…and why most of them are kidding themselves
Somewhere along the way, marketing got mistaken for “posting stuff online.” or a simple email out to all your customers meant that you've launched a product ... all this is social medias fault, it made marketing (or promotion) feel accessible to all, tools made it feel easy, and now it seems like anyone with a login thinks they’ve cracked it.
Blame the platforms. Blame Canva. Blame AI tools like ChatGPT and the rest of them. You can knock up something that looks decent in minutes, so it feels like the hard part’s done before you’ve even started thinking.
Write something. Generate an image. Add a hashtag. Post something. Sit back and wait for the sales to roll in.
That’s the expectation. That’s also where it starts going wrong.
The tools are easy. The thinking isn’t.
The problem isn’t the tools. They’re brilliant for what they do. But they don’t replace thinking, and they don’t build a strategy for you.
Without a plan, you’re just making noise. You’re putting things out there without any real direction, and hoping something sticks.
I’ve seen it more times than I can count. Nice-looking posts, clean design, plenty of activity… and absolutely nothing coming back from it. No engagement, no leads, no sales.
Non-marketing folk clammer for Followers and Engagement - it's all bullshit. I tell anyone that starts working with me in marketing that if only one person follows me, and they are a journalist, and they engage with everything i do, I would be VERY happy.
Once you actually step back and work out who you’re talking to, what you’re trying to say, and why it matters, things start to move. It’s never the font or the colours. It’s always the thinking behind it.
Social media didn’t create marketers. It created confidence.
One post does well and suddenly someone’s a marketing expert. You see it everywhere now, especially on social media. I've had a couple of Tik-Tok posts go viral, I'm no fecking expert on the platform, I have very little idea what I'm doing on it - but sometimes you get lucky.
A meme lands, something gets shared a few times, and next thing they’re selling “growth strategies” in their bio. It looks convincing on the surface, but there’s usually not much underneath it.
Posting content is not marketing. Marketing is understanding why people buy, what stops them buying, and what makes them trust you over someone else.
Likes might feel good, but they don’t pay the bills. Revenue does.
AI has made this worse, not better
This is the bit a lot of people won’t say out loud. AI hasn’t made everyone better at marketing, it’s just made everyone faster at producing, at best, very average content.
Most people don’t know what to ask, so they get surface-level answers back. Slightly off, slightly generic, and usually missing the point… but written well enough that it feels right.
And that’s the danger. Because it sounds good, people assume it is good, and out it goes.
AI is only as good as the prompt behind it. If you don’t understand marketing, you won’t spot when the answer’s wrong. You’ll just publish it and wonder why nothing happens.
That’s why so much AI content looks the part but doesn’t deliver. It’s been written without any real understanding behind it.
Marketing is slow. That’s the part nobody likes
There’s this idea that marketing should deliver instant results. Run something today, see the spike tomorrow.
In reality, it’s slower and a lot less glamorous. It’s testing, tweaking, reviewing, and going again. Over and over.
Some of it’s creative, sure. But a big chunk of it is looking at what didn’t work, digging into the numbers, and figuring out why. God I love the numbers stuff.
That’s where the real progress comes from. Not the “publish” button.
What you actually need (and what most people skip)
When you strip it back, proper marketing comes down to a few core things. None of them are particularly flashy, but all of them matter.
You need to know who you’re talking to. Not “everyone” or “anyone who might buy”, but actual people with specific needs and problems.
You need to understand how you’re different. And no, “we care more” isn’t a strategy. Everyone says that.
You need messaging that lands. Something that makes people stop and think, “that’s exactly what I need.”
And you need data. What’s working, what isn’t, and what needs to change. If you’re not measuring it, you’re guessing.
You’re probably not going viral
It’s worth saying this plainly. Going viral is not a strategy. It’s luck. I know - it happened to me.
I just love it when Sales asks me to create a post or video that will go viral, I'm sure my face gives away the fact that they have just admitted they know nothing about marketing :-)
I admit, it happens to some, but most businesses grow through consistent, steady improvements. Better targeting, clearer messaging, smarter decisions.
It’s not flashy, but it works. And it lasts.
It’s not about pretty posts
People love the creative side of marketing. The visuals, the layouts, the clever copy. And yes, that stuff matters.
But if it doesn’t perform, it doesn’t matter how good it looks. You need to know who clicked, who converted, and who came back.
Without that, you’re just decorating the internet and hoping for the best.
A quick reality check
I’ve been doing this for 35-ish years. I know what the feck I’m talking about.
Knowing how to use a platform doesn’t make you a marketer. And your cousin’s aunty spending two weeks in a marketing office doesn’t count as experience either.
This is a craft. It takes time to learn, and even longer to get properly good at.
The reality
Marketing is easy to start, and that’s the problem. It gives the impression anyone can do it well.
They can’t. It’s strategy, psychology, data, and execution all working together. Miss one of those, and the whole thing weakens.
The tools have opened the door. Knowing what to do once you’re through it… that’s the difference.