We went to Italy this summer.

Feels like a million years ago now, but it was a great holiday, camping on the shores of Lake Como.

Took a while to get there though.

Calais to Como is an 11-hour drive, which we did in two stints.

Last time I drove through France I was the recipient of two speeding tickets, so this time around I was on my guard – cruise control at the ready.

Trouble was, all speed limit signs were in kilometres, and with maths not being my strong point, I was struggling to convert the MPH displayed on my speedometer, and it’s not one of the ones with kilometres in red.

Grace got to work, painstakingly writing down a list of the key speed limits in France, with their MPH equivalent, so I didn’t fall foul of French law once again.

Each time we entered a new speed limit, I had to consult her, and she’d tell me the MPH I should be aiming for.

It was only on the home leg that I discovered this:

That’s right, I’d had instant access to the speed I was going at all times, without any calculations or consulting from Grace, but in my rush to overcomplicate the process, I’d ignored the simple solution staring me in the face.

Marketing gets overcomplicated too – complex “funnels” are designed with multiple moving parts across numerous medias.

In some cases, that’s appropriate.  In most, it’s a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and a simple marketing strategy that gets implemented day in, day out is the way to go.

If you’re not getting as much marketing out of the door as you need to be, it’s worth asking the question:

Am I overcomplicating this?