Reasons your marketing isn't working

There comes a time in every startup’s lifecycle when it feels like something just isn’t working. This is normal — presumably there are quite a few things you’re doing for the very first time.

What separates the successful startups from the rest is the ability to identify these problems ego-free, swiftly prioritize them, and solve or squash them.

If marketing is what’s “not working”, it’s important to figure out what specifically is going wrong — marketing is broad and encompasses everything your org is doing to bring more people to your product.

More often than not, one or more of these nine things is happening when a founder tells me, “Marketing’s not working!”

You’re chasing the big swings before the fundamentals are in place

I once worked with a founder who was eager to stand up billboards and TV commercials. The problem? Existing paid acquisition on digital channels wasn’t even close to breakeven, and scale was limited given the few markets the brand was operating in.

Poor performance from paid acquisition can stem from many things — some of which I’ll touch on more — like:

• Subpar paid channel strategy

• Messaging & positioning not resonating

• Unclear definition of target audience

• Conversion funnel not optimized

• Product issues

• Revenue model issues

The point is, you need to be completely confident in these fundamentals before you can go spend a boatload of money on bigger swings. Focus on dialing these in, and more importantly, understanding which you need to dial in, and the bigger opportunities will be no-brainers.

You hired the wrong skillset

Hiring at an early startup can be one of the most difficult things to get right, particularly when you don’t know what you don’t know! (P.S. see my marketing hiring guide for founders here.)

The most common mistake I see early startups make is that they hire someone, whether an agency or a full-time marketer, without ensuring that hire’s skillset is a match for what they need.

To avoid this trap, go through the following exercise:

• Clearly lay out concrete goals for the next 1 - 2 years

• Take stock of the marketing skills you already have in-house, if any

• Determine where the skill and experience gaps are

• Define the problem you’re looking for this hire to solve: Decide what combination of skills and experience will get you to your 1 - 2 year goals

It’s ok if you’re not sure how to determine this yourself. This is a great time to talk to an advisor who can help you think through how you’ve defined the problem, and what type of experience, specific skillset, and support level (e.g., consultant vs. full time hire) you need to get the job done.

Making the wrong hire is an expensive mistake, from both a financial and time perspective. It’s always in your best interest to find marketing support that understands the stage your business is at, where it needs to get to next, and the tools they have to make it happen.

You’re being prescriptive to your marketer or marketing team

It is a win-win when founders are involved in marketing. It’s also important to let marketing own and direct their strategy once you’ve brought in an expert you trust (otherwise, why make the hire?!)

Often times, founders have very specific testing ideas they want to run, which is great! Prioritizing these tests accordingly within marketing’s roadmap should be a collaboration between leadership and marketing, rather than a directive. Nothing derails a marketing team’s progress like unclear direction and diminished autonomy.

You think you just need to “get Facebook ads working”

This is one that my fellow marketers and I hear all. the. time…and we can’t blame you!

Facebook aka Meta is an incredibly powerful advertising platform, to which many brands attribute unlocking early scale.

But “getting Facebook ads working” isn’t a strategy in itself. This is another case where the priority should be nailing the fundamentals, without which you probably won’t see much improvement.

That said, a scalable paid channel like Meta is a great medium for putting up a bit of budget to get some quick feedback, iterating based on that feedback, and so on.

You haven’t properly prioritized or budgeted for creative resources

Creative development is one of the most overlooked pieces of the marketing puzzle, but it pays dividends for brands who prioritize it.

And this doesn’t mean expecting your growth person to be in charge of creating designs from scratch in Canva — scrappy marketers can often throw an ad together in a pinch, but design is an entirely different skillset than the analytical marketing approach taken by a strong growth person.

A good growth marketer will have an eye for creative that performs well, and will understand required specs. That said, they’ll need budget to work with a strong freelance designer or agency to continually produce the necessary assets.

Creative has always been an important marketing lever, but it’s become even more critical in digital channels in recent years. These days, creative IS your targeting on a channel like Meta. And if you’re quickly scaling on paid social channels, you’ll need new assets constantly to continue running your campaigns efficiently.

Once you start thinking of creative like a key component of the fuel in your growth engine, it becomes much easier to prioritize accordingly.

Your messaging isn’t resonating

Maybe you have awesome creative, the right marketer, a clear understanding of your audience, and an optimized funnel in place, but you’re just not seeing the pickup you’d expect from marketing.

Now’s the time to diagnose your messaging, and make sure it’s compelling and clear to your audience. Clear is ALWAYS better than clever, and please don’t try to bring humor into your marketing until you’re 100% certain your key messaging is resonating with an audience you understand inside and out. Here’s a classic example: