There is often the inclination to add more and more. The more we add the more it seems like we’re working harder. That we’re doing more. But as in many things more doesn’t necessarily equate to being better.

Too much water can drown a plant. More stuff in an overcrowded home doesn’t make it more livable. CCing more and more people to an email doesn’t make it more useful.

The same is often true in marketing.

Optimizing your marketing is more about subtraction. How can we continue to chip away at our brand messaging until we get to its true essence that can be communicated over and over again? What tactics don’t work so that we can get rid of them and focus on ones that do?

Michelangelo said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

Creating convoluted strategies and execution plans does not create masterpieces. Nor does trying to cram as much as possible into a complex matrix of communication hierarchies does not create clarity.

True marketing is in simplifying.