35
YEARS EXPERIENCE
7
NATIONAL AWARDS
65K
ACRES PROTECTED
25+
YEAR PARTNERSHIPS
THE PROBLEM
There should be a bridge that welcomes people across to join you in your mission. Most organizations never build it. Some build it to the wrong destination. And a few have one that appears to be working, which is the most dangerous situation of all.
Every tactic that fails to convert writes a script about your brand. Activity metrics rise while outcomes stay flat. The board asks harder questions each quarter.
The materials, energy, and resources deployed to generate attention that never becomes commitment don't disappear. They end up in landfills, strain ecosystems, and reposition your brand in ways you never intended.
Over 35 years, I can count on one hand the number of organizations that invested in functioning engagement, incentive, and commitment systems — instead of endlessly spending money on attention traps.
What if we could build better systems that increase efficiency, improve outcomes, and cause less harm to the world we all share?
The first step is knowing which of the three system failures you're in.
—Dave Betke, Founder, Do Better Marketing
THE THREE SYSTEM FAILURES
Most leaders feel the dysfunction before they can name it.
01
NO SYSTEM
PASSIVE RISK
The booth is busy. The campaign ran. And then nothing. The bridge between attention and commitment was never built.
02
WRONG SYSTEM
ACTIVE RISK
You're using B2C tactics on people making career, mission, or partnership decisions. Your system answers the wrong questions, and the right people walk away.
03
BROKEN SYSTEM
AGGRESSIVE RISK
Leadership approves more budget. Everyone hits their KPIs. The wrong KPIs hide the dysfunction until the damage is done.
Marketing Triage™ identifies which system failure is costing you outcomes, and what to fix first.
I see systems as alive, growing and connecting like mycelium, the underground fungal networks that connect entire forests.
Most organizations' engagement and commitment systems are the opposite. Not living networks but collapsed bridges, with no connection between the attention they generate and the commitment they need. No path for others to join them, choose them, or walk alongside them on their mission.
What if people didn't need to be convinced to join you, because the system you'd built made joining feel like the most natural thing in the world?
That's what a Purpose-Ecosystem™ creates. Not a funnel. Not a campaign. A living system where people find themselves in your story, see themselves as heroes rather than targets, and choose to walk alongside you, often in ways you never anticipated and couldn't have designed alone.
The forest is still protected 35 years later, not because we convinced people to care. Because we built a system where caring felt inevitable.
WHY THIS APPROACH IS DIFFERENT
I diagnose dysfunctional marketing and communication systems that are addicted to attention and have no functional methods to tie that attention to lasting outcomes that move the mission needle. Then I replace the dysfunctional systems by planting the seeds of what I call Purpose-Ecosystems™, focused on a single organizational goal and designed to sustain.
While marketers learned to manipulate targets, I studied what makes people trust, engage, and walk alongside you.
That difference shows up in what I focus on. Most organizations optimize for what feels good in the short term. I focus on what they actually need.
Attention feels good immediately. Actions, sales, and hires are what you actually need.
Donations feel like immediate success. What you actually need is to advance your mission.
I diagnose which system failures are costing you outcomes, then design purpose-ecosystems where people aren't manipulated into action, they're invited to join a shared journey to co-create mutual success.
I don't know if this man uses a different part of his brain than other marketing types, but he and his ideas are entirely new and refreshing. Best of all, they work! His small company has pummeled marketing giants in national awards competitions, and for good reason. David combines genuine goodness and humanity with clever, strategic ideas that deliver results."
Michelle Morra-Carlisle
Three Services. One Ecosystem.
Diagnose the dysfunction, redesign the system, deploy strategically. Three services that work as a holistic ecosystem. Each one can be an entry point. All of them connect.
01
You're spending $50K+ annually on tactics, but you can't connect that spend to outcomes. Your team reports activity metrics. Your board asks for business results. The gap widens.
02
Triage reveals what's broken. Purpose-Ecosystem Design fixes it by focusing on a singular organizational goal and answering the questions your heroes ask before they commit.
Designed to follow Marketing Triage™ diagnosis.
03
How your organization deploys a $3 item reveals how it deploys a $50,000 budget. Every touchpoint writes a script in people's heads about:
PROVEN RESULTS
My approach was born 35 years ago with no marketing budget and a 65,000-acre forest in British Columbia that needed protecting. Since then, fixing systems rather than chasing attention has driven results across every sector I've worked in.
65,000
Acres Protected Forever
West Arm Provincial Park, British Columbia. The origin of the Symbiotic Systems Methodology — still proving itself 35 years later.
3×
Engineers Hired
Created a Purpose-Ecosytem™ for 12 candidates. Hired three. Goal was 1.
6000%
B2B ROI
Within 6 months of launch. Multiple decade's long partnerships.
25 Yrs
Festival Partnership
Edmonton Folk Music Festival. 300% increase in merch sales— first year.
7
National Awards
Across B2B, nonprofit, cause marketing, and association work.
IS THIS FOR YOU?
I work with leaders in high-stakes B2B, associations, nonprofits, and public sector environments — changemakers who care deeply about the communities they serve.
"David was driving our staff crazy with 'why' questions. No one else had ever asked them before. The competition brought hats. We hired 3 senior engineers. Our goal was one."
Paul Ruffell, CEO
EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd.
Decade-long partnership: 300 → 1,200 employees
YOU MIGHT KNOW US FROM
A bi-monthly networking event that connects people who are making a difference for others, communities, and our natural world.
GreenMeets isn't a typical networking event. It's a purpose-ecosystem in practice. With 40–60 regular attendees who are highly engaged and heavily connected. It's where real partnerships form, collaborations launch, and solutions to shared challenges get co-created.
The most common questions about Marketing Triage™, Purpose-Ecosystem Design, Dimensional Advertising, and speaking engagements are answered in full on the FAQ page.
Two entry points. One conversation before anything else.
Let's have a strategic planning conversation before you order anything.
5% of success is product choice. The other 95% is planning.
Prefer to reach out directly?
+1 (780) 474 • 6563
Do Better Marketing
(a division of Avatar Brand Management Inc.)
Diagnosing the systems where marketing budgets bleed — and redesigning them so attention becomes commitment, waste becomes mission fuel, and outcomes become predictable.
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