I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard someone in our industry dismiss marketing as “fluff.” You know the tone — a little smirk, a little condescension, and the implication that “real companies” don’t need marketing. They say: “We make a great product. Our work speaks for itself.”

No, it doesn’t. Not anymore. Maybe thirty years ago, when competition was thinner, supply chains were local, and the same three buyers made every decision. Back then, maybe your reputation could quietly carry you. But today? In a global, hyper-competitive market where your customers are drowning in options, noise, and price pressure? If you think your work speaks for itself while you sit silently, you’re on your way to the morgue.

I know from personal experience that many PCB company owners do treat marketing as fluff…or as a necessary evil at best. I cannot, for the life of me understand how people who are so smart in one way are so, well dumb when it comes to sales and especially marketing. Come on Man! You can have all the cool equipment you can buy. You can build the coolest stuff on earth, but what good will it do you it nobody knows who you are? Please stop right here, right now and give this a thought. If you cannot be found you are not going to win customers and you will fail.

Marketing isn’t optional. It’s not nice-to-have. It’s survival fuel.

When times get tight, most companies cut marketing first. Big mistake. That’s like deciding to save gas by ripping the fuel line out of your car.

When orders are slow, when competition is eating your lunch, when buyers don’t return your calls — that’s the exact moment when you need more marketing, not less. You don’t starve yourself when you’re in a marathon; you load up. Marketing is what keeps your pipeline alive.

The companies that win in downturns are the ones who doubled down on visibility when everyone else went quiet. The weak cut their voice. The strong made theirs louder. Which one do you think customers remembered when the dust settled?

I’ve worked with some fantastic companies. Great technology. Great engineering. Great boards. And they’re going broke. Why? Because nobody knows they exist.

Here’s the truth: quality is table stakes. Everyone claims it. Everyone has a certificate on the wall. If your strategy is “we’ll be the best-kept secret in the industry,” congratulations — you’ll stay a secret right up until the bankruptcy auction.

You could have the best on-time delivery, the tightest tolerances, the cleanest shop floor — but if your prospects never hear from you, they’ll send their RFQs to the loud guy down the road who’s in their inbox every week.

That’s reality.

I’ve seen tiny companies outpace giants because they marketed with boldness. They looked ten times bigger than they were. They acted like leaders before they were leaders — and pretty soon, they became leaders.

That’s the magic of marketing: perception becomes momentum, and momentum becomes growth.

You don’t need to be the biggest. You don’t need the deepest pockets. But you do need to be visible, consistent, and unapologetic about telling your story. Customers can’t buy from you if they don’t think of you first. Out-market your size, and the business will follow.

Here’s what most people don’t get: marketing isn’t just about awareness. It’s about trust.

When you show up regularly in trade publications, when your logo pops up on LinkedIn, when prospects see your name in newsletters, when your technical articles teach them something useful — you become familiar. And familiarity breeds trust.

By the time you finally call that buyer or meet that engineer at a trade show, you’re not a stranger. You’re the company they’ve been seeing everywhere. They already feel like they know you. You’re pre-sold.

That’s what marketing does: it softens the ground so your sales team can actually land.

Let’s end with the simplest truth. Marketing is sales on a loudspeaker.

Sales is one-to-one. Marketing is one-to-many. When you send a rep to knock on doors, you reach ten people. When you publish the right column, post the right video, or run the right campaign, you reach ten thousand.

Why wouldn’t you want that leverage?

This is common sense: marketing makes every sales call easier, every pitch more credible, and every close more likely.

So let’s cut through the excuses.

• Marketing isn’t fluff. It’s ammunition.
• It’s how you arm your sales team to win battles before they walk into the room.
• It’s how you punch above your weight in a noisy market.
• It’s how you stop being invisible.
• And it’s how you survive when weaker companies retreat into silence.

You wouldn’t send your people to war without ammunition. Why are you sending your sales team into the field without marketing?

Finally, and for the 1000th time! Marketing is sales on a loudspeaker. Turn it up, or get drowned out. It’s only common sense