Small business marketing can feel like an endless checklist: create content, run Google Ads, post on social media, and optimize for SEO. The advice is everywhere, but what if you’ve tried it all and still don’t see results?

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many small business owners struggle to create marketing strategies that deliver measurable growth. The issue isn’t always a lack of effort—it’s often a lack of leadership. Enter Marketing Leadership as a Service (MLaaS)—a powerful solution that bridges the gap between effort and impact by providing the strategic guidance small businesses need to thrive.

As the founder of Duct Tape Marketing, I’ve spent over 30 years helping small businesses transform their marketing efforts into a growth-driving machine. My mission has always been clear: simplify small business marketing and make it actionable.

In this blog, I’ll break down the critical concept of the marketing leadership gap and how addressing it can unlock your business’s full potential. Whether you’re a small business owner or a consultant looking to guide your clients, you’ll leave with practical steps to create a marketing system that works.

Marketing for Small Businesses: Why Leadership Matters

Here’s a truth I’ve learned in over 30+ years of working with small businesses: most don’t fail at marketing because they lack tactics. They fail because they lack marketing leadership. This is where Marketing Leadership as a Service becomes a game changer, offering businesses access to expert-level strategy and execution without the burden of a full-time hire.

Without a clear strategy, marketing efforts often feel scattered. You might have a polished website, post on social media regularly, or run digital ads—but if these efforts aren’t connected to a bigger vision, they’re unlikely to deliver the results you need.

Marketing leadership is the missing link. It’s about orchestrating your efforts so that every tactic aligns with your business goals and works together as part of a system. With the right leadership in place—whether through an internal team or Marketing Leadership as a Service—small business marketing becomes less about throwing spaghetti at the wall and more about building a reliable engine for growth.

Strategy: The Foundation

A good strategy is like a roadmap for your marketing—it keeps you focused and ensures every move you make supports your business goals.

It’s all about identifying where you can improve and connecting your marketing efforts so they work together. If you’re not sure where to start, getting expert advice can make all the difference. And don’t shy away from trying out different approaches tailored to your business. Take a step back and think about where you are now versus where you want to be—it’s a great way to spark new ideas and see the bigger picture.

Building a System

Instead of chasing the latest marketing tactics, create a system. This ensures long-term returns, not just short-term buzz. It’s like a marketing machine running constantly, bringing in new leads.

Building your marketing as an asset ensures it generates revenue instead of simply being an expense. Think of your marketing like an investment where your money can make even more money for you in return.

Marketing Leadership as a Service: The Strategic Edge for Small Businesses

Marketing Leadership as a Service provides small businesses with access to high-level strategic marketing expertise without the need to hire a full-time executive. It’s a flexible, cost-effective solution that fills the leadership gap, aligning your marketing efforts with business goals to drive measurable growth. By combining expert guidance with actionable strategies, this service ensures your marketing operates as a cohesive system, delivering long-term results instead of scattered, short-term wins.

How Small Business Marketing Has Evolved

Small business marketing has come a long way. Back in the day, it was all about print ads, direct mail, and word-of-mouth—simple but limited. Then the internet changed everything, bringing websites, email, social media, and PPC ads. Suddenly, small businesses had access to big opportunities, but it also got a lot more complicated with SEO, analytics, and content marketing to figure out. 

Fast forward to today, and it feels like everyone’s saying you need to do it all—social media, blogs, videos, ads—you name it.

But here’s the catch: without a solid strategy tying it all together, it’s just a lot of effort without consistent results. 

That’s why the businesses that succeed now are the ones that focus on leadership, clear goals, and building systems that actually work long-term. It’s not about doing more; it’s about doing the right things in the right way.

Adapting to New Challenges in Small Business Marketing

This year has been a game-changer for small businesses. Social media and other digital channels have made marketing move faster than ever. One agency owner I spoke to mentioned how tough it’s been to get new clients through referrals, pointing to a bigger need for better client experiences.

And they’re not alone. According to a recent NerdWallet report, 93% of small-business owners face challenges, with 54% citing difficulty in finding or retaining customers as their biggest hurdle. This highlights a critical need for marketing leadership to navigate these challenges effectively.

Marketing Leadership as a Service steps in as a game-changing solution, offering small businesses the strategic expertise they need to attract, engage, and retain customers. By aligning all marketing efforts with a clear strategy, businesses can turn these challenges into opportunities for growth.

Turning the Tide

Rapid changes demand adaptation to stay competitive.

Focus on four cornerstones: the 3 Cs of marketing (Customer, Competition, Company) and systems. Analyze these areas to establish marketing systems for lead generation.

Research shows 80% of customers expect personalized attention.

Creating systems involves defining steps from start to finish. Consider how leads interact with your business throughout the lead cycle.

Remember the significant impact of customer reviews on your overall reputation and word-of-mouth referrals.

Targeting Your Ideal Customer

Avoid the trap of targeting everyone. Focusing on your ideal customer is crucial for small business marketing. This targeted marketing strategy , according to SBA guidelines, improves return by focusing on prospects that fit your criteria. A well-structured, targeted marketing plan aligns efforts with returns.

Crafting Your Value Proposition

Differentiate your business. A strong value proposition demonstrates why customers should choose you over competitors.

Connect Directly and Deeply

Business cards, whether they’re physical or digital, are still a great way to make connections. Pair them with a quick, memorable intro about your business to leave a lasting impression at events or meetups.

Get involved locally by joining community events, and don’t forget to tap into online opportunities like influencer and social media marketing to expand your reach.

If you’re handling your own marketing, hire people who work well with your team. Keep up with tools and tips for things like SEO, eCommerce, and website hosting to stay on top of your game. Choosing the right tools and tech can make a big difference in how smoothly your business runs and how fast it grows.

Conclusion

Marketing for small businesses can be tricky, but it’s key to growth. The best approach? Focus on solid strategies, keep an eye on the data, and adapt as you go. Instead of chasing every new trend, partner with a leader—or a service like Marketing Leadership as a Service—to build a system for your marketing. That way, it becomes a long-term investment—not just another expense.

Small businesses have a real edge when it comes to connecting with customers and understanding what they need. By prioritizing leadership and using your resources wisely, you can hit your marketing goals and set your business up for lasting success.

Explore the Duct Tape Marketing Fractional CMO System and take control of your marketing to achieve measurable, repeatable results. Schedule a consultation today, and let’s build the thriving business you’ve always envisioned.

I know the challenges of starting a marketing agency and running a business firsthand—the endless research, the trials, the errors. It wasn’t easy, but it taught me invaluable lessons. From these experiences and over 28 years of trial and error, I developed a proven marketing system that has since helped countless businesses sustainably grow and scale.

Whether you’re a business owner aiming to grow (We’ve helped 1000s of SMBs 2x-10x their business) or an agency looking to enhance your client services (over 500 agencies globally have licensed our system), the Duct Tape Marketing Fractional CMO System can be tailored to meet your needs and boost your success. All it takes is the right strategy.

Ready to see real results? Let’s connect. Schedule a strategy session with our team today.

You know those mornings when the alarm rings, you see a client meeting on your schedule, and your energy immediately drops? It’s not because you dislike your job; you love what you do. It’s just that one client, or perhaps, a handful of them. But flip the coin, and you’ll find clients you absolutely relish working with. The ones who are profitable, who respect your expertise, and view their association with you as a partnership.

Understanding the dynamics of this spectrum is crucial to developing a sustainable marketing strategy. Let’s dive into why this matters and how you can leverage it for the benefit of your small business growth.

1. The Pitfalls of Being Everything to Everyone

If I’ve learned one thing over my years in business, it’s this – trying to be all things to all people is a shortcut to inconsistent engagements and results. And trust me, this isn’t just a business philosophy I preach, it’s one I’ve experienced firsthand. Businesses, in their zeal to grow, often onboard clients indiscriminately, thinking more clients equate to more revenue. But is that revenue profitable?

There seems to be an unwritten, strange universal law in the world of business. Often, the clients who haggle most over price turn out to be the most challenging to serve. Can you relate?

2. Identifying Your Ideal Clients

Now, what if I told you that among your clientele, there exists a golden list – the top 20%. They aren’t necessarily the ones bringing in the highest sales volume, though that might be one of the criteria. These are clients with whom you have a rewarding experience. Those who not only value what you provide but might even be singing your praises to other businesses, referring you, and thereby enhancing your network.

Pause for a moment. Reflect on your current list of clients. Who among them fit this description? If you’re thinking about sales volume alone, you’re on the wrong track. Think profitability, the ease of collaboration, and the value of their network.

By concentrating on the characteristics, challenges, and problems faced by this top 20%, you get a blueprint. A blueprint that, when fed into your marketing strategy, can help you attract more of such clients.

3. The Power of Focused Marketing Strategy

Starting to direct your marketing strategy towards this identified top 20% doesn’t mean excluding others. However, it does imply a refined focus. With a clearer audience in mind, your business can experience:

• Increased profitability.
• Attraction of more ideal clients.
• A boost in brand clarity and promise.

A widespread mistake is that businesses spread themselves too thin, trying to resonate with everyone. The result? Their message gets watered down, failing to attract the right clients. In fact, a diffused marketing approach makes it challenging to create a consistent customer journey, retain clients, or even understand what draws your ideal clients in the first place.

4. Recognizing the True Cost of a Mismatch

Working with the wrong client or one that isn’t priced correctly costs you more than you think. Sure, the revenue number looks impressive, but what about the unseen expenses? The stress, the extra hours, the potential compromises on quality?

Embrace the mantra of quality over quantity. Don’t be lured by mere numbers. Instead, understand the value behind those numbers. By identifying and nurturing that elite 20%, you not only bolster your profitability but also build long-term relationships that are rewarding both financially and experientially.

Building Momentum with the Right Partnerships

From a strategic standpoint, there’s immense untapped potential with this 20%. Believe me, a significant portion of them would happily do more business with you. And when you nurture these relationships, the growth you witness is exponential, far outpacing the one-off projects that come your way randomly.

Directing your focus, or as I like to call it, “strategically narrowing” ensures you attract those ideal clients. The right clients, who align with your values, are the catalysts allowing your business to thrive, fostering momentum and growth.

To all the entrepreneurs reading this, I challenge you: go through the exercise of sifting out your top 20%. Understand them, value them, and integrate them into your marketing strategy. It’s more than just a business move; it’s a pivot towards sustainability, growth, and satisfaction.

Ready to refine your approach even further? For actionable insights and strategies, Subscribe to our newsletter and get ai prompts for building a complete marketing strategy. 

Scaling is the business owner’s dream, but it doesn’t always work out the way they imagined…

The reality is, growth and scale aren’t the same thing. A lot of times, you might be growing your business, seeing more revenue, and attracting more customers. Yet, instead of scaling upward, you’re scaling sideways. You’re running faster, spinning more plates, and despite the apparent growth, you’re working more and earning less. 

Does this resonate? If so keep reading.

In order for you to actually start scaling your business upward without adding unnecessary overhead, you’ll need to first shift your mindset. You have to transition from being the doer to the orchestrator. Get out of the weeds, stop focusing solely on the tactics, stop trying to actually play all of the instruments and instead start conducting the orchestra. 

How to Stop Scaling Sideways

In the chaos of scaling, it’s easy to get stuck in the cycle of running as fast as you can and trying to balance acquiring new customers with retaining existing ones. Sideways scaling will quickly drain your resources and leave you feeling overwhelmed.

So, how can you transition from being the doer to the orchestrator?

1. Define Your Package

You need a repeatable scope. Come up with a strategy or package that outlines what you do, how you do it, the expected results, and what it costs. This approach streamlines the process and sets clear expectations.  

Sometimes our clients don’t know what they actually need and our job is to give them what they need and help them understand why they need it. So if you can develop your value offer or package, and share the exact steps with your potential clients the path to growth will be clear for them and you will start to attract more of the right type of clients.

2. The Price is Right

It’s price which allows you to make the profit that you need to scale your business without adding overhead. When you have the right message and the right package, you attract the right clients who are willing to pay a premium because you have identified the problem that they are trying to solve.  

A few tips to decide how you should price your services are to focus on the top 20% of your customers,  go for quality not quantity, and work backwards from your growth targets. Here are some more tips on how to better price your services. 

3. Build a Repeatable System for Fulfillment

The third part of scaling upward without adding overhead is creating a repeatable system for fulfillment. Once you’ve sold the package at a premium price, you need a system for delivering that service in a repeatable way. This allows you to delegate certain tasks to third parties, partners, or freelancers without having to hire more employees.

If you can successfully package your service, price it correctly, and develop a repeatable fulfillment system, you’re well on your way to scaling your business without adding overhead.

4. Climb the ‘Exit Ladder’

This may all sound great, but you may be wondering how to put all this together and where you will find the time. Well, that’s where the concept of the “Exit Ladder” comes in. If you’re ever going to create this package and develop partners, you need to start removing yourself from certain parts of your business.

The first step is to get out of the day-to-day admin work. There are people who would love to handle this for a fraction of what you can afford. Once you’ve done this, you can focus on creating a fulfillment system and developing partners.

Remember, scaling your practice without adding overhead is possible you just have to have the right system in place. 

The journey of growing your small business can be an exciting one, but also full of challenges. To make the process smoother, here are my top 5 critical actions I believe every small business needs to take to grow strategically. These simple but effective steps can help you create a solid growth strategy, keep your customers satisfied, and ensure your business keeps thriving. Whether you’re at the starting phase of your business journey or already managing an established operation, these practical tips can guide you toward achieving long-term growth:

1. Narrow the focus to the top 20% of your customers

In my experience, these are usually the most profitable customers. They’re the right fit because they have the right problem and the right beliefs. It’s important to understand everything you can about this group, as your marketing efforts should focus on attracting more of these ideal customers. The more you know about them, the better you can serve them and, subsequently, scale your business. Remember, chasing after customers who aren’t a good fit often results in missed opportunities and may even be costing you money.

2. Promise to solve a problem that matters to your ideal customers

We call this developing a core message, and it revolves around a promise to solve a specific problem. To discover this core message, engage with your customers directly, or analyze your Google reviews. The language they use will provide great insight into the problems you are solving for them. Remember, your customers don’t just want your product or service; they want their problems solved.

3. Build a complete end-to-end customer journey

The customer journey doesn’t stop when someone becomes a customer. In fact, the days when the main objective was driving leads into a funnel and converting them into customers are over. Today, the buying process has changed dramatically, with 86% of buyers stating that they would pay more for a better customer experience. Thus, marketing today is less about creating demand and more about organizing behaviors.

I’ve developed a model called the Marketing Hourglass, emphasizing the journey beyond the purchase. It’s not just about getting people to realize you exist, but creating an experience that turns one-time buyers into repeat customers and advocates.

The 7 Stages of the Marketing Hourglass

I believe we all pass through seven stages in this journey: know, like, trust, try, buy, repeat, and refer. We want to know who’s out there, and we want to like them before we venture any further. We certainly aren’t going to buy anything until we feel like we can trust them. And I don’t know about you, but I love a little sneak peek of what it might be like to work with a business before I commit.

If you hit the nail on the head with these stages, price becomes less of a factor. You see, when trust and experience are high, people are willing to pay more. Remember that stat I mentioned earlier? Well, that’s your golden ticket to building a profitable business.

So, here’s my challenge to you. Think about these stages – know, like, trust, try, buy, repeat, and refer. What are you doing at each of these stages to enhance your customer’s journey? Are there gaps that need plugging? Instead of just trying to get from ‘no’ to ‘buy’, focus on the stages before ‘buy’. Trust me, that’s where the gold lies.

4. Do less, but do it brilliantly

Focus on what you do best and strive to deliver exceptional results in those areas. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Instead, concentrate on delivering the best possible value and experience to your target audience.

Stick to The Rule of 3

It’s tempting to come up with a dozen strategic objectives every quarter, only to find you’re spreading your efforts too thin and achieving none. Why not narrow it down to three solid goals? 

This approach makes it easier to stay focused and allocate resources effectively. If a task doesn’t map to any of these goals, it’s time to park it. Remember, focus is key to achieving objectives.

Don’t fall into a social media frenzy

Focus on 1, maybe 2, social media channels, and do it well. You can use these tools to help. 

For example, imagine a local small business trying to maintain a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and even TikTok. This means a small, sometimes one-person, team must constantly juggle content creation, audience engagement, and analytics across multiple platforms. It can quickly get very overwhelming. Instead, understand where your target audience mostly resides and focus solely on that platform. 

A crucial aspect of running a business is realizing that there’s always more to do. However, the secret to effective marketing is deciding what not to do. Avoid falling into the trap of chasing after every shiny new thing. A laser focus on doing less but doing it well often yields better results.

5. Create transformations, not just transactions

The goal is to have a profound impact on the lives of your customers. The focus should be on making a real difference, not just on completing a transaction. 

What if you came to think of your customers more like members that join your business because they want to go on a journey? 

Remember, marketing isn’t just about getting that click or that phone call. It’s about understanding your customer’s journey and providing a seamless, enjoyable experience. It’s about building trust, delivering on your promises, and exceeding expectations. And most importantly, it’s about making a genuine difference in the lives of your customers.

To navigate this journey effectively, book a call with our strategy experts. We’re ready to help you map your path to strategic growth. Click here to book your call now, our strategy experts are standing by.