The right mindset for the job.
Today I'm going to try to persuade you of something slightly counterintuitive. Great marketing isn't built on the strategy. It's built on the people executing it.
At its core, marketing has one job. That job is, of course, to profitably drive growth.
When you’re a startup or launching a brand-new product, you don’t have the luxury of a household name or an infinite bank account. You’re dealing with the "startup trifecta" of hurdles:
nobody knows who you are
your product is still in its early stages
your resources are modest at best.
This is where Entrepreneurial Marketing kicks in.
While I work in enablement, there is truly not a playbook you can just hand to a marketing team and guarantee they’ll deliver it. Not least if they had no say in how the playbook was created.
What does actually stand out to me in teams I’ve either worked in or observed over the years is whether they have a specific mindset that turns constraints into advantages.
Here is how that way of thinking actually breaks down:
Agility. You have to move fast and stay agile. While I am grateful for my Agile certification, I do think the ability to be agile is something that cannot be taught in a classroom. Teams are either open to change, or they’re not. And if they’re the latter, that’s where the focus needs to be.
Creativity. WARC research consistently proves that creativity results in effectiveness. Creativity often feels elusive. If it isn't woven into a company’s DNA from the start, it’s nearly impossible to retrofit. However, when creativity is prioritised, it can be used to fuel a growth hacking mindset. This shift moves marketing from an "afterthought" to a core component of the product itself.
Hierarchy of effects. You have to respect the psychology of the sale. People don’t just wake up and buy things. We repeat that often in marketing. We talk about funnels and how they move through a journey. I think many teams still struggle to actually put that into practice. What are you doing to move them from being totally unaware to the cognitive stage (awareness)? Then to the affective stage (actually liking and preferring you)? And finally to the behavioral stage (the actual purchase)?
True growth isn't about chasing a single "win" or a viral moment. It’s about creating a sustainable system centered on your team’s talent.
