Growing a business is exciting. You've moved past the stage where you're doing everything yourself, you've got a team around you and things are starting to gain real momentum. At some point, marketing becomes too important (and too time-consuming) to keep doing off the side of your desk, so you hire your first marketing coordinator.

It's a smart move. But here's what I see happen over and over again with businesses in that 20 to 100 employee range: the marketing coordinator is in the seat, they're keen, they're posting on socials and updating the website, but the results aren't matching the investment.

It's not because they're not capable. It's because they've been set up to fail.

The gap that no one talks about

A marketing coordinator is great at execution. They can schedule posts, write a blog, send an email newsletter and pull together a report. That's what they've been trained to do and it's exactly the role you need filled.

The problem is that execution without strategy is just activity. And activity without direction doesn't drive revenue.

Most junior marketers don't have the experience to build a marketing strategy from scratch. They haven't spent years understanding how marketing connects to sales pipelines, customer retention and business development goals. They don't yet know how to look at data and make confident calls about where to spend your budget for the best return.

That's not a criticism of them. It's a recognition that strategic marketing leadership is a different skill set to marketing coordination. And expecting one person to do both is like asking your apprentice to also design the building.

The signs this might be happening in your business

If any of these sound familiar, there's a good chance your marketing coordinator is working hard but without the strategic direction they need.

Your marketing activity feels disconnected from your business goals. There are posts going up and emails going out, but you couldn't confidently say how they connect to revenue.

You're spending money on ads or campaigns without a clear plan for what success looks like. There's no measurement framework and no one is reviewing the data to make decisions about what to do next.

Your coordinator is asking you what to do next, and you don't have the answer. You hired them so you wouldn't have to think about marketing, but you're still making most of the decisions.

You've tried an agency before and it didn't work. They didn't understand your business well enough, the content felt generic and you couldn't see the return.

Your team is busy, but you can't point to marketing as a driver of your growth.

It's a structural problem, not a people problem

Here's the thing most business owners get wrong: they think the solution is to hire someone more senior. A marketing manager on $100k to $130k plus super, plus the time it takes to recruit, onboard and get them across the business. For a company doing $2M to $10M in revenue, that's a significant line item, and there's no guarantee you'll find the right person or that they'll stay longer than two years.

The average tenure for a marketing person at that level in Australia is just under two years. That means you're constantly rebuilding, losing knowledge and starting again.

There's a more practical option that a lot of growing businesses are starting to adopt. Instead of hiring up, they're pairing their marketing coordinator with an outsourced strategic marketing partner.

How the model works

Think of it as a senior marketing brain without the full-time salary. An outsourced marketing partner builds the strategy, develops the plan and gives your coordinator the direction and framework they need to execute with confidence.

In practice, this looks like developing a tailored marketing strategy that's connected to your actual business objectives, not just a list of social media posts. It means building a 90-day action plan so your coordinator knows exactly what to focus on and why. It's setting up measurement and reporting so you can see what's working and what needs to change. And it's providing ongoing guidance through regular check-ins so your team stays on track.

Your coordinator gets to do what they're good at, with the direction of someone who's done this across multiple industries and businesses. You get the strategic marketing leadership your business needs without the overhead of another senior hire.

It's working for businesses like yours

I've seen this firsthand. One of my clients, an ASX-listed tech company with a team of 40, had exactly this challenge. They'd hired marketing people who were good at the doing but didn't have the experience to drive the strategy. Agencies hadn't worked because they didn't understand the business.

Another client, a family-run business on the Sunshine Coast with a team of 12, was stuck on a marketing "hamster wheel." They were busy but not strategic. After a strategy workshop and a clear 90-day plan, they went from reactive to focused, making confident, data-driven decisions about where to invest their time and budget.

Neither of these businesses needed another full-time hire. They needed strategic marketing leadership paired with strong execution on the ground.

The Sunshine Coast is growing fast

The Sunshine Coast economy is booming. Healthcare and social assistance is the region's largest employer with over 38,000 jobs. Construction, professional services and tech are all growing rapidly. The population is expected to reach 500,000 by 2041 and businesses across the region are scaling to meet demand.

That growth means more businesses are crossing the threshold from "the owner handles marketing" to "we've hired someone but it's not working as well as we hoped." If that's you, you're not alone and there's a practical solution that doesn't involve another six-figure salary.

What to do next

If you've got a marketing coordinator (or you're about to hire one) and you want to make sure they're set up for success, start by asking yourself three questions:

Do we have a written marketing strategy that connects to our business goals?

Does our coordinator have a clear plan that tells them what to do, when and why?

Are we measuring results and making decisions based on data?

If the answer to any of those is no, it might be time to bring in some strategic support. Not to replace your team, but to give them the direction they need to actually drive growth.

I work with a small number of businesses as an outsourced marketing partner, providing the strategic leadership that sits between your business goals and your team's execution. If you'd like to chat about whether this could work for your business, get in touch for an obligation-free conversation.