The Hardest Part of Marketing Nobody Talks About

Jack Willoughby
21 hours ago
3 min read

A man working at his desk, typing on a laptop with design work on the screen, a notebook open beside him, and a large monitor in the background. — Working through a campaign plan in the office.

Most people think the hardest part of marketing is creativity, competition, or coming up with new idea’s. It's not. The hardest part is opinions. Endless, conflicting, emotional opinions. And nobody talks about it.

Everyone Has an Opinion on Marketing

Marketing is the only function in a business that everyone feels qualified to judge.

Sales want short-term wins.

Leaders want quick traction.

Different teams want different things.

Different audiences want different messages.

And every competitor’s website suddenly becomes a “we should do this too” moment.

I feel it most during quarterly meetings as it's always the same cycle every time from the same people, the same pressure, and the same tug-of-war between long-term brand building and short-term panic.

Marketing becomes a room full of opinions… and you’re expected to translate them all. It feels like speaking five different languages at once while everyone only cares about their own.

Short-Term Emotion Is the Enemy

I used to conform and I have changed things to please people. Tweaked the brand, softened an idea, copied something a competitor did because “they’re doing well”, and even tried to make everyone happy.

And the result was always the same. A confused brand with an unclear message that felt like we’d forgotten who we were actually for.

When you bend to every opinion, you lose the spine of the brand. You end up with something that looks like it belongs everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

The turning point came when I started ruthlessly protecting the brand. Not in an arrogant "I'm always right" way, but in a disciplined, grounded way. Staying true to the brand, even when emotions run high, builds something stronger. It creates a path forward instead of another loop back to the starting point.

What Actually Helps: Structure, Not Noise

The only thing that cuts through opinion-overload is structure. The old adage goes, "seeing is believing", and the tool that saves me every time is the centre campaign document.

I build everything in one place:

Vision → Commitment → Execution to align the team and Reach → Act → Convert → Engage to plan the tactics.

When people see the plan, understand the audience, and recognise the psychology behind the messaging, the opinions starts to calm down.

The document reminds everyone:

Who the audience is
What the internal, external, and psychological problems are
What we’re actually trying to achieve
Why the message is built this way
Why we can’t chase every short-term idea

It connects the dots that opinions often ignore.

Departments Pull in Different Directions

Sales push for anything that might bring revenue TODAY. Operations want simplicity. Leadership want immediate traction. Creative people want emotion. Data people want numbers.

Everyone wants something, and none of it is wrong. But when you let every voice rewrite the brand, you end up with chaos, confusion and panic.

The real work of marketing is protecting the long-term while managing the short-term.

It’s not glamorous. It’s not talked about. It’s not on any job description.

But it’s where all the pressure lives.

Don’t Panic. Stay True. Keep Building.

If there’s one thing I wish more people understood about marketing, it’s this:

Don’t panic. Stick to who you are. Trust the process.

Brands don’t grow because they chase everything.They grow because they commit to a position, a mission, and a direction, and keep showing up for the right audience.

We’re all consumers. We all care about something. We all respond to clarity and consistency.

Build that and the traction will come.

The Moment You Know It’s Working

There’s one sign I’ve learned to look for:

When competitors start copying you.

Your product.

Your videos.

Your campaigns.

Your positioning.

The moment you see it, you know you’re ahead.

If you watch them too closely, you’ll lose the lead. If you chase them, you’ll end up sounding like them. If you try to mimic what everyone else is doing, you’ll forget why your brand exists in the first place.

There are millions of messages an audience wants to hear.

Make sure the ones they hear from you actually come from you.