If you want to grow your business and increase your revenue, you need to have a marketing strategy. That means creating a plan to build brand awareness and encourage your audience to buy your products.
There’s no shortage of marketing advice out there, but that doesn’t mean that marketing is easy. In fact, with all the different possible approaches, it can be difficult to figure out which marketing strategy is best for your business.
Once you choose one, it’s vital to monitor the results. Are you seeing more traffic to your website? Are your sales skyrocketing? Are you getting more engagement on your social media posts?
If not, don’t worry — it doesn’t mean that all is lost. Rather, it’s just a sign that you need to take a different approach. So let’s go over some possible changes you can make when you’re not getting the results from marketing that you want.
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1 | If Your Website Isn’t Getting Traffic
If you aren’t getting traffic to your website, start by ruling out the obvious issues. Are the URLs in your social media profiles correct? What about the hyperlinks in your email signature and QR code (if you have one somewhere)?
Next, check to make sure your site is up and running correctly. Try opening it in an incognito window so you can see what a new visitor experiences. Are there issues with your security certificate or domain? Is the site loading super slowly? If so, you might want to check with your hosting service provider to see if you can figure out the problem.
If you can rule out all those issues, it’s time to dig deeper. Take a look at your search engine optimization strategy. Are you using the right SEO keywords? Do you have backlinks from other reliable websites in your online space?
Don’t forget about metadata. Make sure each page of your site has a title tag and meta description. It’s a good idea to check your headers and subheaders for keywords too.
Finally, verify that your site’s hierarchy makes sense. Check that you have all the essential pages that visitors would look for:
- Home
- About
- Products/Services
- Contact
- Help/FAQs
If you’ve checked everything and can’t find a technical issue, it might just be a sign that your site isn’t connecting with your audience. Maybe the colors or images are offputting, or visitors just don’t feel compelled to browse your site. If that’s the case, it might be time to update the aesthetic elements of your website.
Related post: 4 Ways to Refresh Your Website
2 | If Your Product Pages Aren’t Converting
OK, so what if your website is getting a good amount of traffic, but those visitors aren’t buying your offers? How do you fix product pages that aren’t converting?
As in the previous step, try to look at your product pages from the perspective of a visitor.
- Do your offers stand out? If not, consider updating the copy and images. Focus on highlighting the best features of your product, but don’t overwhelm the page with too much stuff.
- Is it easy to buy? If you don’t have a clear “Buy Now” button, change that ASAP. And then, make sure the checkout process is simple and fast — you don’t want to give people too many opportunities to abandon their cart.
- Are your products compelling? Think about your target audience and your offers, and promote the products that match your potential customers the best. This is easier when you have a well-designed offer ladder that includes products for everyone, from entry-level customers to those who are ready for your high-touch offers.
Even a few strategic updates to your product pages can have a big impact on your conversion rates.
Related post: How to Write Great Product Descriptions That Sell
3 | If No One Is Opening/Clicking Your Emails
You’re site’s getting traffic and the people who show up there are buying — great! Next, let’s look at your email marketing campaign.
Pull up your email analytics. What do your open rates look like? How about your click-through rates? If those numbers don’t match your goals, think about what you could change.
Maybe you’re not emailing your audience often enough. They might not remember your brand when they see it in their inbox.
Or maybe you’re emailing them too often. You have to find a balance — it’s important to keep in touch with your customers, but you don’t want to annoy them.
Another issue that can contribute to low open rates is boring subject lines. Try to look objectively at the subject lines of your last few emails. If you saw them in your inbox, would you open up those messages?
Maybe your email open rates are fine, but no one is clicking through on your links. Here are some possible issues:
- Links are unclear
- The copy is uncompelling
- The emails are too long — readers aren’t making it down to the links
- There are too many links and no clear calls to action
- There are no hyperlinks, or the links are broken
Chances are at least one of those issues is contributing to a low click-through rate.
Want more help to improve your email marketing results? Stay tuned for our email list toolbox — coming soon!
Related post: What Email Marketing Can Do For Your Brand
4 | If People Aren’t Engaging on Social Media
Your website isn’t the only place your brand needs to show up online — social media is crucial too. What should you do if people aren’t engaging with your social media content?
First, consider the platforms you’re using. Are you meeting your target audience where they hang out online?
You don’t need to post on every social media platform — in fact, you probably shouldn’t. It’s better to choose a couple of platforms that are most likely to align with your audience.
For example, if your offers are designed for entrepreneurs, coaches, or other professionals, it’s probably better to post your content on LinkedIn rather than Pinterest.
Conversely, if your business centers on home decor, art, or another highly visual niche, it’s probably very important to post your content on Pinterest. You might not get much engagement if you post on LinkedIn.
If you’re sure you’re posting on the right platforms, here are some other things you can try to boost engagement with your social media posts:
- Share content that provides value — not just sales pitches
- Encourage engagement by ending posts with a question or a clear CTA
- Make sure your social media voice is authentic and matches your brand
- Check your posting frequency — once a week is probably too little, but 5 times a day is probably too much
Finally, make sure that you’re responding when your audience does engage. No one wants to take the time to comment or ask a question on a brand’s post and get zero response.
Related post: 5 Ways to Extend Your Branding From Website to Social
5 | If You Aren’t Growing Your Audience
If you’re consistently engaging the audience you have, that’s a good start. But if you want to grow your business and increase revenue, you need to consistently build your audience.
It can take a few tries to figure out what works best to draw new potential customers to your brand. Here are some strategies that can broaden your reach and encourage new people to join your audience:
- Affiliate marketing: Encourage your followers to refer others to your offers.
- Podcasting: Get your message out via a new medium.
- Joint ventures: Collaborate or host a cross-promotion campaign with another brand in your space.
- Freebie: Create a lead magnet that provides value to your potential customers, and give it away in exchange for their email addresses.
Remember, the key to attracting the right people is to be authentic to your brand.
Related post: How to Grow Your Audience With a Podcast
Final Thoughts
Marketing your business can get complicated quickly. There are so many aspects to consider, and each one may require a slightly different approach.
So before you start changing your marketing strategy, narrow down the issues that you want to address. A marketing approach designed to increase website traffic may not be the same one you want to use to get more engagement on social media.
Remember, marketing isn’t a “one-and-done” endeavor. It’s crucial to continually monitor progress and evolve your strategy when required.
If you want to make sure you have all the resources you need to stay on top of your marketing, check out our Momentum Biz Vault: All-Access Pass! We’re sharing some marketing guides designed to help you address the areas of your marketing that are underperforming.
