The Marketing Trap Founders Keep Falling Into

One of the weirdest things about marketing is that almost every idea can sound like the right idea. SEO? Makes sense. Paid ads? Sure. A new website? Probably. A podcast? Why not? More email? Definitely. A rebrand? Maybe.

Your business, and your sanity, can’t handle all of that at once. This is exactly where I see founders get paralyzed. There are too many ‘good’ options and not enough conviction to kill the ones that aren’t going to make a meaningful impact on your business.

When everything in marketing feels urgent

You grab coffee with a friend, and she mentions LinkedIn is a gold mine for her, so now you’re feeling guilty for not posting five times a week. Your competitor launches a podcast. Someone on your team wants to redo the website. An agency tells you paid search is the missing piece. You hear SEO takes six months, so now that feels urgent, too. By Thursday, you’ve somehow added a podcast, a rebrand, and “figure out Reddit” to your to-do list like you have a 40-person marketing team when it’s really just you, ChatGPT, and your assistant.

The hardest part is that the ideas coming at you usually aren’t bad. That’s why they’re so dangerous. I say this as someone who can open Resy at 6:30 PM looking for dinner, and somehow end up comparing a wine bar in the West Village, a Thai place in Nolita, a steakhouse in Brooklyn, and a restaurant I saw on TikTok three weeks ago. Then 45 minutes later, I end up at the same local tapas spot I go to every week. Too many options often lead to no decision.

Start with what’s actually broken

Let’s say sales are dipping. The knee-jerk reaction is almost always: “We need more leads.” But then you look at the data and see thousands of people are already visiting your site. Suddenly, I’m not worried about the front door. I’m wondering why everyone is walking in, looking around, and leaving without buying anything.

Maybe the offer is confusing. Maybe the price point feels off. Maybe the site looks pretty, but doesn’t actually sell. Or maybe the sales process itself is where the ball is being dropped. Buying more traffic in that situation is lighting money on fire.

This is why “What marketing should we do?” is the wrong starting point. The better question is: “What’s actually broken in the business?” Good marketing isn’t always about doing more. Sometimes it’s having the guts to decide what you’re NOT going to do.

And since I brought up 40-person marketing teams, let me clarify, that more money and bigger marketing teams don’t necessarily fix this problem. I’ve worked with major brands with enormous marketing budgets where social wanted one thing, paid media wanted another, brand had its own priorities, and some shiny new vendor was suddenly in the mix because the CEO had just seen a killer presentation.

Bigger teams and bigger budgets do not automatically create more focus. Sometimes they give you more people, more opinions, and more expensive ways to chase too many things at once.

Before you lose all hope, here’s my advice:

Decide what deserves your attention now

Before you add one more thing to your plate, ask yourself four questions:

1. What specific problem is this actually solving for us?
2. Why is this a priority right now versus next year?
3. What makes us think this is the right fix?
4. What are we going to stop doing so we can do this right?

The last one is the kicker. It’s the one nobody wants to answer, because it forces you to admit that some good ideas are supposed to stay on the shelf for a while.

I know that’s hard when you’re an ambitious founder. It can feel like you’re leaving money on the table. But businesses rarely get stuck because they have too few ideas. They get stuck because they spread their energy too thin across too many tactics.