Hey SaaS marketers, how are you spending your time?

Tech marketers used to wear many more hats.

Every marketer knows the 4 Ps - product, price, promotion, and place. Tech companies still grapple with all four, plus a crucial 5th P - partnerships - that's critical to most growth strategies.

In my conversations with growth-stage SaaS and data company CMOs, CEOs, and investors, it's clear that the scope of marketing responsibilities has narrowed dramatically over the years.

Today's marketer is no longer responsible for all 4 (or 5) Ps. Instead, they're laser-focused on 1 to 1.5 Ps: Promotion and sometimes Place (think review sites like Capterra, trade shows, etc.). Their primary focus? Top-of-funnel demand generation.

Is this shift good or bad? It's hard to say, but here are some implications to consider:

🤔 Who's responsible for the other Ps, especially product packaging and pricing? Often, there's no single person, and frequently no internal expertise to optimize them. Research shows this costs the average SaaS company 25% in potential revenue.

🤔Marketing impact is increasingly challenging to achieve. Many companies I've worked with are frustrated that their SEO or content strategies aren't delivering ROI. Keyword and ad costs are up, as if everyone's following the same playbook, driving up demand and prices while lowering effectiveness.

🤔Most AI usage in marketing is for demand generation activities. While writing a blog post is low-hanging fruit, eventually marketers will need to leverage AI for more complex challenges like product packaging and pricing. But that requires understanding those areas - you can't just hand it off to Perplexity just yet.

These trends suggest marketing roles will become more difficult to find and retain. Increased focus in one area, decreased ability to move the needle, and concentration on activities being replaced by AI all spell trouble for marketers.

My advice for tech marketers? Take on an additional P - one that's underserved but high impact for your company.

Where do you think marketing SHOULD focus?

𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘚𝘢𝘢𝘚 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨.