--- title: Are You Making Outdated Assumptions About Marketing? description: "Small business leaders: What is one assumption you’ve made about marketing strategy that didn’t pan out? Could there be more? How about we pursue a smarter way?" image: https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/hubfs/Blog_images/woman-g07d28d461_1280.jpg --- [![White Space Marketing Group](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/hs-fs/hubfs/ws-logo-header.png?width=253&height=80&name=ws-logo-header.png "White Space Marketing Group")](https://www.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/) ![blogbanner](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/hs-fs/hubfs/blogbanner.png?width=1500&name=blogbanner.png "blogbanner") [Gray Matter at White Space](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com) [B2B Marketing Strategy for Small and Mid-Sized Companies](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com) # [Are You Making Outdated Assumptions About Marketing?](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/are-you-making-outdated-assumptions-about-marketing) ![Ilene Rosenthal, CEO](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/hubfs/IHR%20BioPIc%20643x703.jpg) by [Ilene Rosenthal, CEO](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/author/ilene-rosenthal-ceo) on Dec 2, 2021 - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) There’s a well-known saying about the danger of “assuming.” Since it’s so well-known, I won’t elaborate… Here’s what I *will* say: When it comes to making assumptions about what works in marketing, it pains me when CEOs and other small business leaders come to me with premeditated assumptions about what they presume WILL work for business growth—and what just isn’t “right” for your business. [![Looking to reduce random acts of marketing that waste time and money?](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/176305/9dbe1cfb-3a8e-4f24-b893-19b29618de94.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/176305/9dbe1cfb-3a8e-4f24-b893-19b29618de94) Here are just a few of those assumptions I’ve heard over the years: - I have to pay to reach the audience I want to find.  - I need to talk to *everyone* who is a potential customer (or could be!).  - Whatever I've done in the past, it's worked… well, sort of. So, I'm just going to keep doing it.  - A formal marketing strategy is really for enterprise level businesses, which means… - It's just TOO MUCH for my business. ### **First Things First** Douglas Adams, author of the revelled *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*, is widely quoted as saying: “The most misleading assumptions are the ones you don't even know you're making.” While the first step is to accept that marketing assumptions are exactly *that*, we then have to look at the facts. ![Are You Making Outdated Assumptions About Marketing?](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog_images/woman-g07d28d461_1280.jpg?width=350&name=woman-g07d28d461_1280.jpg)1.) Some issues in your business cannot be solved by marketing, and yet many business owners turn to marketing to solve those exact problems. For example, if your CRM isn’t set up to work seamlessly, there’s nothing marketing can do to make up for it. 2.) Some companies define a role of marketing that’s not consonant with their business goals. “We want marketing to do ABC, but we also want to achieve XYZ.” 3.) Some businesses confuse marketing with sales—or see marketing and sales as silos; completely separate. You can see how the latter leaves a lot of room for dropping the ball. And one final piece of reality we all have to accept: Marketing efficiency won’t happen without focused business goals in order to drive marketing where it’s going to work best for your business. Not the competition’s business. Not what any marketing service provider deems to be best.  YOUR unique business. ### **Leave the Assumptions Behind** If your company needs a more DEFINED marketing strategy for growth, here are some resources to help: 1) See more videos on marketing strategy on our [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM0OuoY2azBxNRzgp7HkZJQ)—and don’t forget to subscribe so you get the new ones in your inbox. > *“Some issues in your business cannot be solved by marketing.”* 2) Check out the [Strategy Lab](https://info.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/strategy-lab-training-webinar) to help businesses break the vicious cycle of random acts of marketing through a proven three-step framework to help them maximize every marketing dollar they spend. 3) Let some air out of your marketing strategy “balloon” by exploring a part-time CMO to guide your in-house or outsourced marketing teams. Make sure your tactics have a strategy to stand on. [Let's talk specifics](https://info.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/meetings/irosenthal/strategy-work-session).  4) If your team needs a strategy primer to finesse your current strategy roadmap, [get in touch](https://info.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/meetings/irosenthal/strategy-work-session) so we can set up time to discuss timing and cost so you're in good shape moving into 2022.   [![WATCH THE webinar: HOW TO avoid random acts of marketing](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/176305/08bb4240-2fb8-4d8e-aa07-84d9851cd4cd.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/176305/08bb4240-2fb8-4d8e-aa07-84d9851cd4cd) Topics: [content marketing](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/content-marketing), [marketing strategy](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/marketing-strategy), [strategy](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/strategy), [marketing](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/marketing), [business strategy](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/business-strategy), [CEOs](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/ceos), [B2B marketing](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/b2b-marketing), [Founders](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/founders), [B2B](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/b2b), [small business](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/topic/small-business) About The Author ![Ilene Rosenthal, CEO](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/hubfs/IHR%20BioPIc%20643x703.jpg) [ Ilene Rosenthal, CEO ](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/author/ilene-rosenthal-ceo) Ilene Rosenthal is the CEO of White Space Marketing Group, fulfilling her aspiration to bring hybrid marketing expertise to the mid-market. With a dee... [read more](https://blog.whitespacemarketinggroup.com/author/ilene-rosenthal-ceo) [![watch the WEBINAR: how to AVOID random acts of marketing ](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/176305/c5f63d26-b091-48d9-822b-8e8904eecef0.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/176305/c5f63d26-b091-48d9-822b-8e8904eecef0) Search this site on Google Search Google ## We're glad you're here. We write about our marketing passions: building digital brands, digging deep for customer insights, tracking marketing effectiveness and ROI for better results. 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