Input-Controlled Indirect Marketing
Manage controllable quality and cadence while judging indirect channels over stable trends.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 96%
Separate what the team can directly control from outcomes that emerge through long, indirect buying journeys. Define controllable inputs such as the intelligence of ideas, speed of execution, quality of creative work, and responsiveness to feedback. Monitor aggregate demand and business outputs over a sufficiently long period to determine whether the overall motion behaves consistently, without pretending each post, event, or billboard caused a specific conversion. Treat activity metrics as diagnostic signals rather than goals in themselves, because quotas for posts or creator output can dilute quality. Combine trend evidence with qualitative customer reactions and experienced judgment. If results disappoint despite strong execution and learning, investigate product, market, positioning, or other foundational constraints before repeatedly replacing the marketing leader.
Origin
Anand described learning to trust Clay's consistent word-of-mouth and content growth while abandoning input and output goals that distorted creative quality.
Core principles
- 01Indirect channels can be predictable even when individual conversions cannot be attributed.
- 02Control the inputs the team can genuinely influence.
- 03Evaluate output trends over time rather than demanding causal certainty for each activity.
- 04Avoid targets that reward volume while degrading quality.
- 05Trust strong people and culture instead of using metrics solely as surveillance.
- 06Accept that some consequential marketing decisions remain partly artistic.
How to run it
- 1
Separate Inputs From Outputs
List the actions and quality standards the marketing team directly controls, then distinguish them from downstream business outcomes.
Pro tip Include speed, idea quality, craft, and feedback application alongside activity counts.
Watch out Do not label revenue or signups as directly controllable marketing inputs.
- 2
Define Quality Before Volume
Specify what excellent work looks like before setting cadence or production expectations.
Pro tip Use strong examples and explicit review criteria to calibrate the team.
Watch out A numeric target without a quality threshold will encourage dilution.
- 3
Monitor Aggregate Trends
Track branded demand, signups, pipeline, customer comments, and other outputs over a meaningful time horizon.
Pro tip Look for stability and directional relationships rather than perfect per-touch attribution.
Watch out Short windows can misrepresent long B2B buying journeys.
- 4
Audit Metric Incentives
Review whether goals are causing repetitive posts, rushed creative, inflated activity, or other counterproductive behavior.
Pro tip Ask what behavior a rational employee would adopt to hit each target.
Watch out Even input metrics can become harmful when treated as ends.
- 5
Include Qualitative Evidence
Record customer reactions, memorable interactions, market perception, and signs that the work creates emotional resonance.
Pro tip Look for unsolicited customer behavior rather than internal enthusiasm alone.
Watch out Anecdotes should complement aggregate evidence, not replace it.
- 6
Diagnose the Whole System
When results lag, assess execution, product, market, positioning, conversion, and organizational constraints before assigning blame.
Pro tip Ask whether the team is learning and improving the controllable work.
Watch out Repeatedly changing leaders cannot repair an underlying product or market problem.
In the wild
Clay set output-oriented goals and later tried input goals such as a required number of creator or LinkedIn posts. The team observed that these targets diluted quality, so planning moved away from simplistic activity goals and back toward trusted people, stronger work, and aggregate performance.
→ The company reduced incentives to manufacture low-quality volume in an indirect growth channel.
Clay placed billboards around San Francisco during Dreamforce and SaaStr despite the difficulty of attributing conversions to outdoor advertising. The investment was partly evaluated through the market perception it created rather than a single direct-response graph.
→ The company accepted an art-and-science decision where strategic perception mattered despite incomplete attribution.
Common mistakes
Using Activity as the Objective
Post counts and impression quotas can reward output that meets the metric while weakening the channel's quality.
Demanding Touch-Level Certainty
Long, multi-channel buying journeys make exact attribution an unrealistic standard for some valuable work.
Blaming Marketing for System Failure
Weak outcomes can originate in the product, market, positioning, conversion path, or other foundational constraints.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for trusted marketing teams operating channels with long, multi-touch buying journeys and stable aggregate demand patterns.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for direct-response programs where reliable attribution exists and immediate unit economics determine viability.
From the transcript
“And so I've learned to kind of just live within that and control the inputs that I have.”
“We noticed it would dilute the quality, right?”
“And that's why a lot of these decisions are more art than science. And that is okay.”
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