Episode 69: When Marketing Wasn’t the Real Problem

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:06] Welcome to the Confessions in the Home Office podcast. This is a podcast for business owners, executives, and anyone who understands that marketing matters. But a lot of times they don't have the time, the energy, or desire to manage it themselves. I'm Wendy Hill. I've owned Market Momentum here in Greenville, South Carolina for 21 years now. And one of the things that experience gives you is pattern recognition. [00:00:28] So after all this time of watching businesses grow, start, stop again, and sometimes struggle, you start to see when something is being blamed for a problem it didn't actually create. [00:00:40] And today I want to talk about one of those patterns. [00:00:43] So over the years, I've had many conversations that all start the same way. A business owner will say, we need help with marketing. We're not growing the way we should be. We leads are inconsistent and revenue feels flat. And sometimes they're right. Sometimes the issue is they haven't had any visibility or the messaging is off, or they haven't had a lack of follow through. [00:01:04] But more often than people expect, marketing isn't really the problem. It's just the most visible one. [00:01:12] Marketing sits at the front of the business. It's public. [00:01:16] It's what's measurable. It feels like you can adjust it. And when something isn't working, it's much easier to say, we need better marketing, we need to change things up. [00:01:26] That's a lot easier to say than to step back and examine whether the underlying structure of the business is actually ready for more attention. [00:01:34] So what I've learned is that marketing amplifies what already exists. If your operations are smooth and your team is aligned, marketing tends to amplify that stability. [00:01:46] If your delivery is inconsistent or your internal processes are unclear, marketing amplifies that too. [00:01:54] More visibility does not correct internal strain. It just exposes it to the world. [00:02:01] So that's why I ask a lot of questions, operational questions, at the beginning of an engagement. [00:02:07] And I know sometimes that surprises people. And they think, why is she so interested in this? [00:02:12] They expect questions about platforms, messaging, or how much they've been spending on advertising. [00:02:17] Instead, I'm asking, what happens after someone says yes? [00:02:21] Who answers the phone? [00:02:23] How quickly are you returning inquiries? [00:02:27] What does onboarding look like? [00:02:29] Is it documented? Is it informal? And you just do it because you remember how to do it. [00:02:35] If three new customers come in the same week, does that feel manageable or does that just cause a nightmare? [00:02:41] And if five new customers came in, what's going to break? First, those questions aren't about marketing tactics. They're about capacity and a Lot of times I'll say we need to work on what's going on, going on inside the house before we promote the house. [00:02:59] Because growth is not just about generating demand. It's about being able to absorb that demand without compromising the quality, overextending your team, or creating internal stress that eventually undermines the very growth you are pursuing. [00:03:14] I've seen businesses invest in marketing and increase the flow of leads. And instead of feeling relief, they feel strained. And there's people get really stressed, response times slow down and customers get mad. Team members become overwhelmed, sometimes they quit, Delivery gets rushed, clients keep noticing and they complain. And if you haven't noticed, people complain a lot now on social media, on Google reviews, and that's rough. [00:03:44] And then marketing gets blamed for it. Just it wasn't working. Even though technically it did exactly what it was supposed to do. [00:03:51] The business simply wasn't structured to handle the increase. [00:03:58] There have been many times when the most responsible advice I could give a client was not to push harder on the marketing yet, but to tighten the internal structure first. Sometimes that meant clarifying roles, sometimes that meant documenting procedures that have been living in someone's head. [00:04:14] And sometimes it means hiring before moving on. [00:04:18] And sometimes it means redefining capacity more honestly, that's not a flashy answer. That's not what people want to hear. And that doesn't really create quick wins or dramatic graphs, but it protects the business long term. [00:04:35] When you've been in business this long, sustainability becomes much more interesting than momentum for its own sake. [00:04:41] I'm less interested in how quickly we can generate attention and more interested in whether the business can handle the attention that it's asking for. [00:04:51] Marketing is an accelerator. If the engine underneath it is strong, acceleration feels smooth and controlled. [00:04:58] If the engine is already strained, acceleration feels unstable. It can even feel dangerous. [00:05:05] And part of the experience is recognizing the difference. [00:05:10] But there's another layer to this, now that I'm thinking about it. [00:05:14] Sometimes marketing is blamed when the real issue is clarity. The offer may not be clearly defined. [00:05:20] Pricing may not reflect the level of service from being delivered. [00:05:25] The team may not be aligned on what makes the business different. Internally, there may be uncertainty about priorities or the direction. [00:05:34] Marketing cannot create clarity. This does not exist inside the business. [00:05:39] It can only communicate what is already true. So when that truth is fuzzy, it's not consistent. [00:05:46] Then marketing becomes an attempt to compensate for deeper ambiguity. We can't talk. [00:05:53] I think this is where the conversation about growth becomes more nuanced. Wanting growth is normal. Every business owner wants momentum at some point, but you have to be ready for that growth. And are you Readiness shows up in whether your team knows exactly what happens after a lead comes in. [00:06:12] It shows up whether you can double your demand without doubling confusion. [00:06:16] It shows up in whether your delivery is consistent regardless of the volume. [00:06:21] It shows up in whether you have the right people in the right roles or whether you're still carrying too much personally. [00:06:28] And even people want to run Facebook ads all the time. Lead gen ads. [00:06:34] Who's checking the Facebook account to see if the leads are coming in? [00:06:39] I have clients where things just sit for days and no one calls. That is wasted money. [00:06:45] These are leadership questions, not really marketing questions. And the longer I've been in business, the more I see that marketing works best. When those leadership questions have been answered honestly, when the structure is sound, marketing becomes easier. It doesn't have to work as hard. It doesn't have to compensate for all the friction. [00:07:05] It becomes amplified instead of a rescue. [00:07:09] I don't say any of this to suggest that marketing is not important. Of course it is. It absolutely is. But it is not a cure all for everything. It is not a substitute for operational clarity. It is not a solution for internal misalignment. [00:07:24] Sometimes when marketing feels frustrating or ineffective, it is actually revealing where the business needs attention. [00:07:30] That realization can feel really uncomfortable. It requires stepping back and looking inward instead of looking outward. [00:07:37] It is often the most strategic move a business owner can make. [00:07:43] So if you find yourself thinking that marketing is the thing holding you back, it might be worth asking a slightly different question. [00:07:49] Instead of asking, what tactic are we missing? You might ask, are we ready for the results that we're asking for? [00:07:57] Because sometimes marketing isn't the real problem. [00:08:00] Sometimes it's the messenger. [00:08:03] So if this episode hit home, especially if you felt that tension between wanting more visibility and already feeling stretched, you're not alone. These are the kinds of conversations that don't always happen publicly, but they really matter. [00:08:17] And if you want to talk through whether what you're seeing is truly a marketing gap or or something operational underneath it, just email me Wendy W E N D I Mark at Momentum Biz. No pitch, no pressure. We'll just have a talk. [00:08:33] So thanks for listening to Confessions in the Home Office. That's it for this week and I will see you next time.