The 5 strategic marketing mistakes I see businesses make
After 20+ years in senior marketing roles across professional services, property, transport and technology, I've seen the same marketing strategy mistakes repeat across businesses of all sizes.
Good intentions. Real investment. Marketing activity that generates no measurable business results.
Usually, it comes down to the same five mistakes. Here's what they are, why they happen, and what to do instead.
1. Paying Companies For Leads Without a marketing strategy
The mistake: Businesses pay lead generation companies for enquiries without first understanding where those leads come from, how qualified they are, or what percentage convert into actual clients.
Why it happens: Lead generation feels like a shortcut to growth. Hand over the budget, receive enquiries. Simple. Except it rarely is.
The problem: If you don't understand lead source, quality or conversion rates, you're paying for activity, not growth. A hundred leads that never convert is a hundred wasted opportunities and a significant wasted budget.
What to do instead: Before investing in lead generation, get clear on your numbers. What is a good lead actually worth to your business? Where do your best clients currently come from? What is your conversion rate from enquiry to client? Once you understand this, you can make informed decisions about where to invest and measure whether it's working.
2. Jumping From One Digital Agency To Another
The mistake: When marketing isn't delivering results, the instinctive response is to change agencies. New agency, new energy, new ideas. But the results stay the same.
Why it happens: It's easier to blame the agency than to address the underlying issue which is usually the absence of a clear marketing strategy.
The problem: Changing agencies without fixing the underlying strategy rarely delivers better results. Different tactics won't fix unclear direction. If you don't know who you're targeting, what makes you different, and what you want marketing to achieve, no agency however good can deliver consistent results.
What to do instead: Before you change agencies, ask yourself honestly: do we have a clear strategy for them to execute? If the answer is no, start there. A clear brief, defined audience, and agreed objectives will do more for your marketing results than a new agency relationship.
3. Paying Large Amounts For Sponsorships With No Strategy
The mistake: A sponsorship opportunity arrives, a prominent event, a well-known awards night, a respected industry publication. The brand exposure seems valuable. The cheque gets written.
Why it happens: Sponsorships feel prestigious. They're visible, tangible, and easy to point to as evidence of marketing investment. But visible isn't the same as effective.
The problem: Brand exposure without clear objectives, defined target audiences, or measurable outcomes is spend with no real return. If you can't answer "what does success look like for this sponsorship?", you're not ready to commit the budget.
What to do instead: Sponsorships can work brilliantly, but only when tied to specific goals. Before signing any sponsorship agreement, define your objectives (brand awareness, lead generation, relationship building), confirm the audience aligns with your target market, and agree how you'll measure return. Then actually measure it.
4. Going Straight To Tactics With No Marketing Strategy
The mistake: The business decides it needs more marketing. So it builds a new website. Hires someone to run social media. Invests in Google ads. Starts a newsletter. All at once, with no connecting thread.
Why it happens: Tactics feel like progress. They're concrete, visible, and actionable. Strategy feels slower and less tangible even though it's the foundation that makes tactics work.
The problem: Website, ads, social and SEO don't work in isolation without a plan guiding decisions. Without strategy, you end up with disconnected activity that doesn't build on itself, can't be measured coherently, and rarely delivers sustainable growth.
What to do instead: Strategy first, tactics second, always. Before investing in any marketing activity, get clear on your business objectives, your target audience, your value proposition, and how marketing supports growth. With this foundation in place, every tactical decision becomes easier and more effective.
5. No Reporting On Outcomes (Or No Understanding Of It)
The mistake: Marketing reports get produced sometimes by agencies, sometimes internally full of numbers, graphs and metrics. But no one is quite sure what they mean, whether they're good or bad, or what to do differently as a result.
Why it happens: Data is easy to generate. Insight is harder. Many businesses confuse activity metrics (impressions, clicks, followers) with outcome metrics (leads, conversions, revenue).
The problem: If you can't clearly see what's working, what's not, and why, you can't improve or justify the spend. Data without insight is just noise. And without clear reporting, marketing budgets become vulnerable because no one can demonstrate their value.
What to do instead: Establish clear KPIs that connect marketing activity to business outcomes, not just vanity metrics. Make sure your reporting answers one fundamental question: is this working? If your current reports can't answer that, it's time to redesign them.
THE COMMON THREAD
Look across all five mistakes and you'll notice the same underlying issue: activity without strategy.
Marketing that happens without clear direction, defined audiences, measurable objectives and consistent reporting will always feel busy without delivering growth.
As I always say: what gets measured, gets improved.
Great marketing strategy doesn't have to be complicated. But it does need to be intentional, built on clarity, understanding and a clear connection between what you're doing and why.
DOES ANY OF THIS FEEL FAMILIAR?
If you recognise your business in one (or more) of these mistakes, you're not alone. I see them constantly across businesses that are genuinely investing in marketing but not getting the results they deserve.
A marketing health check is often the quickest way to get clarity. It shows you what's working, what's wasting budget, and where the quick wins are.
I'm offering a free marketing health check to a small number of businesses this month.
I'll review your current marketing and give you three specific, actionable recommendations, no cost, no obligation.
Contact us now to claim your free audit.
Michelle Frazer
Founder of Frazer Marketing with 25+ years of senior marketing experience across professional services, property, transport and technology. She has held senior marketing roles at Simonds Homes, Kinetic, Opteon Property Group, Maurice Blackburn and Pitcher Partners and works with SMEs and professional service firms across Australia.