GoKawiilEntrepreneur Op-Ed: Founders Often Sign Marketing Retainers Without Defining Success
A contributor to Entrepreneur describes a startup founder who hired a marketing agency and, after six months, had a new brand deck, content calendar and social media growth, but no traceable new customers. The piece argues this happens because founders and agencies typically agree on deliverables like post counts and email volumes, without ever defining what business outcome the engagement is meant to achieve.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The essay suggests agencies default to measuring easy outputs rather than business impact, which can let clients pay for visible activity that doesn't translate into revenue. It implies founders bear responsibility for setting outcome-based accountability before signing a retainer, since agencies won't necessarily push for that framing themselves.
- A founder spent six months and got branding and content, but no traceable new customers.
- The core issue described is failing to define what success looks like before signing a retainer.
- The author argues agencies optimize for easily measurable deliverables, not necessarily business outcomes.
Source: entrepreneur.com — Gilad Bechar, 2026-09-23
Published there as: “Before You Hire a Marketing Agency, Don’t Make This Expensive Mistake”
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