Walk Before You Run: Why a “Minimal Viable Effort” Matters When Starting a Marketing Program
For many companies just stepping into marketing (and digital marketing in particular), the excitement to “get something out there” is high, but so is the pressure to keep costs low. But here’s the truth: while it’s smart to start small, it’s risky and prohibitive to start too small. You can’t expect meaningful results if your marketing spend is spread too thin across channels or all tied up in a single channel.
The key is finding your minimum viable effort to getting started including the level of strategic investment and activity that allows your marketing to actually perform, validate assumptions, and guide smarter decisions moving forward to expand upon.
Why Underspending Undermines Your Marketing Results
Many organizations getting into marketing for the first time take an overly cautious approach: a single social ad campaign, a few boosted posts, or a handful of blog articles, all done piecemeal and on shoestring budgets.
The problem? These isolated efforts rarely have enough reach, consistency, or data to show what’s working. When results disappoint, it’s tempting to assume “digital marketing doesn’t work for us.” In reality, it was never given a fair test from the start.
Marketing success isn’t just about trying something out; it’s about giving your strategy enough to work with in order to collect data and see results.
Marketing success isn't just about trying something out; it's about giving your strategy enough to work with in order to collect data and see results.
The Walk Before You Run Approach
A well-executed digital marketing program doesn’t have to start with a sprint. But it does need structure. Walking before you run means:
Starting with a clear foundation.
Define your audience, goals, and value proposition before turning on any ads.
Testing a few channels in parallel
For example, pair a paid effort (search and/or social) with consistent website content and email nurture. Focusing all your efforts and budget on a single channel alone won’t give you a complete picture.
Setting realistic budgets and timelines.
Expecting measurable growth from a $500 ad spend on 30 day campaign is like expecting a marathon-finish after one jog around the block.
Taking a more measured, intentional start allows you to build confidence, learn quickly, and scale effectively, without wasting resources or chasing vanity metrics.
If your budget is so tight that you can only afford a single channel, a single ad, or a single month of effort, you're not testing marketing—you're simply testing luck!
Why “Minimal Viable Effort” Beats Minimal Spend
Every marketing strategy needs a baseline level of investment to be viable. Not extravagant, but sufficient. Think of it as the cost of visibility and insight:
- Enough impressions to get statistically meaningful conversion results
- Enough creative variation to test and learn
- Enough time and touchpoints to move a customer through their journey
If your budget is so tight that you can only afford a single channel, a single ad, or a single month of effort, you’re not testing marketing, you’re simply testing luck!
Building a Foundation for Growth
Digital marketing should be approached as a system, not a one-off experiment.
Once that foundation is in place, you can confidently expand, refining what works and scaling results without overspending. At that point it simply becomes a math equation showing you the return on your ad spend and investment.
The right approach combines:
- A focused strategy with measurable KPIs
- A multi-channel presence to meet audiences where they are
- A minimum viable spend to reach meaningful scale
- A timeline of at least 90 days to generate usable data and insights (ideally 6 months)
Start Smart, Not Small
Walking before you run doesn’t mean standing still. It means starting strategically, with enough momentum to actually move forward. If your marketing investment is too limited to learn anything meaningful, it’s not cautious, it’s counterproductive.
Start with a plan, commit to a minimal viable effort, and give your strategy the fuel it needs to prove itself. That’s how you turn a cautious first step into sustainable growth.
