The Leadership Gap: Why £1m Businesses Need Marketing Strategy, Not Just Activity

It’s the end of the board meeting. Finance is clear, operations is clear - and then it’s time for the marketing update.

Suddenly, things get vague. The numbers are there, but when someone asks, “So, how exactly is marketing delivering that growth we’re aiming for?” the room gets quieter.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Most technically-led businesses at £1-2m hit this same wall: plenty of activity, not enough clarity on what’s actually moving the needle.

Why This Problem Only Shows Up at around £1m+

Below £1m, you can get by on hustle, founder effort, and a strong network. Past that, the sales process gets knotty. Multi-stage. More people involved in every decision.

But here’s the catch: most businesses at this stage still don’t have true marketing ownership. The founder’s still holding the reins (and probably ten other things). Maybe there’s a Marketing Executive, or an agency doing campaigns. But nobody’s running marketing at the same level as finance or ops.

It’s not about effort. It’s about ownership. And at this scale, the difference is expensive.

Why ‘Doing More’ Is the Wrong Instinct

When marketing falters, the reflex is to do more. More campaigns, more budget, more hands. Or outsource harder. But no amount of activity will bridge the gap if nobody’s accountable for the outcomes.

Tactical marketing asks, “What should we do next?”
Leadership-level marketing asks, “What shouldn’t we be doing at all?”

The leverage is in the deciding, not the doing.

What Leadership-Level Marketing Actually Changes

When you finally embed real marketing leadership - someone with commercial authority, not just a playbook—everything sharpens up:

• The plan gets real. Suddenly, there’s a strategy you can actually use. Not a pretty PDF for the drawer, but a living plan that ties marketing spend to revenue, with priorities you can defend.
• Measurement means something. Conversations shift from “How many leads did we get?” to “Are we building the right pipeline, at the right cost, for the right market?”
• Investment is intentional. No more “spray and pray.” Resources go into what actually moves the dial, not just what’s visible.
• Internal muscle grows. You start building marketing capability that still works when the agency’s gone - or when you’re on holiday for once.
• Marketing stops being a black box. It becomes a lever for growth you can pull, test, and predict.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen this land on the agenda as ‘Marketing update’, right at the end, when everyone’s already half-thinking about lunch.

Marketing is discussed last. Vaguely. And with a faint sense of hope rather than confidence.

Signs You’ve Outgrown Tactics

You know you’re here if:

• You have targets, but no plan you actually trust.
• Agencies deliver what you ask for, but you’re not sure it’s what you need.
• The marketing team is busy, but directionless.
• You’re spending money, but board-level conversations about marketing rely more on hope than evidence.
• The growth engine you relied on has stalled, and nothing systematic has replaced it.

It’s not a failing. It’s a signal you’ve moved beyond the old approach.

The Real Risk (and Opportunity)

At this stage, the real risk isn’t how much you’re spending on marketing. It’s spending it without anyone truly accountable for the outcome.

You probably don’t need a full-time CMO. But you do need someone senior enough to challenge assumptions, tie marketing to commercial outcomes, and build something that still works when you’re not looking.

Because growth at this stage isn’t about doing more. It’s about deciding better. And having someone senior enough to own those decisions.

Ready to Close the Gap?

If any of this feels close to home, now’s the time to treat marketing with the same structure and seriousness as every other part of your business. No more wishful thinking. No more “hope as a strategy.”

If you want to explore what that could look like, let’s have a grown-up conversation.