Hiring a Marketer Won't Fix What You Don't Understand

Lots of businesses hire marketers expecting them to make the business grow.

They bring someone in, give them a budget, show them the LinkedIn page and hope for the best.

Then, six months later, they're wondering why they haven't made any more money.

The marketer has been busy. The LinkedIn following has grown, email open rates are up and there are some lovely new branded assets knocking about.

But revenue hasn't moved.

And here's the thing. The problem might not be the marketer. It might be the people who hired them.

Because if you don't understand what marketing can and should deliver commercially, how can you possibly know who to hire, what to ask them to do or whether they're doing a good job?

You're Hiring People Before You Know What You Need

One of the most common problems I see in businesses is hiring marketing people before properly understanding what needs fixing.

Sales aren't growing as quickly as expected, so the business decides it needs marketing.

Fair enough.

But what sort of marketing? What actually needs to change?

Is the business failing to attract enough potential customers? Are buyers choosing competitors? Is the proposition unclear? Are opportunities being lost because people just don't know the business exists?

These are very different problems, requiring very different skills.

Yet businesses routinely recruit channel specialists and expect them to solve broader commercial problems.

Someone who is brilliant at running Meta ads might be exactly what you need. Someone who can grow your LinkedIn following by 20% might be doing a fantastic job.

But neither necessarily knows how to assess your position in the market, identify the opportunity for growth or work out how marketing investment will contribute to revenue and profit.

That doesn't make them bad marketers. It makes them specialists.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

What's wrong is expecting them to deliver something they were never qualified or equipped to do.

The Biggest Marketing Decisions Aren't Made By Marketers

Here's the bit that often gets overlooked.

Founders, CEOs and business owners make marketing decisions all the time, whether they recognise them as that or not.

They decide which customers the business should go after, where to invest, how much to spend, what commercial opportunities to prioritise and which roles need filling.

They make decisions about pricing, products, sales and growth. All things which marketing should inform.

And these decisions have a direct impact on the financial performance of the business.

Yet it's entirely possible for someone to be an excellent business leader while having very little understanding of how marketing actually works.

There's no shame in that. Nobody expects a CEO to be an expert in finance, law, technology and every other business discipline.

And marketers have done nothing to help erode the myths about it being a dark art, or the colouring in department either.

That's why we have subject matter experts. Like, real experts, not just grifters pushing the latest trend.

But there's a difference between not being an expert and making decisions without some expertise or at least understanding of the inputs and outputs.

You wouldn't expect someone with no financial understanding to make investment decisions without the support of a qualified finance professional.

So why do we think it's totally reasonable to make marketing investment decisions based on gut feel, personal preference or whatever the latest LinkedIn gobshite is recommending?

Marketing is a commercial business discipline.

It deserves the same informed decision-making as any other function responsible for making or spending money.

When Marketing Doesn't Work, Who Gets The Blame?

Quite often, the marketer.

And sometimes that's absolutely fair. There are plenty of people working in marketing who don't have the training, knowledge or commercial understanding they should have.

Our industry has a knowledge gap.

It's relatively easy to become a channel specialist, develop valuable skills and build a successful business providing those services.

I know people who created a fantastic social media agency after managing publicity for their band. They built a brilliant business and successfully exited it.

Good for them.

But being excellent at social media doesn't automatically qualify someone to lead the entire marketing function of a business.

A senior marketer should understand the market, the competition, potential customers, the business's position within its category and the commercial opportunity.

They should be able to identify how that position can be improved, what investment is required and what financial outcomes the business should reasonably expect.

And crucially, they should be able to explain it in terms the people running the business understand.

Revenue. Profit. Market share.

Not just clicks and likes.

The problem comes when a business hires someone without knowing whether they have those skills, gives them poorly defined expectations and then holds them accountable for commercial results they were never in a position to deliver.

The result?

Wasted budgets, expensive recruitment mistakes, frustrated agencies and founders who come to the conclusion that marketing doesn't work.

What a bloody mess.

You Don't Need To Become A Marketer. You Need To Understand What You're Buying.

Now, I'm absolutely not suggesting every founder or CEO needs to become a trained marketer.

Quite the opposite.

You've got a business to run, and there are people who have spent years learning and practising this stuff.

But somebody needs to understand how marketing contributes to the financial requirements of the business.

Somebody needs to understand how to evaluate the opportunity, make investment decisions, select the right expertise and assess whether the work is delivering.

And there are two perfectly sensible ways to achieve that.

The first is to bring in experienced marketing leadership.

A marketing director, CMO or fractional CMO can provide the commercial understanding required to make informed decisions and connect the marketing function to the financial objectives of the business.

Hey, I'm a fractional CMO. Funny how that worked out.

The second is to develop that knowledge yourself.

Learn enough about marketing to understand how businesses grow, how markets work, how buyers make decisions and how marketing investment can be assessed.

You don't need to know how to run a Google Ads campaign.

You do need to understand whether Google Ads is an appropriate investment in the first place.

And ideally, if you're bringing in experienced leadership, they should be helping you and your business develop that capability too.

Because expertise shouldn't create permanent dependency.

It should leave the business better equipped to make informed decisions.

Everything Should Have A Commercial Purpose

One final point, because this is where marketing often becomes unnecessarily complicated.

You can assess the commercial contribution of marketing.

You absolutely can. And you bloody well should.

That doesn't mean every individual activity generates an immediate sale, or that every pound spent can be directly attributed to a particular transaction.

Marketing doesn't work like that.

But you should understand the commercial purpose behind the investment, how it contributes to business growth and what evidence you'll use to evaluate its effectiveness.

Take branded merchandise.

You could send out 100 branded teacups and have a lovely time knowing there are 100 people drinking tea with your logo in front of them.

Great.

But what was the point?

If those teacups generate two briefs, and the resulting business more than covers the investment, then you've got evidence that the activity delivered a commercial return.

You wouldn't expect 100 teacups to generate 100 briefs. That's not how any of this works.

But you can establish what success would look like and evaluate whether the investment was worthwhile.

The same principle applies to recruitment, agencies, advertising, brand investment and everything else.

What are you trying to achieve commercially? Why is this the right investment? What evidence supports the decision? How will you know if it's working?

These are questions business leaders should be asking, and questions competent senior marketers should be able to answer.

Because ultimately, the aim isn't to have a busier marketing department.

It's to make better commercial decisions that help the business make more money.

And that's why hiring another marketer won't necessarily solve your problem.

You either need someone who understands marketing well enough to make those decisions, or you need to develop that understanding yourself.

Learn to fish and eat forever. Or get someone who knows where the bloody fish are.

Right. The Obvious Questions Answered.

How do I know what sort of marketer my business needs?

Start with the commercial problem, not the job title.

If you know precisely what needs doing, you might need a channel specialist to execute it. If you don't know why your business isn't growing, you probably need someone with broader commercial marketing expertise to help diagnose the problem.

Don't recruit someone to deliver a solution you haven't established you need.

How can I tell whether my marketing is actually working?

Start by looking at what it's supposed to contribute to the business.

That might be more qualified sales opportunities, improved conversion, increased revenue or greater market share. Some activities will have a direct financial return, while others build future demand.

Channel metrics can help explain performance, but they're not the commercial outcome.

More LinkedIn followers are lovely. More profit is better.

Why haven't previous marketing hires or agencies delivered results?

There are several possible reasons. They might lack the necessary skills, have been given unrealistic expectations or simply be doing the wrong work.

But don't automatically assume the supplier is the problem.

If the business hasn't clearly established what it needs marketing to achieve, changing the person delivering it might just mean paying someone new to make the same mistakes.

Should I hire a marketing manager, a CMO or a fractional CMO?

Depends on what the business actually needs.

If you've got clear commercial objectives, sound marketing direction and a requirement for execution, a capable marketing manager might be ideal.

If you need someone to make senior commercial marketing decisions, assess investment and take responsibility for marketing's contribution to growth, you need experienced leadership.

Whether that's full-time or fractional depends on the scale, complexity and requirements of the business.

The title matters way less than the capability.

Do I need to understand marketing myself if I'm paying someone else to do it?

You don't need to become a marketer.

But you do need enough understanding to make informed commercial decisions, or have someone with that expertise making them alongside you.

Otherwise, you're committing money to people and activities without being able to judge whether they're appropriate.

And if you're going to spend the company's money, you really should know what you're buying.