Hestory
How much does branding cost in the UK?
Men from MarsBrand strategy
Why Your Marketing Spend Isn’t Working, and What to Do About It
You are spending on ads, SEO or a new website and the results do not move. Here is why it happens, the five signs it applies to you, and what fixes it.
You hired an agency, or a freelancer, or you did it yourself. The ads went live, the website was rebuilt, the posts went out. Months later the enquiries have barely moved and the bill has not stopped.
In this article
The next move is to change something. A new agency. A different platform. More budget. The result stays the same, because the cause was never the channel.
Where the money goes
Every marketing channel needs three answers before it can work:
- Who is the customer? Specifically, not “anyone who needs our service”.
- Why should they choose you over the alternatives? In a sentence they would repeat.
- What do you say to them? One message, the same on every channel.
When those answers are missing, each channel makes its own up. The ads promise one thing, the website says another and the social posts say a third. A visitor who clicks an ad arrives at a page that does not match it and leaves. The platform records a click. The business records nothing.
The agency running the ads cannot fix this, because it is not an ads problem. The money goes on testing which guess works, and testing guesses is slow and expensive.
Five signs this is happening to you
- You cannot describe your best customer in two sentences. If your team gives three different answers, so does your marketing.
- Your website could belong to any of your competitors. Swap the logos and nobody would notice.
- Clicks and traffic are up and enquiries are flat. The people arriving are not the people you want, or they do not see a reason to act.
- Every channel reports success and the business does not feel it. Impressions, followers and open rates rise while revenue does not.
- You compete on price in the conversations that do happen. When buyers cannot see how you differ, price is the only difference left.
One of these is a warning. Three or more means the marketing is running without a strategy.
Why more budget makes it worse
A budget increase multiplies whatever the marketing is already doing. If the message is unclear, more spend shows the unclear message to more people. The cost per enquiry stays where it was, or rises, and the total bill grows.
The same applies to changing agencies. A new agency starts with the same missing answers and has to guess in its own way. You pay again to learn the same thing.
What fixes it
A brand strategy. It writes down the answers every channel needs:
- Target audience: who buys, what they need and what makes them choose.
- Competitive landscape: who else is in the market and what they claim.
- Business goals: the numbers the marketing is there to move.
- Vision and mission: where the business is going and what it does, in one sentence each.
- North Star: the single goal every decision is measured against.
With those in place, the branding, the website and the campaigns all work from the same page. The ads match the landing page, the landing page matches the website and the website matches what your sales team says. Each channel performs at its full value, because none of them is guessing.
Hestory, a men’s grooming business, grew from one rented chair to three branches. Customers rose from 200 to 11,000 and followers from 6,000 to 120,000. The work began with the strategy, then the branding and marketing followed from it. You can read the Hestory case study.
What to do this week
Before spending another pound, answer these in writing. Ask two or three colleagues to answer them separately, then compare.
- Who is our best customer, in two sentences?
- Why do they choose us over the alternatives?
- What is the one thing we want every channel to say?
- What number should the marketing move this quarter?
If the answers match and the marketing still fails, the problem sits in the channel, and our guide to measuring marketing ROI shows where to look. If the answers differ, or nobody can answer, you have found the cause. The brand strategy template gives you a one-page framework to fill in, and the brand strategy guide explains each part.
If your website is the problem, read why your website isn’t converting. If you are weighing brand against performance spend, read brand marketing vs performance marketing.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my marketing not working?
Marketing returns little when it has no strategy behind it. The audience is unclear, the position against competitors is not defined and each channel says something different. Changing the channel or adding budget leaves that unchanged.
Should I stop spending until it is fixed?
Pause any spend that has not returned anything for several months and put the money into the strategy first. A strategy lets every pound that follows work toward the same goal.
Is it the agency’s fault?
The agency is working from a brief that lacks the answers above. It cannot produce a clear message from an unclear brief. The fix is the strategy, which any agency then works from.
How do I know whether I need a strategy or just better ads?
Write down who your best customer is, why they choose you and what you want every channel to say. If you and your team give different answers, you need the strategy.
Can you help?
Yes. Book a free consultation, tell us where the business is today and we tell you what the strategy needs to cover and where to start. You can also read about our brand strategy service.
