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I used to invest heavily in marketing automation, tracking, attribution, configuring funnels, and retargeting. But after 13 years of doing marketing for SaaS companies... I'm convinced that 90% of it is unnecessary.

The biggest reason you don't need a complex marketing stack?

What drives demand isn't a bunch of funnels or retargeting campaigns...

What really drives demand is a bunch of customers who actively want what you're selling.

The purpose of marketing is to connect buyers (who want a product like yours) with your product.

From what I've seen, there's a certain type of product that requires MORE marketing; more convincing, more funnels, more drip campaigns, more manipulation. These aren't the type of products you should be building.

For indie entrepreneurs, the best products to build are the products people already want to buy. It shouldn't take a bunch of effort to convince them.

Do we really need marketing tracking?

Marketing attribution tools require a ton of investment to get right.

(Most often, they're incorrectly configured)

I wouldn’t be surprised if most company’s analytics and funnels are incorrectly configured.

Companies are making big decisions based on faulty data. (It’s happened to me multiple times)

Also, many of the metrics we’re getting from Google, FB, etc are inflated.

In private, most marketing professionals will admit that much of the data we collect is "dirty." (Not accurate) The repercussions of making decisions based on faulty data are big!

Justin Jackson @mijustin For example, lots of media companies switched their media strategy to Facebook Video because "the data" told them they were getting lots of engagement there. But, it turns out, Facebook was inflating video metrics by up to "150 to 900 percent." 🤯 theverge.com/2018/10/17/179… Justin Jackson @mijustin We often use data to make decisions. But often, we're using "bad data." November 14th 2019 2 Retweets 21 Likes

"Visitor → trial" is an important KPI on many marketing teams. But with so many people blocking tracking scripts, how is that number useful at all? Even Google Analytics can't keep up with all the spam bots screwing up their data.

Jack Ellis @JackEllis @mijustin And when we factor in that a gigantic percent of people are blocking various tracking scripts, the data is even more skewed. Justin Jackson @mijustin I wouldn't be surprised if *most* company's analytics and funnels are incorrectly configured. Companies are making big decisions based on faulty data. (It's happened to me multiple times) Also, many of the metrics we're getting from Google, FB, etc are inflated. pic.twitter.com/jbMl9IEM7w July 27th 2021 0 Retweets 1 Likes

And, as Lars Lofgren explains, after a certain point, investing in tracking, testing, and automation gives you diminishing returns. Like squeezing juice from a squeezed lemon.

"Growth marketing" burns out categories

We've now see the scorching effect of growth marketing in multiple categories now. When everyone puts their marketing on steroids, it burns out the customer.

Hillary Weiss articulated this strongly, back in 2017:

What does work?

Next week I'll share the "simple stack" we use for marketing at Transistor.fm.

Cheers,
Justin Jackson
Co-founder, Transistor.fm​
​@mijustin​

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