Let’s just say it: Most digital marketing metrics are bullshit.

Impressions? Clicks? Views? Cute.

They look great in a deck and make everyone feel productive, but when it comes to answering the only question that actually matters, "Did this move the needle?" those metrics are basically confetti in a hurricane.

Enter the hero we don’t talk about enough: Incrementality.

In the last month, I’ve written two full-blown marketing plans for clients and I’m diving into a third one this weekend for a very hands on project. Both were very different projects. Opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to target customers, budgets, and expectations. But here’s the funny part: both plans, unique as they were, netted out at exactly 45 pages each.

That wasn’t by design. I didn’t have a template I was plugging things into. It happened because that’s how much it takes to capture the real meat of a marketing plan when you’re not padding it with fluff.

I have been doing 1:1 personal branding coaching with people, and one of the exercises I ask them to do is write their obituary. Pretend it is 25 years in the future and write about what they accomplished. It is part aspiration (looking forward) and part self-reflection (looking backward) so people can list accomplishments that are earned and desired.

I recently finished reading Peter Levitan's new book "How To Build A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency". I enjoyed the book, and highly recommend it; only a little of it was new to me because I have seen or heard most things in the almost 15 years I have been running my agency, but one thing I did take to heart was his chapter on having a one-page business plan.