I've spent a large part of my career in marketing, so I'm probably not supposed to say this: Hiring a marketing company won't fix every business problem. Neither will hiring a great internal marketing person. Marketing can create awareness, generate opportunities and help communicate why customers should choose your company. But there are problems no amount of clever advertising, social media content or beautiful design can solve.

If customers regularly have a bad experience, marketing can't fix it. If nobody answers the phone, marketing can't fix it. If your sales team never follows up, marketing can't fix it. If your prices don't leave enough margin to make money, marketing can't fix it. If employees are miserable and constantly leaving, marketing can't fix it. If the product simply isn't very good, marketing definitely can't fix it. In fact, sometimes good marketing makes those problems worse.

Imagine a company that is already struggling to keep up with its workload. Customers are waiting too long, employees are overwhelmed and quality is slipping. Then the company launches a successful marketing campaign and brings in 50 new customers. The campaign worked perfectly. The business may now be in even more trouble.

That's why one of the first questions before launching a major growth campaign should be, “Are we ready for it to work?” It's an unusual question because businesses naturally assume more customers are always better. But if the company doesn't have the capacity, systems or people to serve those customers properly, growth can damage the reputation you're spending money to build.

There's another challenge marketing professionals frequently encounter: Businesses sometimes expect marketing to create a message the company hasn't figured out internally. Who is your ideal customer? “Everybody.” What makes you different? “Our service.” Why should someone choose you instead of your competitor? “We care more.” What do you want to be known for? “Quality.”

Those aren't necessarily bad answers, but they're rarely enough to build a strong strategy. Marketing can help uncover the answers, but eventually leadership has to make choices. You have to decide which customers matter most, what position you want in the market and what promises you're prepared to deliver consistently.

This is also why changing marketing companies every year rarely solves a deeper strategic problem. Sometimes an agency isn't performing and absolutely should be replaced. But if you've hired four marketing companies and none of them can seem to generate the results you want, it's at least worth considering whether the problem exists somewhere else.

Look at the entire path from stranger to loyal customer. Marketing may create awareness. Then someone has to respond to the lead. Someone has to sell. Operations have to deliver. Customer service has to take care of the person. The product has to work. Billing has to be easy. Someone should probably follow up. Every part of that journey influences whether the marketing investment ultimately produces a return.

The best marketing relationships happen when marketing becomes connected to the business rather than isolated from it. The people responsible for marketing should understand what's happening in sales. They should know which customers are most profitable. They should hear the questions customers ask. They should know why customers leave. They should understand where the company wants to go.

And leadership should be willing to hear something other than “you need more advertising.” Sometimes the best marketing recommendation might be to fix the sales process first. Improve the website experience. Simplify the offer. Gather customer reviews. Train the front desk. Improve response times. Figure out who your best customers actually are. Then turn up the marketing.

Marketing is an amplifier. Give it something great and it can help more people discover it. Give it something broken and it may simply help more people discover the problem.

Question of the Week: If your marketing worked twice as well next month, is the rest of your business ready to deliver on the promise?