Business first, marketing second: an interview with Marcel Bańkowski

Traffic, leads and reach can look impressive while a company still struggles to sell. We spoke with Marcel Bańkowski, founder of MB Digital Marketing, about the view from inside businesses and hotels, the economics of direct bookings, and why his agency also develops technology. The starting point throughout the conversation is simple: understand the business problem before choosing a marketing channel.

From the business side

Before founding MB Digital Marketing, you worked inside companies. What did that teach you?

It let me see marketing from the other side. Inside a business the job does not end with a campaign report. You see sales, customers, operating costs and how the team handles incoming leads. In a hotel, price, occupancy, online travel agencies, the booking engine and seasonality are all connected. A campaign can look strong in the platform while the hotel is losing bookings because its offer or reservation path does not work.

Is that where “business first, marketing second” comes from?

Yes. I do not start by asking whether we should run Google Ads or Meta Ads. I want to know whether the company needs more profitable sales, better leads, a stronger direct channel, or a new product launch. Those are different problems. Only then can we choose channels and decide what they need to achieve. A channel on its own is not a strategy.

What is most often wrong with the marketing of companies that come to you?

Marketing frequently operates separately from the business. One supplier runs ads, someone else runs social media, a third built the website. Sales has one set of figures and management another. When the owner asks whether marketing works, everyone answers with a different metric: click-through rate, reach or form submissions. The company needs a shared view of actual sales.

Can marketing perform well while sales remain weak?

Of course. A sales team that calls a lead three days later can waste a good campaign. Cheap traffic does not fix a poor offer. Strong SEO will not rescue a website that fails to build trust or makes enquiries difficult. I do not treat marketing as a sealed department. We have to analyse the sales process and the marketing activity together.

What if a company says it needs more leads?

First, I would check what happens to the leads it already has. A business receiving 300 enquiries a month and closing two percent will not necessarily improve by buying another 200 enquiries. It may simply scale the same weakness. Sometimes 100 relevant contacts with a clear follow-up process are worth more than 500 random ones.

Hotel marketing is a different world

Hospitality is now a major focus. Where did that specialisation come from?

Experience inside hotel businesses. Before growing the agency, I worked directly on sales and marketing for hotels, including branding, openings and the day-to-day coordination between departments. That is different from learning the sector solely through an advertising dashboard. When MB Digital Marketing began working with hotels, looking beyond campaign metrics came naturally.

What does someone inside a hotel see that an outside agency might miss?

A guest sees an ad, visits the website, checks dates, compares prices with an OTA, reads reviews, looks at photographs and opens the booking engine. They might leave, return later or call. Every step can change the outcome. An agency focused only on the campaign might say it worked. The hotel needs to know whether the guest booked and what revenue remained.

Why do you talk so often about direct bookings?

Direct sales give a hotel more control over the guest relationship, the offer and communication. That does not mean fighting OTAs; they bring reach and new guests. The problem is relying on them without building a channel of your own. A slogan saying “book direct” will not do the work. The website, booking engine, price, offer and guest experience have to fit together.

Is a lack of traffic usually a hotel’s biggest problem?

No. A hotel may already have paid campaigns, organic visitors and social media activity, yet few people book. Adding spend can be the wrong first move. Check where guests leave: the offer, price, mobile view, available dates, room presentation, booking engine or differences between the hotel website and an OTA. Fix the point of friction before paying for more visitors.

From marketing to data and systems

Why did MB Digital Marketing start building technology?

In many projects we reached a point where another campaign could not solve the problem. A company has an ERP full of information but cannot quickly see which products or customers drive a sales decline. A hotel checks competitor prices by hand. A service business manages bookings in several places. Those are data and technology problems. Marketing, sales and systems increasingly have to work together.

Does a company need another system if it already has an ERP?

Not necessarily another place to store data. It may need a better way to use what it already has. If a manager must export spreadsheets to find out which customer buys less, which product is growing, which salesperson is responsible or where margin is falling, the path from data to decision is too long. Technology should shorten that path.

Did Staygo grow out of the same approach?

Yes. Hotel prices, availability and sales conditions keep changing. A person can open booking sites and check a few competitors, but regular monitoring across many properties and dates quickly becomes cumbersome. Staygo grew out of that real need: organise information about prices, availability and the competitive set. Start with the problem, then build the system.

AI changes marketing, not business fundamentals

How do you see ChatGPT, Google AI and marketing automation?

They are changing research, search, advertising and the way teams work. Companies should pay attention. But AI cannot repair a weak offer, poor product economics or a sales team that fails to follow up. It can speed up analysis, production and working with data. I want to distinguish useful work from hype and keep the business outcome in view.

Will SEO die because of ChatGPT and AI search?

I would not assume that. Visibility is becoming broader than a single Google ranking. We also have to ask whether an AI system understands the company, whether its content is useful enough to be cited, and whether it has authority in its field. That makes specific, well researched content more important. Publishing hundreds of near-identical posts is not a durable answer.

I do not want marketing for its own sake

What kind of client is not right for MB Digital Marketing?

A client who simply wants to “post something” without knowing why. Three posts a week because a competitor publishes three posts is not an objective. Sometimes the goal is reputation, awareness or preparing a market rather than immediate sales, and that can be entirely sensible. The goal should still be conscious. I am not interested in marketing as an activity for its own sake.

What would you tell a business owner with a limited budget?

Do not immediately split it across five channels. Find out where the customer makes a decision. If people actively search for the service, Google may be the first place to test. A new category may need education. If the company already attracts traffic but does not sell, buying more visits may not be the priority. A limited budget forces useful choices.

Where do you see MB Digital Marketing in a few years?

I do not want to build a large agency selling a hundred identical services. I am more interested in the intersection of marketing, sales, data and technology. Hospitality remains important, alongside analytics, booking systems and tools that help companies make decisions. Marketing becomes more interesting when it can be connected to real sales data.

Marketing needs a reason

Business first. Then marketing. Not because ads, SEO or social media are unimportant, but because they can be effective when we know what they need to accomplish.

Marcel Bańkowski

Marcel Bańkowski founded MB Digital Marketing. His experience spans sales, marketing and hospitality from within businesses and through client projects. He is developing the company across marketing, sales, analytics and technology.

FAQ

Who is Marcel Bańkowski?

He is the founder of MB Digital Marketing, with experience in sales, marketing, hospitality and business technology.

What does MB Digital Marketing do?

It combines marketing, sales, data and technology, including performance, SEO, hospitality, analytics and booking systems.

Why does the company focus on hotels?

The focus grew from Marcel’s experience working directly within hotel businesses.

What makes its approach different?

The team starts with a business problem and the outcome to improve before choosing a marketing channel.