Growing businesses often invest in more marketing channels, technology and specialist support. What they do not always add is the senior leadership needed to bring everything together.
James McCracken FCIM, founder of marketing leadership development business Frances & Kevin, explains why this creates what he calls Marketing Leadership Debt.
Marketing Leadership Debt is the commercial cost that builds up when a business adds marketing activity, people and suppliers without putting clear strategic ownership in place.
It usually develops gradually.
Marketing may initially sit with the founder or managing director. As the business grows, it recruits a marketing executive, appoints an agency and brings in specialists for paid media, content, web development or SEO.
Each decision makes sense on its own. Problems appear when nobody is responsible for the overall direction.
Teams work towards different priorities. Agencies receive inconsistent briefs. New platforms are introduced without clear ownership. Reports are produced, but nobody has the authority to decide what should change.
The business becomes busier, while marketing performance becomes harder to understand.
Signs of Marketing Leadership Debt
A business may have a leadership gap if:
- Sales, marketing and senior management have different priorities
- Agencies and internal employees work separately
- Marketing reports focus on activity rather than commercial results
- The technology stack has grown without clear ownership
- Underperforming campaigns continue for too long
- The managing director still approves routine marketing decisions
- New tools or suppliers are added before existing activity is reviewed
These problems are often treated as a lack of resources. The business recruits another person, appoints another agency or buys another platform.
That can add capacity, but it does not provide leadership.
The commercial impact
Marketing Leadership Debt rarely appears as a single cost.
It is found in duplicated work, wasted advertising spend, disconnected systems, slow decisions and missed opportunities. Employees become frustrated because priorities keep changing. Suppliers may produce good work that does not contribute to a shared plan.
The leadership team is then left unable to answer a basic question: which parts of our marketing are helping the business grow?
How to reduce it
One person needs to be accountable for the marketing strategy, even when delivery is shared between employees, agencies and freelancers.
That person should be able to:
- Set priorities linked to the business plan
- Decide how budgets and resources should be allocated
- Give internal teams and external suppliers clear roles
- Connect marketing activity with sales and commercial performance
- Stop work that is not delivering enough value
- Report decisions and results to the leadership team
This does not always require a full-time marketing director. The right solution will depend on the size, growth plans and complexity of the business.
A useful test is to ask every employee and supplier involved in marketing to name the company’s three main marketing priorities.
If the answers are different, the business may not need another campaign, platform or agency. It may need stronger marketing leadership.
James McCracken FCIM is the founder of Frances & Kevin, a marketing leadership development business. He also works with growing organisations as a Fractional CMO and Interim Marketing Director and is Chair of CIM North West.
