Quarterly planning, whiteboard full, and there it is again on the Rock sheet: “Improve marketing.” Owner: the founder. Status at the end of the quarter: off track. Same as last quarter. Same as the one before that.
I’ve run businesses on EOS, and I see this constantly with EOS companies. The system works beautifully for operations and finance, and marketing somehow ends up as the one seat nobody really owns and the one Rock that never gets done. It’s fixable, and it mostly comes down to how the Rocks get written.
“Improve marketing” isn’t a Rock. It’s a wish.
A Rock has to be done or not done on the last day of the quarter. If you can’t tell, it’ll drift, and marketing drifts easier than anything else in the business because there’s always one more thing you could tweak.
The dig
Nobody really owns the marketing seat. It sits on the Accountability Chart with the founder’s name in it, next to four other seats.
The Rocks are too vague. “Improve social media” can’t be finished, so it can’t be on track.
The Marketing Strategy on the V/TO is fuzzy. If your Target Market and Three Uniques aren’t clear, every marketing Rock is built on sand.
There’s nothing on the Scorecard. Without weekly marketing numbers, you only find out a Rock failed when the quarter’s over.
The find
Good marketing Rocks are specific, have one owner, and connect to either your Marketing Strategy or a number that’s off. A few real-world examples:
Rewrite the homepage around our Three Uniques and Proven Process, and launch it by March 31.
Take Google reviews from 12 to 25 by quarter end, with a review request built into every closed project.
Set up lead source tracking in the CRM so every new lead shows where it came from, live by February 15.
Publish six articles answering our buyers’ most common questions, one every two weeks.
Launch a referral partner program with five signed partners by quarter end.
Finish our brand strategy and update the Marketing Strategy section of the V/TO to match.
Notice what’s missing: “be more active on LinkedIn,” “grow the brand,” “improve SEO.” Those are outcomes, not Rocks. Break them into the one project this quarter that moves them.
Rocks are the projects. The Scorecard is how you know marketing is working week to week. Pick three to five numbers the marketing seat owns:
New leads this week, and how many were qualified.
Sales conversations or proposals from those leads.
Website inquiries, split by where they came from.
Reviews added this week.
Email subscribers added, or content published, if those are part of the plan.
When a number goes red two weeks running, it goes on the Issues List and gets IDS’d in the Level 10, not buried in someone’s inbox.
Someone whose actual job it is. The five roles in a marketing seat usually look like this: owns the Marketing Strategy on the V/TO, owns lead generation, owns the brand and messaging, owns the marketing budget and results, and leads whoever does the marketing work. If the founder is holding it along with three other seats, it’s effectively empty.
That’s the gap a fractional CMO fills in a lot of EOS companies. Someone takes the seat, owns the marketing Rocks, brings the Scorecard to the Level 10, and does it a few days a month instead of forty hours a week.
Every good marketing Rock traces back to the Marketing Strategy section of the V/TO: your Target Market, your Three Uniques, your Proven Process, and your Guarantee. If those are clear, marketing Rocks almost write themselves. If they’re vague, that’s your first Rock. It’s exactly what a brand strategy workshop settles, and it’s the most common place I start with EOS clients.
Fewer, sharper marketing Rocks, one owner each, and three to five marketing numbers on the Scorecard. Get the Marketing Strategy on the V/TO right first, and the Rocks stop going off track.
Running on EOS with an empty marketing seat? Tell me where marketing sits on your Accountability Chart right now, and I’ll tell you what I’d set as your first marketing Rocks. No charge.
EOS, Entrepreneurial Operating System, Traction, Rocks, V/TO, Level 10 Meeting, and related terms are trademarks of EOS Worldwide. GiddyBrands is not affiliated with EOS Worldwide.
GiddyBrands is a senior-led branding studio in Charlotte, North Carolina, working with founder-led businesses across the US and abroad. No account manager layer, the person you talk to builds the work. The portfolio shows what that looks like in practice.
A Rock is a 90-day priority with one owner and a clear finish line. Companies usually set a few company Rocks each quarter, and each leader sets a few of their own.
One to three per quarter. More than that and none of them get the attention they need.
Your Target Market, your Three Uniques, your Proven Process, and your Guarantee. It’s the foundation every marketing decision and Rock should trace back to.
Three to five weekly numbers the marketing seat owns, usually new leads, qualified leads, proposals or sales conversations from those leads, inquiries by source, and reviews added.
Yes. A fractional CMO can sit in the marketing seat on the Accountability Chart, own marketing Rocks, bring the Scorecard to the Level 10 meeting, and work issues through IDS like any other leader.
You can pan every bend in the river, or you can know where the gold sits.
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