Hey all,
Hope you are having a productive and equally relaxing Sunday. I’m Julia, and every week in this newsletter, I break down marketing insights I’ve learned building software and consumer products (bootstrapped + VC-backed) and lean into the organic, creator, and paid strategies that fuel viral growth. No fluff, just real insights you can apply.
This week, I’m writing to you from New York City, where one topic dominates business conversations: the new tariffs on everything from consumer goods, to metals, and even technology. As companies assess the potential impact on their operations, I'll repeat a principle we say a lot at Citizen: "Control what you can control."
We can't change international trade policies, but we can adapt our strategies accordingly.
Inside This Newsletter:
What the new tariff exemptions actually mean for growth
Ask yourself these 10 questions to cut marketing bloat
A big marketing move teams can make this quarter
1. The Economy Is Changing… Here’s What That Means for Growth Teams
The macro landscape is getting more complex. Consumer confidence just hit a low since June 2022 (via University of Michigan on Friday). Investors want leaner operations. Budgets are tightening across the board.
Meanwhile, the U.S. just granted temporary tariff exemptions on phones, chips, and computers; some of the most critical categories for tech and consumer products. It might sound like relief, but it’s more of a warning.
Check out this smartphone import breakdown (broken out well by Bloomberg):
81% of U.S. smartphone imports come from China
Smartphones = 9% of all U.S. imports from China
If exemptions expire (and US Commerce Secretary said today that it is possible), hardware costs can jump fast
If your product relies on mobile behavior, usage, or upgrade cycles, this matters (e.g. looking at consumer apps). Higher device costs mean slower adoption, lower engagement, and more friction across the funnel. Higher costs on everything else means consumers will be cutting everywhere, and hopping into your Apple subscriptions tab is one easy click.
This is the time to protect margin and control how we grow.
2. The Growth Reality Check
Here’s what most growth teams are up against right now:
Tariffs → COGS up → Margins compressed
Ads → Oversaturated → CAC rising
Consumers → Spending less → LTV shrinking
Leadership → Wants profitability → OPEX under pressure + cuts
Teams are being asked to grow with less. On the marketing side, one thing we’ve focused on to keep costs low is minimizing renting growth (agencies, platforms, one-off spend) to maximizing owning systems, content, and distribution/rights.
3. Where to Cut Marketing Burn to Maintain Efficiency
At a very high level, here are areas to consider:
Category | Where to Look | How to Do It |
Agencies | Influencer and brand retainers | Cut out the agency + manager fees and build in-house creator ops with part-time help (more on this in section 5 of today’s newsletter). |
Paid Spend | Inefficient campaigns, non-performing channels (not everything deserves budget) | Evaluate all ads running (even your old top performers), re-evaluate marketing mix and shift more spend to top performing platforms |
Tool Stack | Redundant or zombie platforms and subscriptions | Cut what’s unnecessary, downgrade tiers or number of seats in each tool, renegotiate terms on what’s left and try to get net 30-90 day terms with vendors to give you a working capital boost |
Workforce | Duplicative contractors | Evaluate overlapping specialities. Can you staff 1 part-time or fractional contractor per speciality (e.g. email, social, etc.) on flexible terms? Can you do even less than 1? |
4. 10-Point Marketing Bloat Checklist
Use this as a practical gut check to find where the bloat is hiding. Here’s one way to think through this:
Are you paying influencer or brand agencies a monthly retainer?
→ Cut and replace with an in-house creator program or part-time lead.How many of your ad campaigns running at break-even or worse ROAS?
→ Assess, pause and kill low-performers. Reallocate to top 10% or organic growth.Are you using 3+ tools that overlap in functionality (e.g., Notion + Asana + GDocs)?
→ Consolidate into less platforms.Are you on premium SaaS tiers (email, CRM, analytics) but using <50% of features?
→ Downgrade or switch to startup-tier platforms.Do you have more than one contractor/freelancer for the same function (e.g., 2 designers or copywriters)?
→ Consolidate to 1 multi-skilled generalis, or 1 per speciality + use AI tools to fill gaps.Are you outsourcing basic content creation (e.g., short videos, blog posts, static posts)?
→ Bring in-house or replace with UGC + AI editing tools (CapCut, Canva, ChatGPT).Do you run events, sponsorships, or partnerships with unclear ROI?
→ Evaluate directly cutting these and reallocating spend to initiatives with clear ROIAre you overpaying for creative that doesn’t return (<$1K/creative)?
→ Shift to micro creators. We are currently paying $30/creative and producing 60 pieces/mo.When was the last time you re-negotiated your vendor contracts?
→ You can cut double digit % of this spend just by asking.Have you recently gone through your credit card and reviewed expenses, including standing budgets you “always spend” without weekly performance reviews?
→ Make sure you know where your money is going. Consider moving to zero-based budgeting. Every dollar should be justified, not habitual, which credit cards let slip through the cracks.
5. One Big Move to Make This Quarter: Build Your Creator Program In-House
This is one of the highest-leverage shifts we made.
At Citizen, we brought our entire creator program in-house 2 years ago. That means using less creator agencies, building direct relationships, and turning creators into a predictable engine vs. a one-off channel.
Why it works:
Cut middlemen markup (agencies take 20–50%)
Control output (we found that the costs were more consistent and we could scale content on our own terms)
Boost CAC efficiency (you control negotiations, faster testing, better learning loops)
Opportunity to own your media (shape licensing terms, limit usage rights debates)
It would likely cost us high double digits monthly in management and agency fees alone to outsource our entire creator program, which can be 50 creators monthly. With this structure, we also get over 1.5K pieces of content monthly.
This is as much of a margin strategy as it is a content strategy. And now, margin is what buys you time and growth runway.
Well, How’d I Do….
This is not an easy time and, like always, businesses will survive and thrive. There will be winners and losers. If you are a brand, consider if and how you are renting your growth engine. In a market where everything costs more, from ad inventory to hardware to headcount, renting growth can be a risky (and expensive) way to build.
We’re already seeing how the new wave of breakout companies are talking (e.g. maximizing ARR per head, super lean teams) and focusing on growing not by spending more, but by spending smarter….and by owning their own demand. Who’s your favorite startup right now that is doing this and talking about it?
If you have any questions or thought on today’s newsletter, reply and let’s talk.
That’s all….I hope you have an excellent week ahead. It’s crazy that we are already halfway through April! If you’re in NYC the next few weeks, let me know.
Julia
