Why Your Marketing Feels Disjointed (And What to Do About It)
You’re building something great. You’ve got a product people want. A few strong customer stories. But marketing? It still feels like a scramble.
A campaign here. A paid test there. The occasional blog post when someone remembers. Maybe a website refresh that still doesn’t quite say what you do.
You’re not alone. This is one of the most common challenges I see among founders: Marketing is happening, but it’s not adding up.
Why? Because It’s Not Working Like a System
Marketing gets treated like a set of to-dos—things to check off the list:
Launch the site
Run some ads
Post on LinkedIn
Hire a freelancer
But without a bigger system to connect those activities, it all feels disjointed. You're doing a lot, but the results are inconsistent. Momentum stalls. Burnout creeps in.
Funnels vs. Flywheels
Most startup marketing is modeled like a funnel: attract, convert, done. It’s a one-way path, optimized for short-term wins.
But growth doesn’t really work that way. Especially when your team is small and your brand is still earning trust.
That’s where the flywheel comes in.
A marketing flywheel is a connected system designed to:
Attract the right people
Help them understand your value
Make it easy to act
Deliver a great experience
Turn happy customers into your loudest advocates
Each part reinforces the next. The more aligned your efforts are, the faster your flywheel spins. And unlike funnels, flywheels build over time. They compound.
Signs Your Flywheel Is Stuck
You don’t need a dashboard to tell you when your marketing system is breaking down. You can usually feel it.
Here’s what stuck flywheels tend to look like:
You're guessing at your audience or trying to talk to everyone
Your positioning is vague, and people don’t “get it” right away
Prospects land on your site and bounce
Leads trickle in, but few convert
Customers buy once, then disappear
You’re constantly reinventing the plan
Any one of these things alone can slow your momentum. Combined, they keep your team stuck in marketing limbo—busy but not building.
So What’s the Fix?
It starts with clarity.
Clarity on who you’re for.
Clarity on what you’re saying.
Clarity on how each part of your marketing connects to the next.
That doesn’t mean you need a perfect strategy. But it does mean you need a system that works together—even if it’s scrappy.
The best marketing flywheels aren’t built overnight.
They’re built by solving the right problems in the right order—then plugging the gaps as you grow.
