Happy New Year!

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While everyone else is talking about shiny new tactics to try in 2026, I want to talk about something more fundamental: the decisions you're still carrying from 2025 (or even 2024) that are quietly draining your team's energy and focus.

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Most marketing teams aren't failing because they're doing the wrong things. They're stuck because too many things are left undecided.

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The problem with open loops

You know that mental weight of an unfinished task? That's an open loop. And marketing teams are drowning in them:

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Should we do ABM this year? Do we need to post more on social? Should we go back to paid ads? Should we redo our messaging? Should we hire someone new? Maybe we should wait and see...

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Each "maybe" takes up mental space. Each undecided question means your team second-guesses their work and important campaigns are still in WIP. This all of it adds up to a lot of work without much momentum.

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The result is that everyone stays busy, but nothing gets simpler.

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Why this matters now

January brings this into sharp focus because there's pressure to set goals and make plans. But here's what I've noticed: the pressure doesn't really come from the goals - it comes from the open loops.

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When fundamental decisions aren't closed, your team can't move with confidence. They're constantly looking over their shoulder, wondering if they're working on the right thing.

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This is exactly why we built our approach around audience and market insights. Not to have data for data's sake, but to give teams what they actually need: the ability to close decisions with confidence and keep moving.

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Three decisions that unlock everything

If you want a starting point, these three questions will close more loops than any new tactic:

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1. What do we actually want to be known for this year?

Not aspirationally. Not eventually. Right now, if someone asks what you do, what's the one thing you want them to remember?

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This doesn't have to be forever. But it does need to be clear enough that your team can make daily decisions without asking permission.

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2. What are we prioritising properly (and what are we stopping)?

"Everything is important" is the same as "nothing is important".

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Look at your channels, your campaigns, your projects. Which ones are actually moving the needle? Which ones are you keeping alive out of habit or guilt?

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Stopping something frees up space for the important work to breathe.

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💡 A SaaS client was running Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Twitter, Instagram, a podcast, monthly webinars, and trying to build a community. Their team was exhausted and nothing was working well. They stopped everything except LinkedIn organic, the podcast, regular customer interviews, and educational email series that spoke to the customers’ needs. Three months later, their pipeline was healthier than it had been all year

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3. What does "good" look like in the next 90 days?

Your team can't hit a target they can't see.

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Define what success looks like in concrete terms so people can stop guessing and start executing. Not perfect metrics, just clear enough that you'll know if you're on track.

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How to actually close these loops

The hardest part isn't identifying the open loops. It's having the confidence to close them.

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Here's a practical three-step approach to turn lingering debates into decisions you can act on:

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1. Prioritise and categorise your open loops

Before you can close a loop, you need to understand what you're actually deciding. Start by listing out all the "maybes" that are sitting around, then categorise them:

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Where is this feedback coming from? Different stakeholders, customer segments, or specific ideal customer profiles will have different priorities

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What themes are emerging? Group similar questions together - pricing concerns, messaging clarity, channel selection, feature priorities

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Which loops are blocking progress right now? Focus on the decisions that are causing your team to second-guess their work or holding back important initiatives

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At The Scale Up Collective, we typically use the Jobs To Be Done framework and the Four Forces model to organise feedback. This helps us understand what's actually driving customer decisions - not just what they say they want, but what motivates them, what makes them anxious, and what keeps them stuck

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💡 Use a simple spreadsheet or Notion board to track and categorise your open loops. When you can see all the "maybes" in one place, patterns become obvious and you can focus on what matters most

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2. Map your insights to the customer journey

Once you've categorised everything, map each insight to where it actually matters in your customer journey. This is about getting specific: what decision do you need to make, and where will it have the most impact?

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For example, if customer interviews reveal that people hesitate at your pricing page because they don't see the value or don't understand how it works, you now know exactly where to focus. You might need to improve your value proposition on the pricing page, add testimonials to reassure buyers, or include success metrics that demonstrate ROI

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The key is translating vague concerns ("our messaging isn't working") into specific, actionable decisions ("we need to address value concerns on the pricing page by adding three customer testimonials and a clear ROI calculator")

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💡 Assign clear ownership for each action. Who's responsible for closing this loop? What's the deadline? How will we know it's done? Without ownership and deadlines, even categorised feedback just becomes a nicer-looking list of maybes

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3. Test your decisions and measure the impact

Don't just make a change and hope it works. Set up simple ways to validate whether closing that loop actually improved things:

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Run A/B tests on the specific changes - different ad copy, landing page variations, email messaging

Track 2-3 key metrics that show if it's working - conversion rates, time on page, customer questions about that topic

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Talk to customers and see if the change addressed their concern

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The goal isn't perfection. It's progress. Make the decision, implement it, measure whether it moved the needle, then either keep it or try something else. But the loop is closed - you're no longer debating whether to do it, you're learning from doing it

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💡 Set up a regular review cycle (monthly is usually enough) to look at what you changed and whether it worked. This creates a feedback loop that builds confidence in your decision-making over time

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The compound effect of closed loops

Here's what happens when you start closing decisions:

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Your team moves faster because they're not constantly checking if they're on the right track

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Your work gets better because energy goes into execution instead of debate

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Your learning accelerates because you're actually trying things and seeing results

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Your confidence grows because you're building evidence, not just having opinions

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Your starting point for 2026

Pick one open loop that's been hanging around and close it this month.

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It might be uncomfortable. It might feel too simple. But I promise you'll feel the difference in how your team operates.

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And if you need help figuring out which loop to close first, or how to close it with confidence, that's exactly what we do. Our audience research isn't about creating reports - it's about giving you the insights that let you make clear decisions and keep moving.

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Want to talk it through? Let's chat.

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Here's to a year of momentum over maybes,

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Lucy

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P.S. If you're thinking "but what if we close the wrong loop?" - remember that making a clear decision and learning from it is almost always better than leaving it open indefinitely. You can always adjust course, but you can't build momentum while you're stuck in debate mode.

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