Before You Blame Marketing, Assess Your Business

If there is one thing that all marketers can agree on, it’s that marketing is the most blamed function in a business. And, while we know we sound biased, marketing is usually the least responsible.

After working with 400+ brands across CPG, tech, health and beyond, our award-winning marketing agency can say with full confidence: when marketing “isn’t working,” it’s rarely just a marketing issue; it’s a business issue showing up through marketing.

Marketers don’t develop the product or service; we connect the brand with the audiences who need the product or service. To blame marketing would be like blaming your iPhone for the text you sent your ex. In short, “Don’t shoot the messenger.” Instead, question the message, the intent and the value—all of which stem from the business itself.

The Pattern We See Over and Over Again

Here’s what happens all the time: a founder comes to us, frustrated, and says, “Our cost per acquisition (CAC) is too high,” or, “Our ads aren’t converting, so we need new creative.” Our team comes in to conduct a deep dive, and—surprise—almost every time the real problem sits upstream.

A business can spend all the money in the world on marketing and content creation, but if there are issues at the top, those issues will trickle down and taint every touchpoint with your audience.

Here are the most common issues we see:

1. The Product Doesn’t Deliver on Its Promise

The most creative ads in the world won’t convert if the product or service doesn’t meet expectations. Once a customer gets a bad taste in their mouth, it’s nearly impossible to repair that relationship. If your customers don’t come back, your CAC will look broken (because it is), and you’ll only ever be able to market to new audiences. Customer retention is always easier than lead generation.

With sufficient budget and time, marketers can always drive traffic, but they can’t sell sailboats in Nebraska. We can’t manufacture product-market fit.

2. The Positioning Is Too Broad (or Totally Off)

“We’re for everyone” is not a strategy. Even if the biggest brands with the biggest budgets can’t reach everyone. If your messaging isn’t tailored and differentiated, you’re going to end up paying to educate every prospective customer — and still lose them to brands that feel more relevant.

In our experience, founders who think they have a marketing problem typically have a clarity problem. Don’t throw out the whole marketing team; revisit your value proposition first.

3. The Economics Don’t Work

When margins are thin and price points are misaligned, marketing generally becomes the scapegoat. No amount of channel optimization can fix a model where:

• You can’t afford your ideal CAC
• Your lifetime value (LTV) isn’t strong enough
• Your payback window is too long

That’s not a media issue; that’s a business model issue. Especially if your business hasn’t assessed its real and perceived value in quite some time, put your finger on the pulse of the competition and the industry to see if your spend makes sense.

4. The Team Isn’t Set Up to Succeed

You can’t make something from nothing. Marketers need the right tools and strategies to succeed. In our 17 years of working with both small and blue-chip brands, we’ve repeatedly seen situations where (a) there are no clear owners of growth, (b) there’s fragmented decision-making and (c) there are bottlenecks causing delays at every stage of the process.

Marketing requires speed in execution and patience in iteration. If your team can’t support that, performance will stall, no matter how strong the strategy is.

Written in collaboration with ChatGPT