5 Reasons Why Your Marketing Isn’t Working

In this episode, Jessica and Kevin discuss 5 Reasons Why Your Marketing Isn’t Working. They discuss how brands that are pursuing growth may be missing the mark when it comes to some of their marketing efforts. This misalignment can result in wasted time, energy, and marketing dollars.

5 Reasons Why Your Marketing Isn’t Working

1. Incorrect Brand Positioning

Before getting started with any marketing effort, it’s important to consider your brand positioning. Not just how you position your company via marketing messaging or where your company is positioned among the competition, but how your audience and customers view your company. 

Are you talking about your business in a way that your customers are willing to learn about it? Too many small- and medium-sized business owners struggle with (or completely abandon) marketing because they didn’t see results. Almost every time, this is because they didn’t position the company correctly. These business owners are not viewing their company from their customer perspective.

2. Lacking a Customer-Centric Approach to Messaging

Many business owners believe they are the best person to talk to about what the business is, does, and what customers get from it. While this seems intuitive because it’s likely that they know the business better than anyone else, it simply isn’t true that they can deliver the best message to customers.

Who is the best at communicating the value customers get from the business? Why, customers, of course! Unfortunately, customers are not often engaged in this way, resulting in a huge missed opportunity. Instead, the decision-makers take it upon themselves to attempt reading the customers’ minds.

3. Your Investment is Too Low

Investing too little in marketing often stems from not knowing how the competition is investing in marketing. Often, a business owner may see a company (or competitor) with a great marketing strategy that is making them very successful. 

However, this competitor is “new” to the business owner and doesn’t understand how long and how much planning and execution it took them to get to that point. That business owner may think they can jump in with a marketing agency and achieve the same results as the competitor. The actual story behind the marketing efforts is more like an iceberg, where we only see the 10% above the water and can’t see the other 90% below.

4. Not Enough Time Has Passed

Similar to point number three, your marketing may not be working simply because you haven’t been doing it for long enough. Marketing often works like building a fire: it needs a lot of effort and the right fuel and starts with small embers. Then it slowly grows bigger as you add more fuel and tend to it properly. Trying to go from 0 to 100 real quick ends up with a confused audience and not much to show.

outdated-system

5. It Doesn’t Look Good

Kevin mentions how he’ll stop at local restaurants during road trips and look at the food pictures while perusing the menu. Typically, the menu pictures at roadside diners and drive-ins are not anything you’d see on the cover of Bon Appetit magazine. It always makes him wonder whether the food will be good or not. 

Many businesses outside of the restaurant industry are guilty of similar transgressions. A B2B IT company that’s been around for 40 years may have an outdated website and branding that doesn’t connect with a modern audience. This poor customer experience leaves the audience wondering whether the company is trustworthy and can deliver on the promises they make. Get a professional and make it look good

The Bottom Line

Just because you haven’t been successful with marketing in the past doesn’t mean it won’t work for you in the future. The issues plaguing your marketing efforts are often difficult to identify from inside the company. That’s why companies hire marketing experts and professionals to help them clarify their message, reach their audience, and to set realistic expectations. Take an honest assessment of your marketing efforts and determine if you may be guilty of any of the missteps listed above. After you’ve eliminated the things you’re not supposed to do, check out 5 Marketing Things You Should Be Doing Right Now.

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