Will Marketing Be The Most Important Future Hire? (Long Read)
This post is actually inspired by a tweet from @sandradjajic + an update here on PH from @chrismessina.
A few days ago I saw this:
A year ago, I would have instantly retweeted, liked, bookmarked, and moved on. Oh, and maybe sent to my boss (by accident).
Now - as a slightly more evolved marketer these days - I paused.
Because while I agree marketing is becoming more important than ever… product is still everything.
I say that after several months building @Meet-Ting and understanding the complexity that goes into making something feel delightful.
I am in awe of every product I use daily and the journey the startup must have been on to get to that can't-live-without-you feel.
But. But. But. There's a but of course.
Product is now abundant.
Literally yesterday, Chris highlighted Product Hunt had its largest day of launches ever - over 600 products in a single day. Six hundred.
That’s potentially 3,600+ products in a week:
So now go back to the original argument...
You can start to see the truth in it.
Because marketing is being seen. And being seen is being used. And being used is how you make money, and stay alive!
From 500k likes to 1k followers
I’ve done marketing at global brands like adidas. I’ve worked on hyper-growth platforms like TikTok. Now I’m co-running a startup.
We just crossed 1k+ followers on each key platform for us - LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok. Actually closer to 2k+, but who's counting? (me, daily)
It’s humbling work. At adidas back in 2014, I remember an Instagram post would get 500k likes in minutes and drain the battery life of the phone at the same time.
Now?
Every follower feels earned. Coming from nothing is an art.
I honestly wish more awards and recognition went to emerging brands as well as the big guns. You don’t have big teams, fancy tools, or unlimited budgets.
It’s pure internet ninja tactics.
And with AI-generated content flooding our feeds, marketing becomes even more critical.
Not louder. Smarter. More human.
The marketing superpowers that matter now
If you’re an aspiring marketer, or hiring one, these are the skills that matter these days imho.
1. Human touch
Start here.
You are marketing to humans.
Real people. With real frustrations. Real needs.
1% of the world knows what “multi-model” means.
No one wakes up wanting a “game changer” or a “personal agent.”
They want relief. Simplicity. Ease.
Sometimes marketers market to other marketers. Tech people definitely market to their peers.
Just keep it dumb simple.
We started a recent launch video for Meet-Ting with the most relatable video clip ever for our customers because it's so human and they can 'see themselves' in it: https://youtu.be/MbrWxYrlXF4
2. Writing
Surprising, right? In an AI world?
But text is still one of the most powerful mediums on earth.
You’re reading this right now.
You see it on X. You run to the TikTok and Instagram comments.
Writing matters in:
Crisis comms
Website copy
Product positioning
Social posts
While everyone talked about the Anthropic Super Bowl ads, I loved a visceral line from Kate Rouch that framed company size in a way numbers alone couldn’t.
Language makes numbers emotional.
Words have meaning.
Writing is forever.
3. Resourcefulness
Ting has one marketer. He’s also the CEO.
That’s not a brag. It’s reality - powered by AI workflows and systems.
We launched into seven countries. Seven.
In the past, that would’ve required huge teams and local marketers. We did it in a week.
If you’re not augmenting your day with AI - workflows, automation, systems - you’re leaving productivity on the table.
I would even go as far to say leaving your potential on the table too.
The future marketer isn’t bigger. They’re more equipped.
4. Creators (and studying them)
This section is not what you think it is. Keep reading...
Creators command the internet because they are students of the algorithms.
They study what makes content seen.
Yes, work with creators. But more importantly - study them.
Look at how they structure videos. How they build invisible story arcs that drive completion.
I saw a cooking creator pull 10M views because the video opened with a unique angle - you scroll into the motion - you’re curious, you stay, you hit view completion, video hits recommendation: https://www.tiktok.com/@lu.cella/video/7541064612859399446
They don’t just make good content. They design for performance.
5. Creativity
Carl Pei once said something to me that stuck:
"Creativity is just marketing efficiency."
I loved the framing because that is what earned media is all about.
The more creative you are, the harder your marketing works for you.
It earns impressions without paying for them.
We ran a small SEO experiment recently. 50k impressions. Zero budget. Just having fun.
We’re so used to living in the matrix - seeing the same formats, the same posts, the same hooks. Sometimes you just need to break the pattern.
Jolt people back into reality.
6. Taste
AI can generate. It can optimize. But it cannot imitate taste.
An old boss Tom Ramsden once told me "We could post a picture of a cat and get 100k likes, but that doesn’t mean we should."
Cats rule the internet, of course. But you get the point.
Knowing the difference between good content and right content is a real skill.
Using humour without sounding cringe. Riding trends without looking desperate.
If you get it wrong, the internet will let you know. Immediately.
So… will marketing be the highest paid job in tech?
Not without product. Product is still everything.
But product is now abundant.
And when supply explodes, distribution becomes king.
Technical depth might get you funded. Product quality might keep users.
But marketing gets you seen.
So maybe I do agree with the tweet, huh?
Thanks for reading!
Dan
Replies
@dbul Let's also remember that product gets great through marketing, too. It's just the other side of the marketing coin, the inbound marketing, product marketing. Talking to customers, understanding their pain, turning that into product specs, then testing PMF.
Having said that, I totally agree (of course, I am one of those marketers you're talking about): in a sea of slop, being vulnerable, creative, authentically authentic (as opposed to AI-authentic), and showing humanity, stands WAY out.
We have repeatedly disproven the "if you build it they will come" maxim. If you build it and you show them and, then, if it's really great, they'll come...over and over.
And, I have to say thanks for this post. As a marketer who does exactly what you're talking about, I was starting to lose hope. It's great to see that, perhaps, the pendulum is swinging back.
And, a couple of PS's:
There was tons of slop out there before AI, it was just human-slop.
Marketing is best if we make some feel something. Could be humor, could be fear, could be awe, and (I think) best is curiosity. But to really reach across the gap and (as ATT used to say) touch someone, it takes another human. AIs can help and, as someone who has done of a lot of highly successful marketing, I have come to know that touching someone requires five things: heart, soul, imagination, empathy, and human experience. AI might be able to help us express those things, but I can't see how that ever gets programmed into a computer.
Meet-Ting
@adam_gordon2020 You need to write a blog or something with this:
"Marketing is best if we make some feel something. Could be humor, could be fear, could be awe, and (I think) best is curiosity. But to really reach across the gap and (as ATT used to say) touch someone, it takes another human. AIs can help and, as someone who has done of a lot of highly successful marketing, I have come to know that touching someone requires five things: heart, soul, imagination, empathy, and human experience. AI might be able to help us express those things, but I can't see how that ever gets programmed into a computer"
Feels like a manifesto we should all get behind.
Epic!
@dbul Thanks! And I do have a blog in the works on this, as a matter of fact. It'll be on my new website, intelout.com in a week or two.
Meet-Ting
@adam_gordon2020 If you remember, let me know when live, will subscribe!
SEMrush
Bad product kills good marketing, and bad marketing ruins good product. When product and marketing are aligned, they can skyrocket your revenue. Sounds simple, but tricky in practice.
Meet-Ting
@alina_petrova3 That meme is ELITE. And love the perspective - thank you!
@alina_petrova3 There's an old saying in marketing: nothing ever killed a bad product faster than good marketing. LOL, but also very true.
Marketing is very important for sure. Google is a great example of great products (generally speaking), but terrible Marketing.
Most brands that sell fall in the other bucket - where they have mediocre products, but the marketing is what gets people to try and sample them.
But good marketing (and it's downstream cousin, advertising) can also make a terrible product look great. Though, once the sampling is done, only the product will keep users / customers.
My only take on the tweet is that Marketing that can generate and maintain distribution will be the most important, especially in a world where product parity is forced thanks to the ease of writing software. Good marketing will be the differentiator.
At least that's my theory.
Meet-Ting
@nikhilshahane 100% there's some amazing products with terrible marketing (WhatsApp), but then the product is so good they don't need marketing (Google). Double edge sword. I have recently tried a lot of tools with great marketing momentum and been really let down by the product!
Marketing is definitely getting more complex and more important... And it’s probably safe to say “yes” if we’re talking about top-tier marketers with broad experience: the kind of talent great products compete for. Still, product is always the base. You can’t rely on marketing to save product problems, even though it’s tempting sometimes.
Meet-Ting
@kristina__grits 100%, product wins, no doubt.
Honestly, this isn’t surprising. There are so many products now so getting people’s attention is the hard part.
Product quality keeps users, but marketing is what gets them to notice you. It makes sense that marketing is becoming more important and more highly paid. The question isn’t product or marketing but who gets seen in a crowded market.
P.S. Oil & gas, IT and marketing have always been the industries with the most money so it’s no surprise that marketing is highly paid as it always has been
Meet-Ting
@natallia_novik Good point on mix of good marketing and budget, often you can buy visibility in a crowded market - still need the creativity to drive the performance though.
Marketing—and I would add—TASTE.
I completely agree with the sentiment, and suppose taste is a sub-genre in both product and marketing. My thoughts can't seem to break away from the sinking feeling that where 2025 was all about AI Slop in respect of social media and content; 2026 will be dominated by AI slop products.
Breaking through the noise will be more difficult than ever, but finding ways to generate tasteful UI that breaks rules and feels more human. Going against the design norms and giving something that tickles the users delight and make them feel the authenticity of the creator through a more artistic and bespoke experience that asks the users to figure it out themsleves. Engage the pre-frontal cortex a bit, ya know.
Meet-Ting
@chase_hostler Love it. Tasteful marketing, comms, UI, product design. The subtle winks and nod all make up brand across the entire product experience. I think engaging the cortex is actually the game, truly human way of thinking about it!
Termsy
Just like copywriters, coders, designers, and soon marketers, all of these fields will see a massive reduction in headcount.
AI can do (/will do) most of these things better, but there will still be a need for the top 1% to step in and orchestrate.
So, if there are higher-paid roles in marketing, there would be similarly paid roles for senior engineers too.
And as some great person said, great marketing can't save a terrible product.
(P.S. I am a designer who became a marketeer.)
Meet-Ting
@arungopidas Well said and agree. The top 1% rising makes sense, worries me for everyone else though!
Termsy
@dbul I forgot to add, I am super worried about this happening 😅
Meet-Ting
@arungopidas Haha now we both are!
Product is still the foundation. If it’s weak, no campaign can save it. But today, great products are everywhere and attention is limited (very limited to be honest).
I agree the role becomes even more important when marketing can integrate the full funnel, from awareness to activation to retention, and amplify the product to the right audience, not just a bigger one.
The real leverage is alignment: targeting the right users, setting the right expectations, and feeding insights back into product so growth compounds.