Excerpt from a Jason M. Lemkin talk arguing that contemporary marketing has become short-term focused—prioritizing spending that drives immediate quarterly revenue—leading companies to cut broader marketing efforts that build future pipeline. Lemkin warns these cuts will reduce longer-term sales pipeline and harm startups later in the year, even if pressure now favors short-term ROI.
Look, it's exactly what this is. One thing where Twitter has it, right, okay, which is that marketing has become myopic. Marketing is focused on this quarter. Right. What can I spend to get more revenue this quarter? I'm under pressure from my board. My revenues are down in some cases and my. And my burn rate has to last longer. So the CEO is only approving these, these marketing expenses that create revenue immediately. And they do exist out there. Right. But the problem is it's such a small part of marketing that pays off. The only part that really pays off is like funnel assist, like taking someone that's almost ready to buy and then they hear about someone on 20 VC and that magic moment gets them to buy the next week, but nothing else. And so we're cutting too much in marketing. And I'll tell you what I think we should be doing. We're cutting too much and it's going to hurt everybody. Not this week or even this quarter, but it's going to hurt. Everyone's going to not going to have enough pipeline at the end of the year when I think things will be better I think things will be better for startups at the end of this year.
