Marketing Wasn’t Supposed to Be Your Job, But Here You Are
You have a full-time job. So why are you also responsible for marketing?
If you’re leading marketing efforts on top of everything else you do, you’re not alone. Maybe your company is growing, but hiring a full-time marketing leader isn’t in the budget.
Maybe marketing is supposed to be a team effort, but somehow, it lands on your plate. Or maybe you start handling marketing out of necessity, and now, it’s just part of your reality.
Whatever the reason, here you are. Running marketing and trying to keep up with your actual job.
At first, it might seem manageable. Social posts are going out, emails are getting sent, and you have a few campaigns running. But over time, you probably start feeling like you are spinning in circles. Marketing is happening, but is it working?
You – and others – are asking if the right things being done, or are you just checking tasks off a list?
Because here’s the thing: Marketing isn’t just a collection of activities. It needs strategy, focus, and alignment.
And when marketing is a side job, those things are the first to disappear.
Without clear direction, marketing can start to drift away from the company’s mission and purpose. Over time, these small drifts can lead you completely off course. (Read: How Small Drifts Can Lead You Off Course)
The Real Cost of Side Job Marketing
When you become the DeFacto Marketing Manager, it becomes something you squeeze into your day job, between meetings, late at night, or whenever you have a spare moment. And while you’re doing the best you can, the reality is that marketing without focus comes at a cost.
For You
Balancing marketing with your primary role is exhausting. It stretches your focus thin, making it harder to be fully effective in either role. You might find yourself second-guessing decisions, scrambling to keep up, and feeling the pressure of having to “figure it out” with no real plan in place.
For the Organization
Without a clear strategy, marketing becomes more of an expense than an investment.
There’s a lot of effort, but it’s not always clear how it’s driving business growth. And when marketing decisions are made reactively, instead of strategically, it’s easy to waste resources on things that don’t move the needle.
For Your Team
When marketing is done in bits and pieces, execution becomes inconsistent. Freelancers, agencies, or internal team members may be doing great work, but without a clear direction, their efforts feel disconnected. Messaging gets scattered, branding feels inconsistent, and instead of building momentum, marketing feels like starting from scratch every time.
This cycle isn’t just frustrating—it’s costly. Without a plan, businesses waste time and money, and marketing never truly becomes the growth driver it should be.
When Your Marketing Feels Random
When marketing isn’t your primary focus, it tends to become a list of tasks done as you think of them rather than through strategic thinking. You do what you can, when you can, based on what seems most important at the time.
Without a strategic plan, marketing decisions are made reactively—responding to trends, urgent requests, or what competitors are doing.
Instead of a clear strategy, marketing becomes a constant cycle of one-off campaigns, sporadic social posts, and disconnected initiatives that take up time but don’t necessarily build long-term results.
And to be honest—random acts of marketing can become quite time-consuming. Each new initiative requires new planning, content, and execution, making marketing feel like reinventing the wheel every time.
Instead of streamlining efforts, marketing ends up feeling like a constant scramble.
This can lead to a lack of consistency and focus, and can affect long-term impact.
But the good news is there’s a way to get marketing on track without making it your full-time job.
The Shift:
Bringing Focus to Your Marketing
While hiring a full time marketing leader is ideal, if that’s not possible, here is something that you can do right now.
You can bring structure and focus to your marketing so that every effort is intentional, aligned, and effective.
This means shifting from:
- Marketing as a scattered list of tasks → Marketing as a focused, strategic function
- A reactive approach → A structured, scalable system
- Marketing as an expense → Marketing as a growth driver
To help you do this when marketing isn’t your full-time job, we offer our FIRST STEP GUIDE.
The First Step Guide: A Structured Starting Point
The First Step Guide helps bring focus and direction to your marketing, ensuring that every effort connects back to your business goals.
It’s not a full-blown marketing plan, but it’s a way to stop the cycle of random acts of marketing and start building intentional momentum.
This guide focuses on six key areas:
Clarify Business Objectives – Define your top business priorities for the next 6-12 months.
Identify Your Ideal Customers – Understand who they are, what they need, and where they engage with content.
Establish a Core Message – Articulate what sets your company apart and why customers should care.
Prioritize Marketing Efforts – Focus on 3-5 key activities that directly support business goals.
Streamline Execution – If working with agencies or freelancers, provide clear direction and expectations.
Set the Foundation for a Roadmap – Outline what a long-term marketing strategy might look like, so you’re not just reacting to the latest request.
This first step guide won’t replace a full marketing roadmap, but it can give you – and your team – immediate clarity and structure, ensuring that every marketing effort is purposeful and aligned.
Starting with the First Step Guide you can start to bring clarity and focus to your marketing. From there, you can begin to work toward a structured roadmap that drives results.
Get There Faster
We work with business leaders and teams through coaching and facilitation to help them develop a structured marketing roadmap that aligns with their business goals.
Whether you need clarity on your marketing strategy, help prioritizing your efforts, or support in getting your team aligned, we guide you through a step-by-step process to create a plan that works.
If you’re ready to bring focus to your marketing and turn it into a true business driver, let’s connect!
