Why Your Marketing Isn’t Working

Why Your Marketing Isn't Working You’re sinking hours upon hours into creating the BEST promotions, drowning in ideas of what you could do if only you had more time, and honestly feeling a little frazzled because even though you have an Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest, it’s a LOT to keep a handle on. (We’re just going to avoid talking about an email list or LinkedIn because the thought makes you break out in hives.) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ And after all that… crickets. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Breeeeathe, my friend. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Let’s talk about where you actually need to show up, give your business the love that it deserves, and guide your audience through a journey that ultimately leads to purchase.
Reason #1 – Lack of clarity in your messaging
The first thing that we need to make sure you have in place is CLARITY in your messaging. Sure, it feels like you’re pretty clear on your offerings and why they exist, but that does not mean that your message is translating to your audience!
Here’s a quick litmus test. Someone lands on your website or social bio. They’re going to look at it for five seconds (tops) before they continue scrolling or click through to the next thing. If they paused here and closed their laptop, would they be able to articulate who you serve and how? If not, you have some homework to do!
The homework?
  1. Get specific. This is not the time to be cute, clever, or vague. If I do business with you, I get (fill in the blank).
  2. Avoid industry jargon. I cannot stress this enough! Your audience WILL NOT pick that up… and most of the time, you don’t even realize you’re doing it. Ask a friend to give you an outside opinion on your verbiage.
Reason #2 – Your message is hitting the wrong audience
Let’s paint a little picture of what your brain looks like right now. You have a general idea of who you’d like to work with but you’re not completely clear on who, exactly, you serve. You’ve kinda niched down but at the end of the day, you have a lot on the go! The LAST thing that you want to do is deter folks who could be interested in purchasing from you. After all, you’re in business to make money. You have to cast a wide net so you can bring in as many dollars as possible… right? Nope. ⠀ Tell me this. Who do you want to work with? The client who tries to dicker down your prices? The nitpicky one? Orrrr the client who actually likes you, trusts you to do your job, and tells her friends about you? My guess is… it’s the latter. If you don’t have an ideal client profile yet, carve out some time this week and make it happen. Once you know who you’re speaking to, your messaging – and offers – will become clear and focused. You’ll be able to shift from a place of push marketing (constantly pushing promos and sales to make ends meet) to pull marketing (inviting your audience to join in something special). It makes selling your offers so much easier, let’s you speak from the heart, and at the end of the day you’ll be working with folks that you truly connect with – so it’ll fill your bucket AND fill your wallet. Win! ?
Reason #3 – You’re trying too many things at once
I’m going to tell you a little story. I heard this from a guy named Carl White, who is in the mortgage industry, but this is applicable across the board. Imagine that you are on an island. There’s water all around you. And way over there is the mainland, which is where you want to get to. The thing is, you can’t swim to the mainland. But! Happy day! There are tools & resources on the island! You’re an entrepreneur. You’re a resourceful person. So, you’re going to build a bridge. In this scenario, your bridge might be email marketing. It might be social media. It might be Pinterest. There’s a wealth of options. Let’s say you start with Facebook. You’re building your bridge. You get about halfway across, peek over, and see that your competition is blowing it out of the water over on Pinterest. So, what do you do? You turn around, go back to your island, and start on the Pinterest bridge. You’re working away and you kinda get to thinking, “Hmm, maybe email marketing would’ve been the way to go!” Okay. Email marketing it is. You go back to your island and start the email marketing bridge. You’re barely getting started when – oh, shucks! There are no more trees! You’re out of resources! You’re exhausted, you’ve put a ton of effort into all of these bridges, and you have nothing to show for it. You’re incredibly discouraged and worst of all – you’re stuck on this island with a bunch of bridges that go nowhere! Here’s the thing. It doesn’t matter which bridge you choose.
The thing that matters is to finish the bridge.
Once you get to the mainland in some way, shape, or form – there are more resources. You can build as many bridges and amplify your results as much as you’d like! So. Here’s some tough love for you. Quit blaming the tech! Quit blaming the algorithms! Commit to your path. Do it well. Then build more bridges.
Reason #4 – Consistency is hard
You’ve heard this one before: show up consistently.
Quick note! Being consistent does NOT mean that you need to show up every single day, if that’s not in your arsenal. But! You do have to stop doing the thing where you show up twice a day for a week, run out of steam, start up again a month later, and when nothing sticks – blame the algorithms or platforms.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret – you can spend less than ten hours a MONTH and still show up really, really well. Set aside one day per week or month to create your content, rather than sinking 45 minutes a day in trying to figure out what you need to post! The first thing that you need to do is choose where you’re going to show up.
  1. Go back to the target audience exercise – where are your peeps hanging out?
  2. What types of content can you create easily?
  3. Where do those two things cross over?
The next thing that’s going to make it miles easier is to have a plan in place. What do you want to promote this month? Do you want to focus on list-building before your big launch next month? Rather than asking for a sale right out of the gate, start by providing really helpful posts that your audience will look forward to. The idea here is to make your free content so valuable that paying for your service becomes a no brainer.
TAKE ACTION on this post, and you are already going to be way ahead of the game! Schedule a day in your calendar right now! (Not the content, just the content DAY!) ?
Reason #5 – You’ve proposed on the first date
We’re going to geek out here with you for a sec. Every relationship – professional or otherwise – goes in the same order. First, someone is curious about you. Then, they decide that they kinda like you (of course!) and over time, you become better acquainted. Eventually, you become close friends… maybe a little more… and then, finally, there’s a ring. Your audience’s relationship with you works in the same order. They’re curious about you, you nurture that relationship with valuable, relevant content, and they start to know, like, and trust you. And finally, you ask for the sale. (That’s the ring.)
Our goal on social media is to build that trust in our brand & business.
There are three phases in the customer journey:
  1. ATTRACT – Show your personality! The amount of engagement we received when we started showing up (janky bangs and all) in our stories was phenomenal. It IS terrifying but the more you do it, the easier it gets. Another thing – it also totally counts if you’re showing up & genuinely engaging on other people’s posts! (It’s actually a double win, because their eyes are on you – and so is their audience!)
  2. NURTURE – People need a reason to stick around, and the only thing that’s going to hold their attention is if you provide them with value. What are problems that your audience deals with? How can you help them without expecting anything in return? Value doesn’t mean “50% off sale all day every day!” it means, “I see you, I hear you, and I’m here to help you.”
  3. INVITE – At the end of the day, you are going to have to ask for that sale. You don’t have to be sleazy or pushy about it, but after you’ve put all of that effort into building a rapport with your audience, they’re much happier & more confident in making that purchase. Bam! There’s the magic!
No matter where your audience is in their journey, they should be seeing content that’s applicable to them.
Okay.
That was a LOT of information to throw at you in one blog post, but here’s one more thing that we need to add. You can spend so many hours and so many hours on social media, but if your client experience sucks, you aren’t going to get anywhere. Referrals are the holy grail of marketing and the absolute best way to grow your business. When you surprise and delight your customers on the other side of a purchase, they will be shouting your name from the rooftops! That is going to get you further than a hundred social media posts – no matter how well crafted they are.
Sometimes you’re just too dang busy bringing home the bacon to sink hours upon hours into your social media. Meet our handy dandy marketing toolbox!

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