This is why marketing is hard

According to me, marketing is hard because:

1. The feedback loop is in often in months e.g. SEO, content marketing. It is hard to know without experience if your marketing efforts will hit or miss your objectives. Even ads take weeks to give you a sense of success/failure. Posting on forums where the target audience hangs around shortens the feedback loop but this approach is not scalable.

2. We are not directly speaking with the customers (unlike in sales). In marketing, we are working with the "best (hopefully well researched) guesses" about the customer. To formulate these guesses, there is a research phase involved. To validate the guesses, there is an analysis phase. Contamination in any of the phases will greatly impact the outcome of marketing. In short, too many variables involved.

3. Marketing cannot be learned sitting in the bedroom unlike coding. Real-world interaction is mandatory. For me this was the biggest hindrance based on my personality-type. It took gargantuan efforts to overcome this barrier. I'm still learning and improving.

I've worked with over 100 companies on their content strategy and marketing, and the top "marketing killers" I see are:

• Answering the wrong questions - creating content that addresses things no one is searching for/cares about
• Choosing the wrong marketing channels where they are unlikely to get in front of their audience
• Creating content that is all about them - sorry, your customers don't care about your product, they care about what it does for them
• Creating low-quality content no one wants to engage with
• Creating content haphazardly rather than strategically
• Not giving their content/marketing efforts room to perform

At the end of the day marketing is about:

• Getting in front of your target audience
• Adding value
• Collecting their info

People over-complicate it, but even the most sophisticated marketing campaigns are based on those 3 principles. WHAT you say and HOW you say it will depend on the channel, audience, and message you want to convey - but I try to simplify things whenever possible.

Marketing is hard because it requires a deep understanding of the target audience, constant adaptation to changing trends, and a strategic blend of creativity and data analysis. Success often hinges on differentiating your brand in a crowded marketplace, optimizing campaigns across multiple channels, and continually measuring and refining efforts to achieve meaningful results.

Let me break it down a bit further:

1. Principles Over Steps
   In coding, you follow a precise set of rules and inputs, and you get a predictable output (like your example with opacity:0). Marketing, however, depends on context. What works for one product in one industry might not work for another. Marketers often teach principles (like "know your audience") because these can be adapted to different situations. Instead of learning an exact formula, you need to learn how to think critically and creatively to come up with the right approach for each unique situation.

2. Adaptability
   Marketing requires adaptability because you need to adjust your strategy depending on various factors (timing, trends, platform algorithms, etc.). For example, an ad that performs well on Facebook may flop on Instagram. Marketing is more about testing, iterating, and finding what works in real-time.

3. Creativity and Critical Thinking
   A big part of marketing is coming up with ideas that resonate with people. This is where creativity comes into play. But creativity alone isn't enough—you need to think critically about how your marketing fits into the bigger picture and how it can be optimized for maximum impact. It's about understanding how to combine data, psychology, and strategy to persuade an audience.

4. Continuous Learning
   The marketing landscape is constantly evolving. New platforms, new technologies, and changing consumer behaviors mean that marketers are always learning. What worked last year might not work this year, so marketers are constantly adapting their strategies based on new insights.

Why "Exact Steps" Are Rare:
It's not that marketers are keeping secrets from you; it's that no single set of instructions works in every situation. What works for one campaign might not work for another, and that’s why successful marketers emphasize learning the principles and applying them to real-world scenarios.

So, in summary:

Learn the principles: Understand the foundations (audience research, psychology, data analysis, content strategy, etc.).
Adapt and test: Marketing is about experimentation and adaptation. There's no "one-size-fits-all."
Be creative: Think outside the box and tailor your strategies to different contexts.
Stay curious and keep learning: The field is always evolving, so it's crucial to stay up-to-date and flexible.
It can feel overwhelming, but that’s the nature of the game. The more you practice and experiment, the more comfortable you’ll become with the ambiguity and complexity of marketing.

Marketing is challenging because it requires constant adaptation to SEO trends, creating high-quality content, and effectively reaching your target audience in a competitive landscape.

Marketing is like dieting.

Week 1: you eat healthily, your weight doesn't change.
Week 2: you give up and binge, your weight drops
Week 2: you realise the error of your ways, your weight goes up.

Input <> output.

Marketing is it's own separate skill/profession. It would be difficult to be an expert in both coding/building AND marketing. That's why it would be best to partner with someone who is more developed in that area.

Yes! It's hard but if it was easy then everyone else will have 7-Figure businesses.

Great post! Marketing is definitely about adapting to ever-changing factors. Focus on understanding your audience, experimenting with strategies, and learning from results. The unpredictability is what makes it both challenging and rewarding!

Marketing can be challenging due to its dynamic nature and multifaceted requirements. Effective marketing demands a deep understanding of target audiences, market trends, and competitor strategies. It involves meticulous planning, execution, and continuous adaptation to changing consumer behaviors and preferences. Moreover, achieving measurable results in marketing requires integrating various channels and tactics such as digital marketing, content creation, SEO, social media, and analytics. Success hinges on creating compelling messaging that resonates with the audience, optimizing budgets, and staying ahead of industry innovations.

Marketing is all about learning through practice. The experiences and summaries of others are important, but sometimes they may not apply to your situation and thus may not be effective. So you can refer to the methods of others, but you must continuously experiment and make mistakes in practice to find the right path for yourself. Communicate more with those who are doing well, and you will gradually develop your own thoughts and ideas.

I agree with this 100%, Marketing is a puzzle that only you can solve, while one can guide you, the puzzle change and so do the strategy.

Great post! I can totally relate—I've been struggling with marketing and attracting users.

Marketing is hard because no one tells you what they want. Founders are considered great if and only if they can foresee what their users want before they're even aware of it.

Largely that's the reason founders have the most success in spaces they're familiar with. For example, I've been working in returns for almost a decade and decided that set up me up properly to start www.joinorderly.com

trying to get fabform.io to rank on google has been a chore.

Absolutely agree. Marketing is indeed a multifaceted challenge, and effective marketing relies on adaptability, critical thinking, and continuous learning. SEO AI is also striving to achieve this.

That is why yo should build a product around an untapped keyword.

It means it has significant monthly search volume so people are actually searching for it.
And it has low competition which means it's feasible to rank in the top results on google.

You can use www.buildthekeyword.com to find untapped keywords with business potential or broad keyword tools like ahrefs.com