Why Your Marketing Isn’t Working (And the Growth Lever You’re Ignoring)
The one lever that keeps product-based business founders stuck and the shift that unlocks growth.
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If you’ve ever felt like your marketing isn’t working anymore, you’re not alone. I witness this firsthand daily with my 1:1 consulting clients. Imagine the situation: You created a product, you perfected it, and you consider it your baby. You know everything about your creation, and you want to share it with the world.
At first, it works! You put money on ads, you send it to a few influencers, you post on TikTok, and sales start to come in until you reach a plateau and your growth stagnates. You’re lost; what went wrong? Is my product not good anymore? Do I need to add more product lines to increase my sales? You start using every single marketing and growth tactic that’s out there, hoping to increase your sales, but you end up frustrated because it’s not really working. Sounds familiar?
What’s happening here is that you’re being reactive to your problems, and within your frustration, you’re trying everything! It’s a throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks kind of situation. We’ve been taught to manage our businesses like chess players and to prepare the next 5 moves but we’re not told that as business owners, sometimes we get lost in the game and we end up stuck in a hamster wheel working in our business rather than on our business or as some may say we end up as an employee for ourselves rather than the CEO of our company.
What if I tell you that your problem may not be your marketing? It’s probably how you’re positioning yourself in the market. By the end of this article, you’ll know why positioning is the growth lever you’ve been missing and how to make your brand the only logical choice in your category.
Why Brands Plateau
One of the symptoms founders notice is stagnant growth. Despite the money spent on ads and the content published on all platforms, the customer acquisition cost is increasing, and your sales are not increasing.
The real root cause is a lack of clear positioning, which in simple terms means that the customer doesn’t understand why they need to choose you over your competition. They don’t know what makes you special because you’re unable to communicate and to convey that message clearly. Your brand’s DNA and what made you get that first round of early adopters and organic buzz has become diluted.
When your brand isn’t clearly positioned, marketing becomes expensive noise.
Marketing vs. Positioning: What’s the Difference?
Now let’s get something straight. People often confuse marketing with social media. When I ask people on my podcast about what they’re doing to market their brand, the answer is almost always “we do social media”.
The way I see it, social media is the channel we’re using to communicate what our brand and our products are about. Back in 2004, when I started my career, we used to do magazine and newspaper ads as well as radio, TV, and billboards. These were the most popular ways or channels to reach your customers. Today, while these still exist, the most effective way is to use social media platforms to communicate and target your ideal client.
Your marketing strategy is the blueprint for how your brand will attract the right customers and turn them into loyal buyers. It answers big picture questions like: who are you trying to reach (target audience), what makes your brand different (positioning and value proposition), where will you reach them (communication channels), how will you communicate (messaging), and why your customers should care (the problem you’re solving).
Think of it as a map that shows the direction of where you’re going and why. Positioning is part of this map, along with your communication channels.
The Cost of Poor Positioning
You may think that all this is just talk, and you want to get into action! In most cases, action is you posting content on social media, spending money on ads, and possibly creating special offers and promotions, hoping to increase your sales.
If your brand sounds like everyone else, your marketing will feel like screaming into a crowded room.
Taking time to work on how you want to position your brand in the market is not a waste of time. It is what will help you do everything else (content creation, ads, etc.) more effectively and efficiently. When you know your brand’s DNA, you will be able to create your content faster, run ads that actually convert, and, in time, you will for sure have a group of superfans who advocate for your brand and recommend it to everyone.
When you have the right messaging, which comes from the work you’ve done in identifying what your brand is about, everything else will follow. Your goal isn’t to be one of many options. It’s to be THE ONLY option that makes sense for your customer.
Positioning isn’t a one-time exercise. It’s the foundation that allows you to grow, adapt, and dominate your category.
What’s your biggest challenge in your business right now? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear.
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