What Startups Get Wrong About Marketing

Marketing is one of those things every startup founder thinks they understand.

"We need to go viral!" or "Just throw up a website, and leads will roll in!" or my personal favorite, "I don't really get marketing but I need to be consulted on every decision." After a decade+ of building marketing functions at startups, I can confidently tell you: most startups get marketing very, very wrong.

Here’s the hard truth—and the guide I wish every founder had before they started throwing spaghetti at the marketing wall. (Note: no pasta was harmed in the making of this content🍝)

1. Marketing Is Not Just ‘Getting the Word Out’

Let’s start with a bang: Marketing is not magic. It’s a science (and, yes, an art) that aligns your product, message, and audience to drive growth. Yet many founders think marketing equals flashy ads, clever tweets, and PR stunts.

In reality, marketing starts with strategy: understanding your customers, figuring out your unique positioning, and determining the best way to reach them. This foundational work doesn’t feel sexy, but it’s the backbone of any successful marketing effort. Skip it, and your marketing will flop—spectacularly.

Reality Check: According to HubSpot, 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority—because visibility without relevance gets you nowhere.

2. How Marketing Works (Spoiler: It’s Not Instant Gratification)

Let me debunk the most persistent myth I hear: “If we hire a marketer, we’ll get leads immediately.” Nope. Marketing is a long game.

Building a brand, establishing trust, and nurturing leads take time. Think of marketing like farming: you plant seeds, water them, and wait. Sure, you can hack growth by throwing money into PPC ads or giveaways, but if you’re not simultaneously building the underlying ecosystem, your “growth” will evaporate the moment you stop spending.

Pro Tip: For sustainable growth, focus on both short-term wins (paid ads, email campaigns) and long-term strategies (content marketing, SEO, community building). Gartner found that 63% of buying decisions are made before a prospect ever talks to sales. If your marketing doesn’t nurture that journey, you’re invisible. 💨

3. Results: No, Marketing Can’t Turn Lead into Gold

Marketing works wonders, but we’re not alchemists. If your product is half-baked, your sales process is broken, or your pricing makes no sense, no amount of marketing can fix that.

Similarly, not all results can—or should—be measured in immediate ROI. Founders love to ask, “What’s the ROI on this campaign?” But brand-building, thought leadership, and reputation management don’t always pay off in a single quarter. The best marketing creates momentum that compounds over time.

Example: Nike spent YEARS building its brand before it became synonymous with “just do it.” If Phil Knight had asked for ROI on every dollar spent in the 1980s, we wouldn’t have the swoosh we know today.

4. The Team: You Can’t Outsource Strategy to an Intern

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard, “Can we just hire someone junior to manage this?” A lean team is a reality for startups, but expecting an entry-level hire to build and execute a comprehensive marketing strategy is a recipe for frustration.

At a minimum, you need:

• Strategic leadership (someone who knows what they’re doing and why)
• Specialists (designers, writers, performance marketers)
• Tools and tech to amplify their efforts

For context, according to the CMO Council, high-growth startups typically spend 11% of revenue on marketing. If your “team” is just a solo marketer running Google Ads, you’re underinvesting.

5. Speed: Why You Can’t Skip the Foundation

“Can we go live next month?” It’s a question I’ve heard far too often from impatient CEOs. Unfortunately, skipping foundational work—like building out personas, researching competitors, or creating a robust website—almost always backfires.

Here’s the thing: foundational work ensures every dollar you spend later is spent effectively. Without it, your campaigns will be mismatched, your messaging will confuse customers, and your sales funnel will leak faster than a startup happy hour keg.

Stat to Stew Over: McKinsey reports that companies with strong brand positioning outperform competitors by 25% in profitability. Foundational work matters.

6. The Scalable System: Build It Before You Need It

Here’s a dirty little secret: most startups don’t think about scalable systems until they’re drowning in chaos. Suddenly, they have 10x the leads and no CRM, a bottlenecked sales process, and no idea where the customers came from.

The best marketing functions are designed to scale. That means:

• Setting up CRM and marketing automation early
• Building content that can be repurposed
• Creating playbooks for campaigns and workflows
• Tracking data obsessively (Google Analytics, HubSpot, or similar tools)

Reality Check: Bain & Company found that 80% of companies believe they deliver superior customer experiences—but only 8% of their customers agree. A scalable system helps ensure you’re part of the 8%!

What Founders Should Do Instead

1. Invest in Strategy First. Hire someone who can set the vision before hiring tactical specialists.
2. Be Patient. Growth takes time. Give your team at least 6-12 months to deliver meaningful results.
3. Understand What You’re Buying. Great marketing is an investment, not an expense. Treat it as such.
4. Focus on the Customer. Everything starts and ends with their needs. Don’t let ego get in the way.
5. Respect the Process. Good marketing takes research, collaboration, and iteration. There are no shortcuts.

The Takeaway

Marketing is not the art of being loud—it’s the science of being heard. When done right, it’s one of the most powerful levers for growth. When done wrong, it’s a frustrating money pit.

So, if you’re a founder ready to “do marketing,” take a breath. Invest in the foundations, hire smart people, and play the long game. Trust me: the results are worth the wait.

After all, you can’t hack your way to greatness.

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