The one-person marketing department used to be a badge of honour. A sign you were the chosen one, trusted to handle everything from strategy to social posts. However, that badge has become a burden, and it’s time we discussed why.
The numbers don’t lie. Over half of the more than 3,500 marketers surveyed felt overwhelmed (58.1%) and undervalued (56.1%) over the past 12 months, according to Marketing Week’s 2025 Career and Salary Survey. Even more alarming? 83% of marketing professionals reported experiencing burnout, the highest rate among all corporate functions.
These aren’t just statistics. They’re real people burning out because we’ve normalised the impossible. And we have to take some of the responsibility as marketers for not speaking up sooner!
Somewhere along the way, businesses began to believe in the marketing unicorn. You’ve seen the job description: someone who can craft strategy, write copy, design graphics, manage social media, analyse data, run events, and still have energy left for “one quick campaign” at 6pm on a Friday.
Here’s what happened: marketing exploded in complexity over the last decade, but job descriptions stayed frozen in time. Ten years ago, a marketing manager might have handled a website, some print ads, and maybe a basic email newsletter. Today, that same role is expected to master TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, email automation, SEO, paid ads, content marketing, influencer partnerships, and whatever new platform launched last week.
The channels multiplied.
The technology stack became a maze of subscriptions and integrations. Customer touchpoints spread across dozens of platforms. However, businesses still often assume that one person can handle it all, because, you guessed it, “it’s all marketing.”
This mythical creature doesn’t exist. What exists instead are exhausted marketers trying to be everything to everyone, and usually ending up being effective at nothing. We need to become confident in saying what we are experts in and where we need help, otherwise, the cycle will never end.
Being a one-person marketing team means wearing more hats than a day at the races. On any given day, you’re expected to:
Then there’s the expectation of constant availability. Campaign launches don’t wait for office hours. Crisis management doesn’t respect your weekend plans.
It is setting people up to fail and making marketing the easy scapegoat when things get tough.
The breaking point isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes it’s a slow decline where creative thinking becomes impossible when your time is spent being pulled in five different directions.
Physical exhaustion sets in first, making it impossible to be creative. Sleep quality drops as your brain refuses to switch off from the endless to-do list.
Then comes the system failure.
For these one-person teams, this shows up in three ways:
Performance drops gradually as the person struggles to maintain standards across too many areas. Quality suffers, but they’re still showing up. The numbers don’t drop quickly enough to recognise there is an issue so leadership assumes everything’s fine and it’s an industry thing.
They probably then put more budget into PPC rather than dealing with the real issue.
When everyone understands the ‘why’ behind decisions, you spend less time explaining and more time executing. Our marketing strategy training helps establish these foundations, giving teams a north star that guides decisions even when you’re not in the room.
Everything else flows from this foundation. It also shows where the team’s expertise lies, so that there is a business reason behind getting a new team member or reaching out for outside expertise.
A solid message house ensures that anyone can create content that sounds like your brand. No more panic when someone else needs to write an email or social post.
Content ideation systems generate ideas systematically rather than relying on inspiration striking at 3 am. Think content themes, not just Tuesday’s social post. When you have frameworks for creating content, you’re not starting from scratch every time, and anyone in the business can get involved – you just need to strategically evaluate them.
Stop trying to solve every problem alone. Other marketers have faced exactly what you’re facing. Our Discord community exists because isolation makes everything harder. Here you can bounce ideas, ask questions or validate thinking with a variety of your peers from different walks of life.
A one-person marketing department is unsustainable in 2025. Markets move too fast, channels multiply too quickly, and customer expectations are too high for any individual to handle alone. Eventually, most businesses need to expand their marketing capacity. When that time comes, having systems in place makes the transition smoother.
The solution begins with admitting that superhuman expectations create subhuman results. Then it’s about building systems that make the work manageable, whether you’re a team of one or one of many.
Finally, you need to make the business case. Leadership needs to understand the real cost of the current setup. Not just salary costs, but the opportunity cost of strategic work that isn’t happening because the work hasn’t been done to understand the business audience. Frame it in terms they understand: revenue impact, customer acquisition costs, competitive positioning.
The best marketing comes from humans who have the space to think strategically, create genuinely helpful content, and maintain the energy to do it consistently. That’s not possible when you’re doing everything. But it’s absolutely possible when you build systems (and hopefully a team) that support you instead of exhausting you.
It seems quite simple in writing.
Stop trying to be a unicorn.
Start building something sustainable.
Remember the goal isn’t perfection.
It’s sustainability.
