of people.

And if you don’t, no worries. Take a step back. Look at the big picture. And identify the reason why you're doing marketing. Then, start piecing together the tactics that will connect together to create your masterpiece of a marketing system.

If you’re struggling to find a purpose for certain activities, don’t panic. Set them aside for now. Give it a rest for a day. Then come back and ask again. If you don’t have any clarity, perhaps it’s an activity that doesn’t fit. Or, schedule a strategy meeting and let’s see if there’s a purpose you’re not seeing yet.

Make this the year you ditch scattered marketing tactics and stop trying to force pieces to work. Instead put each puzzle piece where it belongs. Put your marketing strategy together one piece at a time. And build a system and structure that supports sustainable growth.