Let's compare two vastly different military jets, how they were designed, how they're flown, and then extract some learnings into how we build marketing campaigns.
The A-10 Thunderbolt
Most commonly known as the Warthog, it's designed for close air support (CAS) for soldiers on the ground when they're pinned down by the enemy. The plane is indestructible, and you'll never meet more selfless and dedicated pilots.
The plane is an engineering marvel which was deliberately designed to be launched, recovered, and repaired at virtually any air base or forward operating location (FOL) in the world. There are no unique engine parts or special tools required to work on this plane, wherever it lands, they probably have the parts to get it back up in the air. In fact, it was designed with the engines above the wings so it can be worked on with the engines running!
The B-2 Spirit
Also called the Flying Wing because it's just one big triangle. It's special shape and paint made from radar absorbant material (RAM) make that giant airplane appear about the size of a golf ball on a radar screen--virtually undetectable.
It's so secretive, they only reside at one location in the world, Whiteman AFB, Missouri. They take off from Missouri, refuel several times as they fly all the way around the world, drop their bombs, refuel more, and touch down again in Missouri. They eventually made a special super-secret base for the B-2 to operate out of overseas, and it was a huge deal that they did that.
The Effort of Making TikTok Videos
You could say the same thing about the way different people make videos on TikTok.
Drive by any park and see a bunch of girls with a tripod practicing their dance for hours to get it just right that nobody will ever see. Meanwhile, a guy mixes paint at TruValue Hardware Store, posts 30-second videos twice a day, and gets 1,000,000 followers overnight.
How To Design A Marketing Campaign
We need to be very deliberate when we "design" our marketing processes. How much time, effort, and resources are required to do good work?
For example: Let's talk about something simple, like a post on Instagram, or a YouTube video. How often are you posting? Is it easy to get the assets you need to post consistently and still have interesting/engaging content? If you're a pizza restaurant, this is easy: pull one out of the oven, snap a picture, post it on the internet, or film someone explaining how they toss the dough in the air and put on YouTube. Easy.
It's all in the design of the processes. Most people design a B-2 and everything is an impossible undertaking, which means, it gets done a couple times, and it's ditched, never to be done again.
In conclusion.
Before you just start emailing folks, or posting on social media, or whatever, think about how realistic it is that someone else besides you, the founder, can do this for the next two years, and still be pretty good.
I know what you're thinking, what if you sell something more complicated like financial services or something abstract? You can absolutely still do this, you just have to get creative, and design the process before you just dive in.