The best marketing feels intentional. Every blog post, campaign, or asset serves a clear purpose, feeding into a bigger story about who you are and why your audience should care.
Today, that’s harder than ever. Evolving B2B buyer journeys force content marketers to stop thinking in the straight lines of the traditional marketing funnel and embrace content stacks that enable deeper engagement, velocity, and longevity for better marketing results.
More and more, we’ve found that this means treating content like infrastructure. For most brands, your content is the only thing your customers see before making that all-important decision; it is as critical to marketing success as the network, the platform, or any other piece of infrastructure. So you need to invest in providing useful, relevant content that speaks about pain points. And that comes from combining deep technical knowledge with sharp storytelling, often on negligible budgets.
But let’s be honest. Even the most talented and disciplined marketing teams fall into the trap of what we call random acts of marketing. These are the one-off, disconnected activities that look like productivity on the surface, but which lack strategy, consistency, or measurable impact.
How can you spot them, and what can you do to solve them?
Four random acts of marketing and how you can flip the script
1. The “CEO saw a trend and made us do it” social post
How to spot it:
Your social feed suddenly features a meme, hashtag, or trending format that has nothing to do with your brand. There’s no tie-in to your messaging, value proposition, or target audience. Rather, it’s a scramble to stay “current”.
How to solve it:
Instead of chasing trends reactively, build a content filter framework: a quick checklist to evaluate whether a trend aligns with your brand’s voice, values, and audience interests. If it ticks the boxes, adapt it to your unique positioning. If it doesn’t, let it go. This way, you’re not saying “no” to the CEO, you’re showing how to channel that enthusiasm into brand-building, not noise.
Our take on it:
Every post and piece of content you produce needs to form a piece of the bigger strategic picture. Check out the five content marketing superpowers you need to master to make sure every asset you produce connects strategy, execution, and impact to fuel business growth.
2. The lone blog post
How to spot it:
A single blog written on a trending topic with no follow-up, internal links, or related assets. It attracts a handful of views but doesn’t contribute to lead gen or nurture flows.
How to solve it:
Think in terms of campaigns, not content items. A blog should be one piece of a bigger narrative arc, repurposed into social snippets, gated assets, or sales enablement collateral. Every content asset needs a “next step” for the reader.
Our take on it:
Blogs remain one of the most effective ways to provide value, showcase your expertise, build authority, and develop a loyal audience. Discover how to take them to the next level and hit your marketing objectives – such as converting leads – with this helpful guide on the questions your content should answer.
3. The vanity metric campaign
How to spot it:
Big splash campaigns with lots of impressions, clicks, or likes, but no impact on pipeline. These often come from chasing trends or focusing on volume over quality.
How to solve it:
Go back to your KPIs. Ask: does this activity bring us closer to awareness, engagement, or revenue goals? If not, it’s a distraction. Redirect budgets and creative energy toward initiatives that your sales team will actually thank you for.
Our take on it:
We need to move away from content for content’s sake and reframe how we think about outcomes. That means getting intentional about how content assets, especially lead generation content, fit into the overall marketing strategy so that they add real value.
4. The event rush
How to spot it:
A flurry of activity around an event – social posts, banners, booth graphics – followed by radio silence once it’s over. Leads collected at the booth sit in a spreadsheet, never making it into nurture workflows.
How to solve it:
Plan before the event. Map pre-, during-, and post-event tactics, and ensure lead follow-up is baked into the campaign. Events should be accelerators for ongoing conversations, not isolated peaks of activity.
Our take on it:
Take a look at our end-to-end approach to social media video ideas for MWC, in this case – but which can easily be replicated for other events. They’re fun, engaging, and make event attendees want to come and meet you.
Turning random acts of marketing into deliberate strategy
Random acts of marketing happen because marketers are under pressure to “do more”. But volume without strategy is just noise.
By spotting the tell-tale signs and connecting every activity to a bigger narrative, you’ll ensure your marketing If you would like to discuss how Isoline can help you cut down on random acts of marketing and build strategies that deliver bottom-line impact for your brand, get in touch at hello@isolinecomms.com.
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