# Sharp Edges: Marketing

Critical mistakes that waste budgets, kill growth, and destroy brand trust.

---

## 1. The Channel Obsession

**Severity:** Critical
**Situation:** Chasing every new channel without mastering any
**Why Dangerous:** Jack of all channels, master of none. Resources scattered.

```
THE TRAP:
"We need to be on TikTok"
"Everyone's doing LinkedIn"
"Let's add Twitter/X"
"What about Pinterest?"
"Should we start a podcast?"

Result: Half-effort on 10 channels
Zero results on any of them

THE REALITY:
Every channel requires:
- Unique content format
- Platform-specific strategy
- Dedicated time/resources
- Time to learn and iterate

THE FIX:
1. Start with ONE channel
   Where is your audience already?
   What format fits your resources?

2. Master it before expanding
   Consistent growth
   Repeatable playbook
   Understood economics

3. Add channels strategically
   When current channel saturates
   When resources available
   When audience is proven there

CHANNEL EVALUATION:
Is your audience actually there?
Can you produce quality content?
Do you have time to engage?
Can you measure results?

If not 4/4 → don't start it
```

---

## 2. The Paid Media Trap

**Severity:** Critical
**Situation:** Relying on paid acquisition before product-market fit
**Why Dangerous:** Paying to fill a leaky bucket. Burns cash, masks problems.

```
THE TRAP:
"Let's run ads to get users"
"We can buy our way to scale"
"Just need more traffic"

THE REALITY:
Paid traffic reveals your problems faster:
- Bad retention = wasted ad spend
- No PMF = paying for churners
- Bad funnel = expensive leads

WHEN TO USE PAID:
✓ Product-market fit proven
✓ Organic channels working
✓ Unit economics positive
✓ Funnel optimized

WHEN NOT TO USE PAID:
✗ Pre-PMF (fix product first)
✗ CAC > LTV (fix economics first)
✗ Low retention (fix product first)
✗ No organic traction (fix message first)

THE FIX:
1. Prove value with free traffic
   Organic, referral, word-of-mouth
   If it won't spread free, ads won't help

2. Calculate true unit economics
   CAC including all costs
   LTV with real retention data
   Payback period

3. Use paid to ACCELERATE
   Not to CREATE demand
   Scale what already works
   Test at small scale first
```

---

## 3. The Vanity Metric Dance

**Severity:** High
**Situation:** Celebrating metrics that don't connect to business outcomes
**Why Dangerous:** Feels like progress while making none.

```
VANITY METRICS:
- Page views (without engagement)
- Follower count (without conversion)
- Email list size (without opens/clicks)
- Impressions (without action)
- Traffic (without retention)
- Likes (without purchases)

REAL METRICS:
- Signups from traffic
- Revenue from campaigns
- Customer acquisition cost
- Customer lifetime value
- Activation rate
- Retention rate
- Referral rate

THE TRAP:
"We got 1M impressions!"
"Our followers grew 50%!"
"Traffic is up 3x!"

Meanwhile: Revenue flat. Users churning.

THE FIX:
1. Connect every metric to revenue
   Views → Signups → Activations → Revenue
   Full funnel tracking

2. Report lagging indicators
   Not just leading indicators
   Actual business outcomes

3. Segment meaningfully
   Traffic from where?
   What segment converted?
   Which channels drive value?

METRIC HIERARCHY:
Tier 1: Revenue, profit, customer count
Tier 2: Conversion rates, CAC, LTV
Tier 3: Engagement, traffic, awareness
```

---

## 4. The Premature Scaling

**Severity:** Critical
**Situation:** Scaling marketing before channels are optimized
**Why Dangerous:** Scaling waste scales waste. Scaling inefficiency scales losses.

```
THE TRAP:
"Let's 10x the ad budget"
"We need to hire 5 more marketers"
"Let's launch in 10 countries"

Before:
- Understanding what's working
- Optimizing conversion rates
- Calculating true CAC
- Building scalable processes

THE REALITY:
10x budget with 2% conversion = 10x wasted money
Hiring before playbook = expensive discovery
Geographic expansion before PMF = chaos

THE FIX:
Before scaling, ensure:
1. Repeatable playbook exists
   Same action → same result
   Documented, teachable

2. Unit economics work
   CAC < LTV (with margin)
   Payback < acceptable

3. Conversion optimized
   Each step of funnel optimized
   Low-hanging fruit picked

4. Operations can handle it
   Systems ready for 10x leads
   Team can process volume

SCALE CHECKLIST:
□ Channel economics proven
□ Conversion rates stable
□ Content machine built
□ Analytics in place
□ Team/systems ready
□ Budget calculated
```

---

## 5. The Message Mismatch

**Severity:** High
**Situation:** Marketing message doesn't match product reality
**Why Dangerous:** Attracts wrong customers, creates churn, damages trust.

```
THE TRAP:
Marketing: "The fastest solution!"
Reality: Takes 2 weeks to onboard

Marketing: "Easy to use!"
Reality: Requires technical setup

Marketing: "Save 50% of your time!"
Reality: Modest improvement

THE CONSEQUENCE:
- High churn (wrong expectations)
- Negative reviews (disappointed users)
- Support overload (confused customers)
- Brand damage (broken promises)

THE FIX:
1. Use customer language
   What do actual users say?
   Testimonials > marketing speak

2. Validate claims
   Can you prove it?
   Data backing claims

3. Set honest expectations
   Under-promise, over-deliver
   "Most users see X in Y days"

4. Segment messaging
   Different audiences = different promises
   Match message to segment

MESSAGE AUDIT:
List all marketing claims.
For each: Is this true for most users?
If no → revise or remove
```

---

## 6. The Campaign Tunnel Vision

**Severity:** High
**Situation:** Focusing only on campaigns, not systems
**Why Dangerous:** Campaigns are one-time. Systems compound.

```
THE TRAP:
Every quarter:
"What's our big campaign?"
"Let's do a launch event"
"Time for the holiday push"

Result:
Spikes of activity
Followed by silence
No compounding effect

THE FIX:
Build compounding systems:

SEO:
- Content that ranks forever
- Links that build over time
- Traffic that grows monthly

Email list:
- Subscribers compound
- Can be activated repeatedly
- Owned audience

Referral:
- Each customer brings more
- Exponential potential
- Zero CAC for referred

Community:
- Members help members
- Content from users
- Network effects

CAMPAIGN VS SYSTEM:
Campaign: Launch blast (spike)
System: Weekly SEO content (compound)

Campaign: Product hunt launch (one day)
System: Referral program (ongoing)

Balance: 80% systems, 20% campaigns
```

---

## 7. The Competitor Obsession

**Severity:** High
**Situation:** Reacting to everything competitors do
**Why Dangerous:** You're always behind, lose differentiation.

```
THE TRAP:
"Competitor X launched feature Y, we need it"
"They're on TikTok, we should be too"
"They're offering 50% off, match it"
"They changed messaging, should we?"

THE REALITY:
- You don't know if it's working for them
- Your audience may be different
- You lose your unique position
- You're always playing catch-up

THE FIX:
1. Watch, don't follow
   Track what competitors do
   Don't automatically react

2. Double down on differences
   What can only you offer?
   What's your unique angle?

3. Listen to YOUR customers
   What do they actually want?
   What would make them switch?

4. Lead, don't follow
   Create new categories
   Own a unique position

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK:
What are they doing? (observe)
Why might they be doing it? (hypothesis)
Does it matter to our customers? (validate)
Should we respond? (decide)

Usually the answer: No, focus on your own game.
```

---

## 8. The Feature Launch Fallacy

**Severity:** High
**Situation:** Treating every feature launch like it deserves a campaign
**Why Dangerous:** Launches fatigue audience, dilute attention.

```
THE TRAP:
Week 1: "Exciting new feature A!"
Week 2: "Big announcement: Feature B!"
Week 3: "Can't miss: Feature C!"
Week 4: "Huge news: Feature D!"

Audience: *unsubscribes, mutes, ignores*

THE REALITY:
- Most features don't warrant fanfare
- Constant launches = noise
- Real launches get buried
- Audience becomes deaf

LAUNCH TIERS:
Tier 1: MAJOR (1-2 per year)
  New product line, major pivot
  Full campaign, PR, events
  All channels activated

Tier 2: SIGNIFICANT (quarterly)
  Major features, big updates
  Blog post, email, social
  Existing channels

Tier 3: NOTABLE (monthly)
  Good improvements
  In-product, changelog
  Targeted email

Tier 4: INCREMENTAL (ongoing)
  Small fixes, minor features
  Changelog only
  No marketing

THE FIX:
Ask before launching:
- Would customers actively seek this?
- Does it change their workflow?
- Is it story-worthy?

If no → lower tier, less noise
```

---

## 9. The Persona Paralysis

**Severity:** High
**Situation:** Creating detailed personas that never get used
**Why Dangerous:** Weeks of work, no behavior change.

```
THE TRAP:
"Let's create detailed personas"

Result:
• Sarah, 34, Marketing Manager
• Lives in Brooklyn
• Has a dog named Max
• Drinks oat milk lattes
• Reads The New Yorker
• [10 more irrelevant details]

Filed away. Never referenced.
Marketing doesn't change.

WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERS:
1. What problem do they have?
2. What have they tried?
3. Where do they look for solutions?
4. What would make them act?
5. What objections do they have?

THE FIX:
Jobs-To-Be-Done:
"When [situation], I want to [job]
so I can [outcome]."

Example:
"When I'm managing a growing team,
I want to track their progress easily
so I can give better feedback."

This is actionable.
This informs messaging.
This guides targeting.

PERSONA LITE:
Role + Problem + Goal + Objection
Skip demographics unless targeting
Focus on psychology and behavior
```

---

## 10. The Attribution Illusion

**Severity:** High
**Situation:** Believing attribution tools show the full picture
**Why Dangerous:** Wrong conclusions, wrong optimizations.

```
THE TRAP:
Last-click attribution shows:
"Paid search drives all conversions"

So you cut organic, social, brand.
Conversions collapse.

THE REALITY:
User journey:
1. Sees brand on Instagram
2. Reads blog via Google
3. Gets retargeted on Facebook
4. Searches brand name → converts

Attribution: "Paid search wins!"
Reality: Whole funnel matters.

ATTRIBUTION TRUTHS:
- No tool captures everything
- Many touches are invisible
- Correlation ≠ causation
- Self-reported often more accurate

THE FIX:
1. Multi-touch attribution
   Credit across touchpoints
   Better than last-click

2. Marketing mix modeling
   Statistical modeling
   Accounts for time delays

3. Incrementality testing
   Actually turn off channel
   Measure true impact

4. Ask customers
   "How did you hear about us?"
   Simple, often accurate

ATTRIBUTION HUMILITY:
Treat all data as directionally correct
Not precisely accurate
Make decisions holistically
```

---

## 11. The Content Graveyard

**Severity:** High
**Situation:** Publishing content that no one finds or reads
**Why Dangerous:** Time wasted, no SEO value, no leads.

```
THE TRAP:
Blog cadence:
- Publish 4 posts per week
- No distribution plan
- No keyword research
- No promotion strategy

Result:
200 blog posts
10 monthly visitors
0 leads

THE FIX:
1. Quality over quantity
   One great post > five mediocre ones
   10x content strategy

2. SEO from the start
   Keyword research before writing
   Match search intent
   Optimize on-page

3. Distribution plan
   Where will you share?
   Who will amplify?
   How many times?

4. Update old content
   Refresh top performers
   Better than new mediocre

CONTENT CHECKLIST:
□ Keyword target identified
□ Search intent matched
□ Better than current #1
□ Distribution channels planned
□ Promotion schedule set
□ Measurement defined
```

---

## 12. The Discount Death Spiral

**Severity:** Critical
**Situation:** Training customers to wait for discounts
**Why Dangerous:** Destroys pricing power, attracts wrong customers.

```
THE TRAP:
"20% off this week!"
"Black Friday: 40% off!"
"Flash sale: 50% off!"
"Use code SAVE60!"

Result:
- Customers never pay full price
- Wait for next sale
- Share discount codes
- Devalue your product

THE REALITY:
Brands that discount constantly:
- Attract deal-seekers
- Repel value-seekers
- Destroy margins
- Create expectations

THE FIX:
1. Add value, don't cut price
   Bonus content
   Extended trial
   Extra features
   Better onboarding

2. If discounting, be strategic
   New customer only (once)
   Annual payment incentive
   Exclusive, rare occasions

3. Create urgency without discounts
   Limited availability
   Price going up
   Feature deadline

4. Discount to segments, not everyone
   Students
   Nonprofits
   Low-income
   Not public broadcasts

ALTERNATIVES TO DISCOUNTS:
Free trial extension
Money-back guarantee
Pay later options
Freemium tier
```
