Every agency and every SaaS company goes into a new year with the same commitment.
“We’re really going to take marketing seriously this time.”

And every agency and every SaaS company hits the same wall by February.
Client work takes over.
Someone gets busy.
Someone leaves.
The content slows.
The positioning gets lost.
The entire plan collapses into “post when we can.”

If you recognise that, good. You’re being honest. Most people still pretend it's “a bandwidth issue” or “a consistency problem”.

It isn’t.

The real problem is simpler and far more uncomfortable:

You treat it like an accessory. Something that happens once the “real work” is done.
And then you wonder why your pipeline is unpredictable, your positioning keeps drifting, and your content never compounds.

2026 will make this even harsher. Buyers are more sceptical, more informed, and significantly more allergic to agencies and SaaS companies who sound interchangeable.

If you want 2026 to be different, start by telling the truth about where things are breaking. Here are the things you need to address, not because they are trendy, but because they are the reasons you’re not growing.

Most agencies can’t tell a coherent story about what they do, who they do it for, and why anyone should care.
Not because they aren’t smart enough.
Because they refuse to choose.

You can’t be “full-service,” “strategic,” “creative,” “technical,” “hands-on,” “consultative,” and “executional” at the same time.
That isn’t positioning. It’s fear dressed up as versatility.

In 2026, the only agencies and SaaS brands that will stand out are the ones with a sharp, almost uncomfortable point of view.
A point of view that lets potential clients recognise themselves or walk away.
A point of view that filters out 90 percent of the bad-fit leads so the right ones can see you clearly.

If your story can’t repel anyone, it will never attract the people you actually want.

The reason you don’t publish consistently is because your content is too hard to produce.

Not conceptually. Operationally.

You’re writing from scratch every time. You’re reinventing tone, structure, topics, examples, and formats every single week.
That is not a marketing plan. That is self-sabotage.

High-output companies aren’t more talented. They’ve built infrastructure:

If you want to publish like a company that grows, you need to operate like a company that grows.

Everything else is just optimism.

You know what most “thought leadership” fails to do?
Lead a thought.

Because agencies and SaaS companies desperately want to sound correct, neutral, agreeable.

But buyers don’t hire you because you’re agreeable.
They hire you because you see the world differently enough to help them win.

If your content never risks upsetting anyone, it’s too safe to be interesting.

The only content that cuts through in 2026 will be the kind that:

People will trust you more for being honest than for being polite.

Most agencies believe that one or two big pieces will fix everything.
A signature article.
A report.
A webinar.

Nice, but insufficient.

Perception shifts through repetition.
Repetition requires a system.
A system requires planning months before you need the results.

Your 2026 plan cannot rely on “big moments”.
It needs to rely on a drumbeat that never stops:

This is how the market eventually believes the thing you’re trying to say.

Not because you said it once.
Because you said it so consistently that people assumed it must be true.

Top-of-funnel is rarely the issue.
You already have attention.
You already have people reading, clicking, engaging.

The graveyard is the middle.

The part where people are interested but not ready.
The part where they forget you exist because nothing happens after the first interaction.
The part where your nurturing is “a newsletter… sometimes.”

If you want a better pipeline, the question isn’t
“how do we get more people in?”
It’s
“how do we stop losing the ones we already have?”

2026 is the year you either build a proper nurturing engine or accept another year of inconsistent opportunity flow.

You know this already, but here it is bluntly.

You can create all the content you want, but if your website still reads like:

“We’re passionate about helping brands grow using data, creativity and innovation,”
then it is actively harming you.

In 2026, your site needs to:

If your website is vague, everything else has to work ten times harder.

This is the most uncomfortable one.

Most founders secretly don’t believe marketing will produce revenue.
Not because marketing doesn’t work, but because their marketing has never been structured enough to be measured.

You can’t value something you aren’t measuring.
You can’t prioritise something you don’t value.

In 2026, you need a pipeline model that connects:

The clearer this becomes, the more marketing becomes a non-negotiable part of the business.

Not something you “try again next quarter”.

You cannot solve these problems by writing another internal plan in a Google Doc.
You need space.
Structure.
Accountability.
And people who won’t let you gloss over the real issues.

So if you want to enter 2026 with clarity and a plan you will actually execute, join us in Cartagena.

Kicking off 2026 in Cartagena, Colombia

Tiara Tragas and I are hosting Ecommerce Agency Growth’s workshop retreat for agency leaders who want to get their operations, KPIs and marketing sorted properly this year.

Half the week is operational clarity and profitability.
The other half is your 2026 marketing roadmap.
It is 100 percent focused on building something you will actually follow through on.

Huge credit to Rachel Jacobs for creating the EAG community.
It is one of the few rooms where real work gets done because nobody is performing.

Details: https://luma.com/zuvfqnvm
If you are considering joining the community, DM Rachel.