How to avoid common marketing startup mistakes

I’m Emily, and I write newsletter.mkt1.co, all about B2B startup marketing strategy, with 50,000+ subscribers. Formerly, I led marketing at a number of startups, including Asana, Carta, and others; now, I’m an advisor and investor. I spend a lot of time thinking about pattern matching and building frameworks for marketing. I joined Mercury at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, where I shared some common marketing mistakes I see companies make, plus my advice for avoiding these mistakes.

On common startup marketing mistakes

There are, unfortunately, endless mistakes you can make when you go to market a company, especially an early-stage company. But there are a few I see over and over again.

Copying another company’s playbook

There are tons of great marketing campaigns out there — and plenty of bad ones, too — but copying a marketing playbook just because you see another company using it is not a marketing strategy at all. If something works for one company, that doesn’t mean it will work for you. And even if a successful company is making use of a marketing strategy that seems smart from the outside, it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily working well for them, either.

The better way to approach building your strategy is to look at your specific audience, market, GTM motion and marketing advantages. Marketing advantages are dynamics in your business, product, or market that inherently drive growth. If you have a great network, that can be an advantage and a great place to start. Perhaps there are service providers that your audience already turns to, and you can use those to reach your audience. Identifying and leaning into whatever marketing advantage you or your company already has will get you a lot farther than copying something you think is working for someone else.

Random acts of marketing

When your marketing strategy is a checklist of random tasks that don’t ladder up to a solid and overarching goal, you’re not making time or space for marketing tactics that could move the needle long-term. This happens when marketing doesn’t set a strategy and goals, and communicate them broadly. A good marketing plan consists of strategic bets and big campaigns to help you hit long-term goals and drive step-change growth over time. If you’re focused only on hitting short-term goals or lists of tasks assigned by everyone else in an organization, you’re never going to make strides on big, long-term projects.

I’m always reminding marketers: spend plenty of your time and energy on big-bet projects. If you’re just running down a list and checking boxes, it’s going to be very hard to accomplish big things that lead to meaningful growth over time.

Misaligned fuel and engine

Because I'm a marketer, I like to think in metaphors. And I like to think of marketing as a powerful machine consisting of both fuel and engine. Fuel is the content, creative, and brand—all the things you create to add value for your audience. And high-quality fuel powers an engine, which in this case is growth channels and tactics.

Many startups spend too much time building out channels (engine), but don’t spend enough time, effort, or intention on content (fuel). Others have too much fuel: they’re making podcasts, webinars, blog posts, and more — this has become especially fast with advances in AI — but not putting energy into distributing them. It’s surprisingly rare to see a company balance both fuel and engine so that content and distribution are in lock-step.

On Common Hiring Mistakes

Hiring the wrong first marketer or marketing leader

There are at least twenty unique roles in marketing, and when you’re hiring a team of that size, you’re not hiring the same archetype very often. Building a solid marketing team is like solving a puzzle. In that way, a marketing team is less like a sales team, in which individual teammember’s goals and skill sets can be fairly consistent, and more like a product team that’s comprised of many very different skill sets, including engineers, designers, product managers, and more.

In the early days, you want someone who can bridge all those disparate areas. It’s helpful to hire a marketing leader who’s not just T-shaped, but π-shaped. Meaning their expertise spikes in two areas — like content and growth, for example — but who can also set strategies that bridge those areas.

There are lots of great marketing specialists who’ve worked at big, well-known companies — but for a first hire, you’re usually better off choosing someone who’s well-rounded and can see the bigger picture and dive deep and execute in a couple areas of marketing too. Specialists who’ve gone deep in a specific thing are great hires once the marketing organization is a bit more mature.

Wrapping it up

Great marketing strategies and growth starts with first principles thinking, not checking boxes or copying playbooks from other companies. Think strategically and independently, balance fuel and engine, and make that crucial first marketing hire: someone who can bridge disciplines and think strategically during that early growth stage.

Looking for more insights to help you build your company? Explore Mercury Raise, our platform offering free expert mentorship, fundraising support, and resources for founders. Find more events and upcoming expert sessions (in person and virtual) at events.mercury.com.