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# Kelford Labs Daily: Proportionate Marketing
- URL: https://kelfordinc.com/kelford-labs-daily-proportionate-marketing/
- Published: 2024-04-26T10:25:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-01-27T15:23:17.000Z
- Description: Too much marketing won’t help.
- Author: Joel Kelly
- Tags: Daily Labs, focus, content, linkedin, signal, sustainable, strategy, tradeoff

> “A quantity grows *exponentially* when *its increase is proportional to what is already there*.”  
>  
> — Donella Meadows, Limits to Growth

So much marketing I see out in the world is out of proportion to the business it’s supporting.

From solopreneurs spending all day posting on LinkedIn to small businesses buying billboards, it’s all a symptom of the same thing:

A lack of *focus*.

**The simple fact is that if a business is spending more time or money on marketing than it is delivering its value to its clients, it will always struggle.**

Because that level of investment indicates that the business is not growing organically—its *reputation* isn’t growing, only its spending.

But if we’re *focused, specialized, and targeted* at the clients and customers who value us most, a *little* marketing will do.

**Because those customers will tell others. We’ll become known as extraordinarily credible in our field. Our reputation will extend and precede us.**

On the other hand, if it takes dozens of hours posting on social or creating content to generate a single lead, the marketing isn’t working and simply doing *more* won’t help. The offering is too scattered, varied, and confusing.

The messaging is too unclear, unspecialized, and unqualified.

**Instead, to keep our marketing proportionate to our business, we need to focus on *one message*, for *one customer*, in *one way.*** 

When we do that, we can do so much less. Our marketing can be proportionate to our business.

**And it can grow *with us*, not beyond us.**

📫

Feedback? Email labs@kelfordinc.com