12/03/2026
Marketing has a cowboy problem.
Some of you reading this are the problem.
Business owners: the worst marketing experience you ever had... someone got paid well for it.
Ultimately, good marketers have it worse than bad ones right now.
Before a new supplier even starts, a thought flickers through our heads: “I hope I’m not about to get taken for a ride.”
It’s unfair to the brilliant ones. But cowboys have damaged the industry’s reputation.
For everyone.
I was chatting with expert web developer Steve Morton this week and we agreed that marketing has more cowboys than ever.
Too many “experts”. Too little proven experience. Too few real standards.
And too many business owners burned by activity that promised the world and delivered nothing.
The business owners I speak to aren’t cynical about marketing.
They’re just tired of paying for it and going nowhere.
The irony?
The good marketers suffer most.
Like the best builders, they now spend half their time just proving they’re not a cowboy.
Marketing, done properly, is the most valuable discipline in business.
But right now, the cowboys are killing that reputation.
For all of us.
Business owners: what’s your worst marketing horror story?
(The good marketers are reading this. They’re nodding. They want to know too.)