Scaling a business rarely follows a smooth trajectory. Many companies grow quickly to a certain size, often between £3m and £10m in revenue, then progress slows. The early momentum that once felt natural becomes harder to sustain. Leads are less predictable, customer acquisition costs rise and marketing activity increases but the impact becomes harder to see. 

This plateau is a common stage in the business growth maturity model, where early success begins to expose structural limitations in how growth is managed.

Many leadership teams discover that the marketing function they’ve built to support early growth is no longer capable of driving the next phase. The systems, leadership and priorities that helped capture early opportunities are not designed to scale.

This is the moment when marketing must evolve from a collection of activities into a disciplined growth system.

The scaling challenge: when marketing activity outpaces strategy

In the early stages of growth, marketing is often closely tied to the founder and the commercial team. Decisions are informed by direct conversations with customers, the market feels relatively easy to read and opportunities are acted on quickly.

As the company grows, complexity increases. New markets are explored, additional channels are introduced and external agencies are brought in to support delivery. Internal marketing teams expand and the organisation begins investing more heavily in marketing overall.

What often fails to develop at the same pace is the system behind those activities.

The result is fragmented execution.

We recently spoke to a business leader who was struggling with these exact challenges. The business, highly profitable and mature, had seemingly reached a revenue plateau and 3 years had slipped by with little to no new growth. They were living through the exact situation we’ve explained above – complexity had slowly increased, new product lines had been added and, in trying to satisfy a growing number of customer demands, the overall brand message had splintered and become diluted. They were now struggling to forecast and carry out any meaningful planning activity, against a backdrop of uncertainty. They also had another common issue – their sales were the result of a (very) small number of people inside the business whose phone would ring, not the result of a genuine growth engine. When the phones didn’t ring, there would be no new business. This is not only a strategic risk but places enormous pressure on key individuals. And whilst it’s not scalable, it is incredibly common. 

Common signs include:

• Multiple agencies running campaigns with limited coordination.

• Internal marketing teams focused primarily on delivery rather than strategic priorities.

• Leadership lacking clear visibility of what marketing investment is producing, or where growth is coming from.

Over time, this fragmentation leads to what is often described as strategic drift. After 3 years, this is exactly what our example above was experiencing. Namely, activity continues but it slowly moves away from the commercial priorities of the business.

At the same time, companies often continue to treat marketing as a cost centre. Its role is frequently seen as a support function to sales rather than driving growth itself. Budgets are scrutinised but strategic direction remains unclear.

Eventually the business reaches a ceiling. The low-hanging opportunities that powered early growth begin to disappear, competitors become more capable and buyers take longer to make decisions. Sustaining growth becomes harder without a more deliberate and coordinated system behind marketing.

The hidden risks of fragmented marketing

When marketing remains largely tactical while the business itself becomes more complex, several risks begin to emerge:

Strategic inefficiency

Resources become spread across an expanding mix of channels, agencies and initiatives. Individual campaigns may be well executed, but without a clear strategic direction the overall impact remains limited. Investment increases, yet the organisation struggles to see consistent commercial returns.

Loss of differentiation

Without a strong strategic anchor, messaging gradually drifts. Marketing activity focuses on features, updates or short term campaigns rather than the value customers are willing to pay for. Over time the business becomes harder to distinguish from competitors.

Reduced leadership confidence

As marketing activity expands, it can become increasingly difficult for leadership teams to see how investment translates into growth. Campaign reports and dashboards provide data, but the connection to revenue, customer value or enterprise value is not always clear.

These challenges tend to become more visible as markets mature and competition intensifies. Buyers take longer to make decisions, alternatives increase and technology is accelerating the pace at which markets evolve.

In this environment, adding more campaigns or testing more channels rarely solves the problem. Progress depends on making clear strategic choices about where the business will compete, which customers it will prioritise and how it creates value.

For businesses in the £3–10m growth stage, this makes strategic clarity far more important. Growth can no longer rely on experimentation alone. The biggest decisions about positioning, markets and investment increasingly need to be right the first time.

For many leadership teams, this is the stage where marketing needs clearer structure and stronger strategic leadership. Without it, activity continues but sustaining growth becomes increasingly difficult.

They say some things can’t be taught and have to be experienced – well I learnt this lesson the hard way earlier in my career. As part of a founding team for a health-tech business, the first £1M came relatively easy. We were new, we were different, and we faced very little competition. We led with product marketing, building awareness of what we had to offer. This made sense initially as we gained traction, and gobbled up lots of low hanging fruit (buyers who were in-market and wanting just what we had to offer). However, this quickly changed. All that focus on product marketing had come at the cost of any development of the brand. All our efforts had been to grow the size of the market, great for us but great for competitors too. It wasn’t the transition that had surprised us (we knew we’d need to evolve our marketing function), it was the pace of that transition that had caught us off guard, and the speed with which we needed to focus on our own growth engine and brand development, before we were over run by a series of lookalike competitors.   

Rebuilding marketing as a commercial growth system

Rebuilding a marketing function doesn’t mean discarding everything that already exists. It means reshaping the system so that every investment supports a clear growth strategy.

The starting point is recognising that marketing is not tactical support for sales. It is a commercial function that shapes demand, strengthens customer relationships and contributes directly to enterprise value.

As the above example can demonstrate, if you’re in start-up mode, this can be an all too common place to find yourselves. 

Achieving this requires changes across leadership, culture and operating structure.

The work often begins with the organisation’s core value proposition. Sustainable growth depends on understanding what customers genuinely value and what they are willing to pay for. That insight becomes the anchor for positioning, messaging and go-to-market priorities.

Marketing leadership also needs to evolve. As businesses scale, founder-led marketing or loosely coordinated activity becomes harder to sustain. Stronger strategic oversight is needed to align teams, agencies, channels and investment around clear priorities.

Execution must then follow that direction. Internal teams and external partners need shared objectives, clear accountability and a common understanding of the role marketing plays in growth. Activity should reinforce a single strategic direction rather than competing initiatives.

When this alignment is achieved, marketing not only becomes more effective, it strengthens the organisation’s differentiation in the market over time.

At Open Velocity, this transition is structured around a simple principle: Challenge. Clarify. Grow.

Challenge

Question assumptions about where growth will come from. Revisit how resources are allocated, which channels are prioritised and whether existing structures still support the company’s ambitions.

Clarify

Define the opportunity ahead. Identify where the organisation will compete, which customers matter most and how the business will create distinctive value.

Grow

Build the capabilities required to deliver that strategy. Align teams, systems and investment behind a clear roadmap for growth.

When these elements are aligned, marketing moves beyond isolated activity and begins to operate as a coordinated growth system. Leadership teams gain greater confidence in how investment translates into demand, customer value and long term commercial performance.

For leadership teams experiencing the challenges described in this article, Open Velocity offers a growth clinic designed to identify strategic blockers and outline the structural changes needed to unlock the next stage of growth.

You can also follow Open Velocity on LinkedIn for further insights on building stronger marketing foundations for sustainable growth.

Definitions

Marketing growth system

A structured approach where strategy, teams, channels and investment are aligned to deliver consistent commercial growth. Instead of isolated campaigns, marketing operates as a coordinated system that drives revenue and long term enterprise value.

Marketing maturity model

A framework that helps businesses understand how developed their marketing function is. Early stages rely on founder insight and tactical execution, while mature organisations operate with clear strategy, integrated teams and measurable commercial impact. See Open Velocity’s growth maturity model for more detail.

Marketing strategy vs marketing tactics

Marketing strategy defines where the business will compete, which customers it will serve and how it will create differentiation. Marketing tactics are the activities used to execute that strategy, such as campaigns, content or advertising. Strategy sets direction. Tactics deliver execution.

Q&A

What is strategic drift and how can it be avoided?

Strategic drift occurs when day-to-day marketing activity gradually moves away from the company’s core commercial priorities. It often happens when teams focus on execution without a clear strategic framework. It can be avoided by maintaining a defined marketing strategy, aligning teams around shared goals and regularly reviewing whether activity supports long term growth objectives.

What is the biggest change needed to switch from marketing as a cost to marketing as an investment?

The biggest change is leadership perspective. Marketing must be managed as a system that creates customer demand and long term value rather than as a collection of campaigns. When strategy, measurement and accountability are clear, marketing investment can be evaluated based on its contribution to revenue and enterprise value.

What are the risks of continuing to see marketing as a cost?

Treating marketing purely as a cost often leads to short term decisions that prioritise immediate lead generation over strategic positioning. Over time this weakens differentiation, increases customer acquisition costs and reduces the organisation’s ability to sustain growth. Businesses that fail to evolve their marketing structure often struggle to compete as markets mature.