You’re Doing All the Marketing. So Why Isn’t It Working?
You know the feeling. You sit down at the start of the week with every intention of moving things forward, and somewhere between the Instagram post, the newsletter you’ve been meaning to send, and the networking event you’ve committed to, the week disappears. You were busy. You were ‘doing marketing.’ And yet, come Friday, you’re not sure a single thing actually moved forward.
This is one of the most common patterns I see in the service providers I work with. And it’s exactly what marketing mentor Meg Hutson and I dug into on a recent episode of pepp talks. What came out of that conversation is something I come back to constantly in my own work: if you’re trying to do everything, you’re achieving nothing.
Not because you’re not working hard enough. But because spreading yourself thin across every platform, every tactic, and every opportunity is the fastest way to make sure none of it works.
The real cost of doing too much
There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from being constantly busy
without anything to show for it. You’re attending the networking events, writing the blogs, posting on three platforms, and still ending each month wondering where your next client is coming from.
What I see underneath this – and what Meg speaks to so clearly – is that the problem isn’t effort. The people I work with are some of the most committed, caring, hard- working individuals I know. The problem is that their effort is dispersed across too many directions, with no clear way of knowing which actions are actually connecting with the people they’re meant to serve.
And the deeper cost? The workshops that never get launched. The clients who needed exactly what you offer but found someone else while you were busy doing everything at once. The work that gives your business meaning – the reason you started this in the first place – keeps getting pushed to the back of the queue.
Start here: who are you actually talking to?
When Meg works with a new client, she doesn’t start with content. She doesn’t start with platforms or posting schedules. She starts with one question: who is your ideal client, really?
This is something I echo in my work too. Before you decide where to show up or what to say, you need to understand who you’re showing up for. Not a vague idea of your audience, but a clear, specific picture of the person who genuinely needs what you offer, can pay for it, and will get results from working with you.
Get that wrong – or skip it altogether – and everything else becomes guesswork. You’ll be creating content that doesn’t land, showing up in places your ideal clients aren’t, and wondering why none of it converts.
The most underused tool in your marketing: asking people
Both Meg and I have seen the same thing in our own businesses: market research is the shortcut that most people skip. And it’s the one that changes everything.
Talking directly to the people you want to work with tells you where they spend their time, how they like to consume information, what they’re actually struggling with, and – crucially – the exact words they use to describe it.
That last part matters more than most people realise. When your marketing speaks in the language your ideal client uses to describe their own experience, it stops feeling like marketing and starts feeling like being understood.
Meg spent years writing weekly blogs that took hours and generated nothing – because her audience simply wasn’t reading blogs. A handful of real conversations would have told her that. I’ve seen similar things play out in my business and with my clients: all the effort going into the wrong places, not because they weren’t trying, but because they’d never stopped to ask.
Your personality is your marketing strategy
One of the things Meg and I both come back to, from our own experiences as much as from working with clients, is this: people don’t buy your service. They buy you.
In a service-based business, the connection someone feels with you – your voice, your values, your way of seeing things – is often what makes the difference between them choosing you or moving on. Which means the most powerful thing you can do in your marketing isn’t to post more or be on more platforms. It’s to show up as yourself, consistently, in the places where your ideal clients actually are.
This requires letting go of the idea that you need to fit a certain mould. You don’t. Your particular way of doing things – your personality, your directness, your warmth, your humour, your energy – is what will attract the right people and repel the wrong ones. Both outcomes are a good result (yes, we really do want to repel those that are not ideal clients – it’s not rude, it’s strategy).
Protect your energy or pay the price
Marketing is not separate from your wellbeing. I’ve closed my business down twice because of burnout – both times driven by the very passion that built it. Meg
manages a chronic illness and has learned, out of necessity, to be ruthless about where her energy goes. We’ve arrived at the same conclusion from different
directions: if you’re running on empty, your business will reflect it.
Saying yes to everything – every coffee chat, every networking event, every client who isn’t quite right – costs more than it gives. And when you’re already stretched
thin across children, caring responsibilities, a part-time job, or simply the weight of building something on your own, every wrong move is disproportionately costly.
Simplifying your marketing (in fact simplifying everything in your business) isn’t just a strategic choice. It’s an act of self-preservation. Fewer things, done well, in a way that fits your actual life.
What to do this week
If you’re feeling the weight of all the marketing you’re supposed to be doing, here’s where to start:
Look at what’s actually working right now. Not what you think should be working, but what is genuinely generating interest, conversations, or clients. Do more of that. Let the rest go, at least for now.
Have one real conversation with someone who represents your ideal client. Ask them how they like to receive information. Ask them what they’re struggling with. Listen more than you speak. What you hear will be more useful than any content calendar.
And give yourself permission to not do everything. The businesses that grow aren’t the ones doing the most. They’re the ones doing the right things – consistently, intentionally, in a way that fits who they actually are.
Listen to the full episode
This conversation between Sue and Meg covers market research, boundaries, energy, discovery calls, and what it really looks like to build a business that grows in a way you can sustain. You can listen to pepp talks on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon, and watch it on YouTube.
Connect with Meg Hutson on LinkedIn and Instagram, and find out more about her free Monthly Marketing Meetup:
Monthly Marketing Meetup: click here for your FREE ticket