Why your marketing isn’t working - and what to do about it

Most of the businesses we work with aren’t short of effort – but find that they don’t have the headspace to step back from the day-to-day to see the bigger picture. Marketing almost ends up as a list of tactical jobs, rather than a proper plan. Products and services get launched, blogs get written, social posts go out and HubSpot (or other) hums along in the background, but it’s all very fragmented and not necessarily pulling in the same direction.

Without a clear strategy or messaging tying it all together, it’s hard to know what’s working, and it can all feel a bit out of control. It’s not the fancy campaigns or clever taglines - it’s in the basics and the coordination and timing of it - getting in front of the right people, having something clear and relevant to say, and turning that into proper conversations that lead to sales. For lots of the clients we work with at Umbrella, the day-to-day churn often blurs the bigger plan. Those clients are usually smart, ambitious businesses with something genuinely good to offer, but they just don’t know how to join the dots, or their attention is being pulled into the next trade show or event, or the latest product update.

The challenge isn’t that they’ve done nothing – it’s that they’ve done a bit of everything - a few blogs, a bit of social, sent some emails, created some landing pages and held webinars - but it’s all reactive. What’s often missing is a proper plan - a clear, grown-up view of where they are now, what’s working (or not), and what they actually want marketing to achieve.

One of the biggest problems I see is messaging – they’ve fallen into the trap of trying to sound like everyone else, and some industries are worse than others. They use the same safe phrases, the same vague benefits, the same industry fluff that means absolutely nothing when you strip it back. You end up with websites, emails and brochures that say all the right words but don’t really say anything at all. There’s no personality, no clarity, and definitely no reason to choose them over the next company offering something similar.

Then there’s the issue of timing. Marketing, when it’s done well, creates a rhythm and builds momentum, but that has to be consistent. If you’re only thinking about it when sales slow down or when someone asks what you’ve been up to lately, it’s already too late. What we often do is help bring a bit of urgency and structure to it - short, focused campaigns with a clear message and a measurable goal. Nothing over-engineered, just sensible activity that actually leads somewhere.

We also see many stages of the CRM – from no data and prospects at all, to huge databases that are full of out-of-date data. They’ve invested in HubSpot or something similar, filled it with contacts, and then never really used it properly. The data’s out of date, the follow-up process is a blur of salespeople that come and go, and no one’s quite sure what counts as a lead or what happens once one comes in. That gap between marketing and sales - between showing interest and someone picking up the phone - is where a lot of potential business quietly dies.

What’s frustrating is how avoidable most of this is – the businesses we work with aren’t lacking in ideas or effort - they’re just stuck. They’ve never had proper marketing support, or they’ve had a bad experience with a junior hire or an agency that over-promised. In practice, it just needs to be built around what makes you tick - your market, its challenges and your momentum.

When we start working with a client, we don’t dive straight into tactics - we ask questions and listen to the answers. We work out what’s really holding things back - sometimes it’s the messaging, sometimes it’s the lack of follow-up, sometimes it’s the fact that they’ve never actually said out loud who their ideal client is – this is a big one. We help them get clear on the basics and then build from there.

It’s challenging and definitely a full-time job - sometimes it’s fixing a messy database or rewriting a homepage headline. It might be just helping them say what they do in a way that doesn’t sound like it was written by a robot. Little by little it comes together and then when it finally starts working, when people respond and leads come in, then marketing pays back.  

If you think your marketing isn’t working, you’re not alone – why not get in touch for a free consultation?