30 Reasons Why Your Marketing Failed And How To Get It Working

30 Reasons Why Your Marketing Strategy Sucks

By DAWN-MARIE NESBITT

I’ve spoken to several business owners in the past year or so and I hear the same complaint over and over – “I have followers and leads but I don’t know how to turn them into paying clients” or they might say “I have everything I need for my marketing but I have no clue how to piece them together”.

From looking at the way small business owners promote their products and services, what I see happening many times, is that many people start at point Z. So if there was a marketing roadmap that would take you from A to Z; the entire alphabet is abandoned and they go straight to Z.

Many business owners don’t realise that marketing is way more than that. There are other crucial steps that one needs to take to create an effective marketing plan that would contribute to the needle moving in their business – that is, to convert more people into clients with less friction.

So in this blog post I’m going to breakdown why your marketing may be failing so you will be able to identify what you’re possibly doing wrong and how to correct it.

By the end of this blog post you will also discover new ways to attract clients. Maybe some of them you’ve never tried before and could be the difference in you closing clients on the one hand and losing easy revenue on the other.

Here are 30 reasons why your marketing strategy sucks:

You’re targeting prospects at the point where they’re seeking information.

There are five levels of awareness of any consumer in their buying journey.

Unaware
Problem aware
Solution aware
Product/service aware
Most aware

Most of us tend to target people who know they have a problem but are not aware there is a solution but they’re in the information gathering stage. Essentially they’re now doing research to see what solutions there are to solve their problem.

People who are problem aware but don’t know whether there is a solution to that problem are in a completely different frame of mind from someone who is solution aware and are looking for a product or service to solve their problems.

The best stage to target your prospective buyer is when they’re in the solution aware stage since the buyer cycle becomes shorter. They’re the ones who know what they’re looking for and if your offer is the best to solve their problem; they’re more likely to buy.

As a business owner even if you want to target problem-aware prospects, fill your pipeline with these people and continue to nurture them all whilst building trust with them and you will be the go-to person for when they’re ready to solve their problems.

If you can focus your efforts on targeting solution-aware prospects and when putting your offer in front of them, make sure that you’re speaking about the outcomes and transformations they’re likely to have when they invest in your service.

Your marketing does not resonate with the people you're targeting

This problem is typical amongst business owners since they don’t know what kind of content will encourage engagement from an audience and get people to resonate and connect with you.

Content creation has to stem from knowing what your audience really wants and craves. A great way to learn this is to ask your audience what type of content they want to see or you can use indicators from your own marketing analytics to measure what type of content resonates with your audience.

For example, most content platforms allow you to watch your analytics to see how many people are engaging with it. After several pieces of content posted, you can measure which ones receive high engagement and then focus on producing more of this.

You’re not pre-selling or nurturing your audience

This is one of the biggest gaps that is left out by service business owners. They don’t engage in warming up the prospect for the sale and instead only focus on direct selling.

To pre-sell means to build up a desire for your service. After several touches the prospect must then want to take action.

You can pre-sell and nurture with blog posts, social media content, conversations through one-on-one interaction or even one-to-many through live video as well as on your sales page.

When you pre-sell, focus on the benefits, outcomes and transformations that the prospect is looking for.

You don’t have enough visitors to your website

Statistics show that websites convert on average at 2-5%. So in order to make at least 1 sale you need 100 visitors to your website at any given time.

Are you getting this number of people to your website?

If you’re not getting that number to your website you have to drive more people to it. You can do this through social media ads, Google ads or organic social media and SEO campaigns.

Your messaging is not matching your prospects’ desires

Sometimes as business owners we sell to our prospects what we think they need when in fact we should be selling what they want.

I know that this might be difficult to find out what exactly your prospect wants when you’re getting started or you haven’t yet built up a brand, but one way to really find out what your prospects want is by looking at how they engage with your content.

Use your analytics to find out which posts they are reading the most or which videos they’re looking at the most then you can assume from those measurements what your audience wants.

You’re not standing out

In business you have to know how to stand out instead of repeating the same messages that your competitors are using.

How are you going to differentiate yourself?

Look at what your competitors are doing and how they’re promoting themselves then find an angle and do it differently.

So for me, I know that my competitors speak about the same old marketing tricks that everybody is using. To differentiate myself, I create my own strategies and build case studies around mine and my clients’ results and share them with my audience.

In this way, they’re still learning about marketing but they’re learning something unique that has happened from my experience.

You have less than 7 touch points with your prospect

Many service businesses want to sell to a prospect the first time they meet them. Typically someone will not buy the first time they meet you.

You have to follow up with them and get back in front of them at least 7 times before they will say yes.

The best business owners know this and follow up more than 3x to get the business. How many times are you following up?

Following up doesn’t have to be sending a message about whether they are ready to buy. Following up can also mean sharing valuable content to the prospect to help them along and make the decision.

Inconsistency with your contact

It’s not enough that you get in contact with your prospect when you want something (e.g their money and business). You have to be consistent in other ways. Consistency in your contact with a prospect will build trust over time and especially where it’s becoming more and more competitive you have to find ways in which you can step outside of your comfort zone and show up.

To build trust in my brand I show up on blog posts, email follow-ups and live video over and over. This will help show my prospects that I’m not just another “fly-by-night” business and that I’m serious about what I’m doing.

There is no urgency in your marketing

Scarcity and urgency are two marketing tactics that the best business owners use to get people to take immediate action.

If you’re not doing it, then the prospect is always going to feel like your offer will be available at any time and they can take their time in making a decision.

Give reasons for your prospect to take action today; not tomorrow and this could help increase your sales.

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Your personal brand isn’t different from the next personal brand

If you just seem like the other business owner down the road, then choice with who your prospect chooses to work with, becomes arbitrary.

Think about how you can be unique.

I have to admit, that I struggle with this one a lot. I’m an average girl like everyone else and I often struggle to think of ways that my personal brand can be unique.

One way I’ve been able to put a twist on it, is by sharing strategies rather than information. Because information is what anyone can find in a Google search, whereas strategies is what is unique to my own experiments.

I have the limiting belief that the most creative, extravagant person will win but there are ways you can build a business authentically by just being you since being you cannot be copied.

Your marketing is about you rather than your prospect

Remember this when you are promoting your services – your prospects do not care about you. They want to know what’s in it for them.

When you’re marketing your business, do you often speak about what you have been able to accomplish, your achievements, your goals, you, you, you?

Shift the focus to what’s in it for your prospect when they work with you. What benefit will they get out of your service? When you do that you’ll notice a better response to you.

Your headlines are not engaging your prospects

When you create a post on social media, an email or video the first thing that draws your audience to you, is your headline.

If you find that you’re content isn’t getting enough engagement, look at the headlines you’re using. Writing strong, persuasive headlines is a strategy that business owners use to catch people’s attention and get them to take the next step.

When creating headlines, test and see which one works. You should be testing 5-7 different headlines to see which one generates a better response.

Your offer does not excite your prospect

Some service businesses create bland or boring offers that their prospects don’t actually want. A good way of knowing whether your offer will sell before you even create it is to ask your prospect if they want to know more about it.

You can even build an offer as you work with a prospect. Do a beta offer and see how many people sign up for it. Then work with them to build out the offer and ask for feedback on what excites them so you can improve it.

Your offer does not encourage action

One way to get people to act is by giving your offer a memorable name that motivates action. Think about the title of your offer. For example, if you’re a nutritionist, a title like The Fab Diet Planner is short, specific and to the point but it does not motivate action.

Switch that to How To Drop A Dress Size So You Can Get Your MOJO Back has active words in the offer which makes people excited about dropping a dress size and getting their mojo back which will in turn inspire action.

Create names that state a clear benefit, purpose and will capture their attention.

You’re not helping the prospect visualise what their life will be like

When you promote your services you have to clearly paint the vision for the prospect of what their ideal life will look like.

If the prospect cannot see their future self in your offer, then they won’t buy.

Take time to clearly paint the picture of what the prospect’s life would look like when they work with you. It has to be so vivid in their minds that they know it’s a no-brainer to work with you to achieve that future life.

You’re competing on price and not value

This is one of my major breakthroughs this year. I have learnt that it’s better to convince someone to work with you based on the value that you can bring to their business or life.

When you compete on price, where you’re trying to undercut your competitor, you’ll always be at odds with “how low should you go”.

Sell your services based on the value that you bring, the skills and the desired outcome for the prospect.

You’re not building an email list

I have spoken to so many business owners already who tell me that they don’t have an email list.

When I ask them why, they say they’re afraid of bothering people or they won’t know what to say to people.

Here is why you need an email list. Your email list is what is going to take your prospect on the journey with you to becoming a client.

This is how you start meaningful conversations with them, so they can get an idea of what it’s like to work with you and then actually become your client.

If you don’t yet have an email list, start one now.

Your lead magnet is not enticing

And on the topic of email lists, the other big mistake I see for business owners is they’re trying to build their email list with newsletters, discounts or cheap offers. No wonder they’re struggling to get people to take the next step with them and enter their sales funnel.

When you’re building an email list, use lead magnets that solve one specific problem for your prospect. Remember the “what’s in it for me”. This will help you be seen as an expert and useful resource that demonstrates your knowledge and skillset.

You’re not speaking to enough people

You have to have several conversations per day and week with your ideal prospects in order to get clients. And when I speak about conversations, I don’t mean DM conversations. I mean real conversations via the phone or Zoom.

Do you have a strategy to get people on the phone with you?

If not, start creating one.

You rely too much on your website to generate and convert leads

A lot of us want automated sales but there are many other things that you need to do, to convert your leads into clients.

Your business should be 80% automated where you have leads and possibly sales being created for you, but you should also be proactive in getting in front of your leads whether through live video or on a phone call to convert them as well.

You’re afraid to sell

You’re not getting clients because you’re not asking for the sale. I have seen where several business owners say they feel very nervous about asking a prospect to work with them but the truth is, if you never ask, you are doing a disservice to your prospect.

They have come to you for help and guidance. They want that help and guidance to solve their problem. Ask for the sale and let them make the decision about whether they will work with you.

You’re not using deadlines on your proposals

I mentioned before about using urgency and scarcity when selling your offers. The same goes for proposals.

If a prospect knows that a proposal is open and there is no fear of an increase in price, they won’t act now. To get them to act now, add urgency by letting them know that the proposal is only open for 24, 48 or 72 hours and upon expiry they will need to be re-quoted.

You’re not using sales funnels

There are some businesses who say that you don’t need a funnel to do business. I have to disagree.

Every business uses a sales funnel. All a sales funnel is, it’s a series of steps that a prospect takes that leads them to a sale.

Those steps are crucial to you getting clients in your business and making money.

Certainly you don’t need systems to get the sale but if you want to take much of the work off of you and automate part of your business, sales funnel systems are great for helping you generate the lead, nurture them and even convert them to the point where you can speak with them in a conversation.

You’re not using systems

I have to add this one here because I feel that using systems makes our business much easier to run.

In my business I have several traffic, lead and sales generation tools that I use to automate the process and take some of the work off my plate.

That allows me to then work on my business rather than constantly working in my business.

The most important tools that any online service business needs are a lead generation and sales conversion system like a sales funnel and email marketing system. You also need a system to help get people to see your business and you can use social media platforms.

You’re selling features instead of benefits

True story. A friend of mine had a wellness business where she was trying to sell me on the idea of buying a £200 frying pan. A £200 frying pan? That’s an insane amount of money just for a pan.

She told me all about the features that the pan had – how it’s stainless steel, ceramic and cooks your food in less time.

I was not convinced on buying it. Why? Because she was selling the features of the pan rather than the benefit of having one.

The benefits are it promotes a healthy diet, it helps to reduce fats in your food which means you live a healthier and cleaner life so you can live longer.

To inspire someone to purchase your services, focus on selling the benefit to them. What will happen to them when they use your service? Speak about that.

Your campaigns aren’t targeted

If you’re using paid ads to promote your business, you’re not getting success because they’re not very targeted.

Every successful business knows who their ideal clients are and can target people that are exactly like their ideal client to get more people into their business.

You have to be very specific about who this person is. What age groups are they in, what’s their gender, their career, their location, their interests, their income brackets. Create an ideal client profile and they will be so much easier to find.

You have no testimonials or proven results

Whilst a lack of testimonials doesn’t mean that your marketing will fail all the time, it’s one of the things that actually influence a buyer to make a buying decision.

If you’re able to, start sprinkling testimonials throughout your promotions and see how that can make the difference in your sales conversion.

Your presentations give too much away

There is such a thing as giving away too much information that almost prevents the prospect from moving forward with your service because they think they can do it themselves.

You should share just enough information that builds the need for further help from you.

Your social media isn’t drawing people into your sales funnel to convert

This is another big mistake that I see many business owners make. They rely too much on their social media content, to convert their prospects but they’re not really getting the prospect to make micro-commitments with you, which ultimately leads them to buying your services from you.

Especially if you are selling a high-ticket service, you always want to take your prospect through a sales funnel to convert them.

Don’t think that social media posts will help you do that. You should always be finding ways to generate a lead and then building an online sales funnel that will work to convert them.

You have no bold promises

Making a bold promise is risky but if you know you can realistically create a huge transformation in someone’s business or life, be prepared to make that promise that you will do so.

So what transformation or outcome are you promising that you will help the person with? For example, as an ESL teacher instead of saying I will help you learn English, your promise could be I will help you improve your English and be conversational within 3 months.

The bold promise here is that the prospect will be a conversational English speaker within 3 months.

The benefit of your service is obvious to you but it’s not to your prospect. Which is why you have to be clear and tell them. Always paint the benefit of what your service can do and the impact that it will have on the prospect.

Wrapping Up

I have spoken to so many business owners over the past 4 years and I see the same mistakes coming up over and over again.

There is no reason why you cannot develop a solid marketing plan that works, that if used consistently, brings in a regular stream of income.

If you’ve read this article and at some point you’ve said “I don’t do this”, then stop! It’s time for you to take action and actually do the work to get fruitful results.

It’s simply not enough to know what you need to do. You actually need to do and you must apply diligently and consistently.

So if you’re ready to address these marketing issues and go on to have a dramatic impact in your business, “The Road Map – Create A Marketing Plan That Attracts Your Dream Clients” will help you.

If you’ve struggled to stay consistent with your online marketing because you don’t know what type of content to create …

If you have some momentum but you’re only attracting the wrong type of people …

If you’re not even sure where to show up online and how to get people to commit to taking the next step with you …

Grab “The Road Map – Create A Marketing Plan That Attracts Your Dream Clients”.

This step-by-step plan is a 124-page workbook with steps and prompts that help you create and design your very own marketing plan so you know exactly what you need to do and in what order, to build your business online and get clients.

Included in this plan is a marketing content plan that will help you promote your services consistently because you’ll know exactly what type of content to post in the next 30 days.

What happens after the 30 days? Well you’ll also learn my process for creating content ideas month after month so you never run out of ideas.

In the workbook I am also sharing:

The tools you need to get started and grow your online service business
How to create your online business flow
How to gracefully lead initial consults that lead to client sign-ups

So many of you have asked what’s the first step.

I’m telling you the first, second, third and ALL the steps.

Click the link to grab “The Road Map – Create A Marketing Plan That Attracts Your Dream Clients”

Once you get it, download it, print it out and get to work!

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