5 common mistakes most startups make before they have a strategy

1. Hiring for execution before validating the plan

You see competitors running LinkedIn ads, so you hire a performance marketer. You notice other companies posting on Twitter, so you bring in a social media manager. You need a website, so you find an agency.

None of this is inherently wrong. But without a validated strategy, it's all guesswork.

You're essentially paying people to test assumptions you haven't proven. You're building on sand, hoping it turns into a foundation. And when things don't work, you're not sure if it's the channel, the message, the audience, or the person executing.

The fix: Validate your positioning, messaging, and channels before you hire anyone to scale them. Run small tests. Talk to customers. Figure out what resonates before you commit budget to execution.

2. Copying what worked at someone's last company

You hire a CMO or marketing lead, and they bring a playbook from their previous role. Maybe it's a SaaS company that scaled with content SEO. Maybe it's a B2C brand that crushed it on Instagram. They're confident because it worked before.

But your market is different. Your product is different. Your customers are different. What worked at their last company might be completely irrelevant to yours.

The result? You spend six months building the wrong thing because someone assumed their old playbook would transfer.

The fix: Hire people who lead with research, not assumptions. If someone's pitch is "here's what we did at my last company," ask them how they'll validate it works for yours.

3. Building a website before your messaging is clear

You need a website. Investors want to see it. Prospects are asking for it. So you hire an agency, give them some rough messaging, and they build something that looks great.

But three months later, you realize the messaging doesn't resonate. Visitors aren't converting. You're explaining the product differently in sales calls than you are on the site. So you rebuild it.

And you'll probably rebuild it again in another six months.

The fix: Get your positioning and messaging dialed in before you build the site. Talk to customers. Test headlines. Figure out how to articulate your value in a way that resonates. Then build the website. You'll save time and money by doing it right the first time.

4. Spending on channels without knowing where your customers are

You assume your customers are on LinkedIn, so you run ads there. You think video is the future, so you invest in YouTube. You hear everyone talking about TikTok, so you start posting.

But you never actually validated where your customers spend their time. You never asked where they go when they have the problem you solve. You never tested if they're even looking for a solution online, or if they find vendors through referrals and trade shows.

So you burn budget on the wrong channels, wonder why it's not working, and try something else.

The fix: Do the research. Talk to your best customers and ask where they were when they first realized they needed a solution like yours. Test small before you scale. Validate the channel before you hire someone to own it.

5. Measuring activity instead of outcomes

You're tracking blog posts published, ads launched, social media engagement, email open rates. Your team is hitting their activity goals. Everyone's working hard.

But none of it is tied to revenue.

You're measuring effort, not impact. And when the board asks how marketing is performing, you're showing vanity metrics instead of pipeline and customers.

The fix: Define what success actually looks like before you start. Is it qualified leads? Demo requests? Revenue? Then build your strategy and tactics around driving that outcome. Track activity as a leading indicator, but measure success by results.

The cost of skipping strategy

When you make these mistakes, you're not just wasting money. You're wasting time. You're creating internal doubt about whether marketing works. You're burning through your funding faster than you're learning what actually drives growth.

Skipping strategy doesn't save time. It costs you six months and $200,000 learning what you could have validated in six weeks with research and small tests.

Strategy isn't a deck full of aspirational goals. It's answering these questions before you spend a dollar: Who are we selling to, and where are they right now? What problem do we solve that they care about? How do we talk about it in a way that resonates? Which channels will reach them when they're looking for a solution? What does success look like?

Most founders skip this because it feels slow. But strategy is faster than guessing. You move with intention instead of hope. You know what to build, who to hire, and where to focus.

The bottom line

Most startups make these mistakes because they treat marketing like a checklist. Hire someone. Launch something. Hope it works. But marketing isn't a set of tasks. It's a system. And systems require strategy before execution.