When a business gets high visibility but low conversions, the impulse is to blame the platform or marketing tactic (the 'sink'). However, the real issue is often the core offering—the product, pricing, or value proposition (the 'well'). People obsess over front-end fixes when the back-end is the actual problem.

Marketers often silo brand-building and sales-driving objectives, but they are intrinsically linked. If a creative fails to generate a short-term sales lift, it's a strong signal that it's also failing to build long-term brand equity. An ad that sells inherently delivers an equity benefit.

PR professionals often feel their ROI measurement is weaker than other marketing channels. However, many business expenses (like boardroom TVs) face no ROI scrutiny. A well-measured PR campaign that tracks digital impact can demonstrate value more effectively than an average advertising campaign, challenging this internal bias.

The number one mistake in annual planning is creating a marketing strategy in a vacuum. A plan disconnected from company-wide goals, such as a major product launch, results in resource misalignment, budget shortfalls, and missed growth opportunities.

A common attribution error is assigning all sales to paid marketing activities. In reality, most brands have a strong "baseline"—sales that would occur even without marketing. Accurate measurement requires modeling this baseline first, then attributing only the incremental lift from campaigns.

Effective demand generation is a barbell, requiring strong top-of-funnel brand investment to create awareness and great bottom-of-funnel product marketing to convert interest. Viewing performance marketing as a standalone function and funding it in isolation is like "throwing money at a problem but not solving it."

Escape the trap of chasing top-line revenue. Instead, make contribution margin (revenue minus COGS, ad spend, and discounts) your primary success metric. This provides a truer picture of business health and aligns the entire organization around profitable, sustainable growth rather than vanity metrics.

Shift the mindset from a brand vs. performance dichotomy. All marketing should be measured for performance. For brand initiatives, use metrics like branded search volume per dollar spent to quantify impact and tie "fluffy" activities to tangible growth outcomes.

Position marketing as the engine for future quarters' growth, while sales focuses on closing current-quarter deals. This reframes marketing's long-term investments (like brand building) as essential for sustainable revenue, justifying budgets that don't show immediate, direct ROI to a CFO.