Being invisible or forgettable is expensive.

I've been working in large organisations my whole career. I've never had to find my own clients before. And this week, that's exactly what I'm doing.

That's weirder to write than I expected. Terrifying and exciting at the same time. Choosing to start from zero, after years of knowing exactly what your job is, is scary and thrilling in equal ways. Even writing this newsletter feels different now because it’s not just about sharing thoughts anymore, it's also me figuring out, in real time, how to show up consistently in a world where nobody is waiting for me to arrive. At least not yet, not until I find my first few clients.

I’ve been having coffees with people in my network these past few days and something keeps coming up. Small companies putting marketing aside. Not because they don't care, but because they're drowning in everything else. Marketing becomes something to tackle later, or something someone does with their left hand one afternoon a week.

I recognise this pattern. I've seen it from the inside of large organisations too, where marketing gets deprioritised the moment something more urgent lands. The difference is that large companies usually have enough people and inertia to survive it. Smaller companies don't always have that luxury.

Without marketing, future customers don't know you exist. You can't be top of mind if you're invisible. And in B2B especially, the shortlist in a buyer's head gets built long before they're ready to buy. If you're not showing up anywhere in the meantime, you're not on the list.

Many smaller companies believe that to get marketing going, it requires a large budget, but that’s not always the case. Many smaller B2B companies which do this well don’t have big budgets. What they have instead is consistency, one clear point of view and a regular presence in the right places. Showing up week after week without waiting for the perfect moment and the big budget is how marketing can be done to make sure to be top of mind.

If you're running a B2B company and marketing keeps not happening, I’d love to talk. Not to pitch you anything, but just to have a conversation and discuss what’s getting in the way. As I start my own advisory business, understanding what’s happening around me and being genuinely curious is what drives me right now.

One thing worth your attention

The LinkedIn B2B Institute research on this is consistent: most of your potential buyers are not in market right now. They will be in the next 6 to 24 months. The companies they eventually choose are largely the ones they've been passively aware of the whole time.

Being invisible or forgettable is expensive.

Something to try

Ask yourself honestly: if someone in your target market heard about a problem you solve perfectly tomorrow, would they think of you? Not would they find you if they searched. Would you come to mind unprompted? That gap, between findable and memorable, is the actual marketing problem.