How do I know when I need marketing? The guide for founders, solos and SMEs

A lot of founders and business leaders often assume they’ll know when it’s time to do marketing. That there’ll be a clear moment where the business reaches some magical stage and marketing suddenly becomes necessary. Like a unicorn will bust through their laptop and tell them, or they’ll suddenly look up and see sky writing telling them that now is the time.

In reality, the realisation comes over time and across lots of different decisions.

Here’s the most common scenarios I come across where businesses start reaching bringing a marketer on board:

Founder-led marketing is slowing and becoming harder

Most SMEs run for years on founder-led marketing. They have wide networks to tap into, they post on LinkedIn often, they’re networking at events, working through referrals, and picking up business through reputation and relationships. It works because the founder understands the product better than anyone and they care enough to keep pushing the message out.

But eventually something starts to shift. What used to feel natural and repeatable starts to feel like hard work with slow progress. Referrals become harder and the network becomes unresponsive. And the question being asked is how can we reach more of our audience?

Here, marketing normally becomes necessary when founder-led growth stops scaling.

That’s usually the first sign when the business is still relying on founder-led marketing, but the founder no longer has the capacity to do it properly.

When growth starts to depend on luck

One month a great referral comes in, the next month nothing happens, then someone from the network appears with a big opportunity. From the outside it can look like things are going well, but underneath there’s no real system driving demand and it all starts to become patchy in the background.

Then if asked where the next five deals are coming from, the answer from the founder or team is usually: hopefully from referrals.

Crossing your fingers and toes becomes the growth strategy and we all know that’s not sustainable.

In this scenario, marketing becomes important when a business wants to move from opportunistic growth to predictable growth. It’s the difference between hoping leads appear and building a repeatable way of generating them.

The team starts to grow but there’s nothing documenting strategy or processes

Another realisation comes into play when founders realise they’re now struggling to explain what makes their business different. In the early days, the why lives in the founder’s head, along with the problems they solve and the value they create for customers. But nothing has been turned into clear messaging that anyone else could use.

This scenario often rears its head when a founder tries to delegate sales or hire their first commercial person. Suddenly the new hire asks for positioning, messaging, sales materials, or a clear description of the ideal customer. And the founder realises those things don’t really exist yet.

Here, marketing helps turn that instinctive founder knowledge into something the rest of the business can actually use.

You’re asking a marketer if you need marketing for your SME or start up

This is probably the surest sign as you’ll already know you do and you’re looking for some reassurance that you’re making the right decision. 

So, if, as the founder, you’re still the only person who can explain the business properly, if leads arrive randomly rather than predictably, or if growth slows every time you get busy, then marketing is increasingly likely the function that you need to add to your business.

It’s the thing that turns founder instinct into an actual system the whole business can rely on.

Need to get started in building your marketing but don’t know where to start? I work with founders, CEOs, MDs and solos to figure out their marketing requirements and build their strategy, processes and campaign plans. Get in contact to arrange a chat.