I drove Kathy to the train station early doors yesterday. She was meeting up with some of the folks she'd done her masters with a decade or so ago.

I haven't done much driving recently for obvious reasons.

In fact, I went over a year without needing to fill up the tank. And it's been nearly two years since I drove this particular route to the station.

I was mildly shocked at how much I'd forgotten the route.

I couldn't remember which lanes were right turn only and which were straight ahead. Or quite where the semi-concealed entry to the station car park was.

And I found myself having to concentrate much harder than usual just to drive. I was quite worn out by the time I made it home.

It's a bit like that with marketing.

If you only write emails once in a blue moon, each one is hard work and you forget the shortcuts and the right buttons to press to get things set up.

If you don't do Facebook Ads week in, week out, then the interface and algorithm will no doubt have changed since the last time you did them.

If you haven't done a webinar or live presentation for a while then the next one you do won't be anywhere near as effective as when you do them regularly.

It's why trying to do too many different things in marketing is always a mistake. You end up being rusty and less than effective at all of them.

Of course, you have to experiment a bit and try a few things to find out which works for you.

But once you've got something that works, stick to it.

Don't get grass-is-greenered by the latest shiny technique or because some marketer somewhere tells you they're “crushing it' with a tactic you're not familiar with.

It's almost certain that the fancy new approach won't work as well for you – and especially if you split your focus and try to do too many things.

Much better to do one or two marketing things really well than be mediocre at 3 or 4 of them.

Because familiarity breeds competence.