As a business founder, it’s unlikely that marketing is among your core skills sets. Most business founders start a business because they have received feedback – through words of encouragement, financial success, or both – that they excel at something. For others, they have acquired a formal education in a given field, discipline or practice – and they believed at some point that starting a business would be the next logical move. And, sometimes it works out.
The point is: most founders excel – through education, natural talent or both – at a specific technical skill. They then proceed to set up the key elements of a business they need: a website, employees, an office (if needed), accounting systems, distribution, and more.
Unfortunately, marketing is often one of the last things to get attention and resources. And the realization of this need usually kicks in after the initial wave of new business setup activity has come and gone. This means that most founders start out already being behind the curve on effective marketing campaign setup and operation.
What makes things even more challenging is that marketing is deceptively easy. Most founders believe marketing reduces to a clever ad, attractive spokesmodels or a catchy logo and tagline. This perception of marketing is prevalent because these artifacts represent the part of marketing that people can easily see. It’s the proverbial tip of the iceberg. But behind any effective ad, spokesmodel, logo or tagline is a mountain of research, planning, and attention to detail during execution.
Many founders only start taking marketing seriously after it underperforms—or fails.
Lessons from 3 Decades in Marketing
I have been involved in all aspects of marketing for almost 3 decades. During this time, I have worked in both in-house teams for Fortune 500 companies – and smaller ones. I have also served well over 300 clients as the founder of a 3 ad agencies. The latter experiences, in particular, have given me insights into how CEOs and founders view marketing. Their varying comfort levels. Their misinformation. Their determination to make it work.
For such founders, I have compiled below 10 marketing principles which have emerged as tried and true for me over the years. I believe this can serve as a guidepost for those working hard to make marketing work for them. Making marketing work is often the final piece of the puzzle in an otherwise humming-along business.
Marketing Succeeds When….
So, when does marketing succeed? Marketing succeeds when founders:
1. Adopt a solution-oriented mindset: You approach it as a problem to solve, not an obstacle to be overcome, put up with, or ignored. When you shift your perspective this way, marketing becomes another operational challenge you can systematically address—just like hiring, product development, or cash flow management.
2. Approach marketing decisions intentionally: Every tactic, every channel, every dollar spent must have a purpose. No random acts of marketing allowed. If you can’t articulate why you’re doing something and what outcome you expect, don’t do it.
3. Understand their ideal target audience: Whether you are a B2C or a B2B business, knowing your audience’s characteristics, ways of thinking and behavior is essential for designing winning campaigns. The more specific you get about who you’re targeting, the more efficient your marketing spend becomes—and the faster you’ll see results.
4. Set the right strategy, then rigorously execute on tactics: Successful marketers always follow a strategy. But once strategy is set, rigorous and precise tactical execution wins the day, every time. A mediocre strategy executed flawlessly will outperform a brilliant strategy executed poorly.
5. Encourage a testing culture: Every campaign can be seen as successful—even those that don’t produce the desired results—if set up correctly. Both successful and unsuccessful campaigns give you precious data about what works and what doesn’t. The key is designing tests that actually teach you something, then acting on what you learn.
6. Recognize that location matters: For all businesses—even online-only businesses—where your customers live, work and spend their time matters. When approached correctly, it affects the geotargeting decisions you make. Geography influences everything from messaging to timing to channel selection.
7. Measure results numerically—both against goals and over time: Measuring results, both hard conversions like sales and soft conversions like leads or web form submits, is central to a campaign’s success. Without numbers, you’re flying blind and making decisions based on gut feel rather than evidence.
8. Respect the tools: Marketing software (platforms, tools, software, etc.) are designed to be easy to set up and get started on—but hard to operate at a competitive level. Marketing succeeds when you don’t just stop short at the basics. Your competitors are learning the advanced features and you need to as well.
9. Prioritize human-in-the-loop for strategy: Use AI wherever is prudent for tactical items, but NEVER omit the human from the process for making key strategic decisions. With ubiquitous access to AI, your humans are your differentiators. Machines can optimize; only humans can see around corners and make judgment calls that create breakout success.
10. Think outside the system: Once your marketing system is humming along efficiently, you should be constantly red-teaming your system: question it, tweak it, think outside and ahead of it. This is how you identify gaps and weaknesses. Complacency is the enemy of sustained marketing performance.
Your Turn
You’ve read the principles. Now, I invite you to do some reflective journaling around each one. Are you implementing each one? If so, how well? If not, why not?
If you’re a founder, reach out to me at JLytics to find out how to implement a marketing system that is measurable, predictable and actually gets results.
