The weekly marketing meeting that decides things

Most marketing meetings are status updates. Everyone shares what they did, nobody decides anything, and the same questions come back next week. Here's a format that fixes that in 45 minutes.

Before the meeting (5 minutes)

One person updates a single page with the week's numbers: spend, new customers, cost per customer, and anything that moved a lot. Everyone reads it before they walk in, so nobody presents it.

The meeting

1. What changed? (10 minutes) Only things that moved enough to matter. Good or bad.

2. What did we learn? (10 minutes) From last week's tests and campaigns. One sentence each.

3. What are we deciding? (20 minutes) The real work. Bring two or three decisions, each with a recommendation. Keep going, change it, or stop it.

4. Who owns what? (5 minutes) Every decision leaves the room with one owner and a date.

Rules that keep it short

• No slides. The one-page update replaces them.
• New ideas go on a list, not into the plan, unless they replace something.
• If a decision needs more data, name who's getting it and by when.

Why this works

Decisions stop piling up on the founder, and the team learns faster because every week ends with a clear next step. It's also the format I use in weekly advising sessions.

Not sure which numbers belong on that one page? Start with these five.