Why Your Marketing Isn’t Working (And How to Fix It Without Burning It All Down)

Frustrated that your marketing efforts aren’t turning into sales? You’re not alone — but you don’t have to scrap everything and start over. In this episode, we unpack the real reasons your marketing might not be working (spoiler: it’s usually not about how much content you’re creating).

I’ll help you identify what’s broken, where the gaps are, and how to get things back on track — without the overwhelm, burnout, or starting from scratch. If you’ve been spinning your wheels or second-guessing every post, this is your invitation to pause, reset, and move forward with clarity.

Tune in for tough love, honest insight, and a clear path to better marketing results.

Book a sales accelerator review
https://newschoolofmarketing.com/accelerate 

Connect with me

Website: www.newschoolofmarketing.com
Facebook: @newschoolofmarketing
Instagram: @bianca_mckenzie

Work with me:

🟠 SALES ACCELERATOR: a no-fluff, personalised marketing review where you get expert eyes on your website, offers, funnels, or socials—plus a clear, actionable video walkthrough so you know exactly what to improve to start making more sales, faster.
https://newschoolofmarketing.com/accelerate

🔵 MARKETING MOMENTUM: a 6-week 1:1 mentoring package designed to get your marketing unstuck. With three strategy-packed sessions and personalised support, you’ll gain clarity, confidence, and a plan that actually moves your business forward—no more guesswork or going it alone.
https://newschoolofmarketing.com/mentoring

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Transcript

Hey. Welcome to the New School of Marketing podcast. I'm Bianca McKenzie and this is the place where we break down marketing strategies that actually work without the overwhelm.

Before we dive in, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land I live and work on, the Palawa people of Luther Witta. I pay my respect to elders past and present, and I acknowledge the deep connection they have to this land, culture and community.

All right, let's dive in and make marketing work for you.

If you have been pouring time, money and energy into your marketing, posting, emailing, creating content, maybe even running ads, and you're still not seeing results, this one is for you.

You might be thinking, why isn't this working?

What am I missing?

Maybe I'm just not cut out for this.

I'm here to tell you you're not broken, but your marketing might be.

In this episode, we're going to dive into why your marketing might not be working. Even if you're doing all the things, what to look at first before you burn it all down and how to move forward with a clearer, simpler plan, let's get into it.

All right. First, why your marketing might not be working.

It's tough love time, but delivered with care, marketing should be helping you get seen, attract leads, and generate sales.

If it's not doing those three things, something is off and often it's not what you think.

So let's look at five common reasons why your marketing might not be working.

The first one is that your offer isn't clear or compelling.

If you are marketing something that people don't fully understand, fully want or value, it won't convert.

No matter how good your social media is, it really needs to be the full package. People need to understand what it is.

They need to want it, or at least think they want it and value it.

I'm going to give you a good example. So I use magnesium spray on my legs too, because I have restless legs and there are multiple magnesium sprays on the market.

And I'm pretty sure I am paying more for my magnesium spray because of the way the brand that I use is marketed to me.

I haven't even done research. I've literally they have everything on their website of what it can do for you, how it helps me, what it helps me with, how to apply it. They have really good emails to follow up, they have other products and bundles that they can sell me.

So they have really understood, you know, the message or whatever they need to do for marketing. I understand what it is, I want it, I value it. Because I don't just get the product. There's so much more that I get with the brand.

So you need to ask yourself, can someone land on your website or your socials and know exactly who it's for, what it helps them do and why it is best valuable? If your offer is vague and it's trying to be everything to everyone, you're going to struggle to attract anyone.

It needs to be super clear who's it for, what helps, what does it help them do and why is it valuable?

The next one common reason I see is that you're talking to the wrong people.

If your audience isn't your ideal buyer, your marketing will always feel like shouting into the voice. Like if you are trying to sell something to someone who absolutely doesn't like need it, it's not going to land, is it?

Or if you're growing your followers like as in your social media followers with people who will never buy, you don't need more followers, you need the right ones. You need people who have the problem that you solved or the desire that you, you know, provide for. Because I always think it's hard for some people to think, oh, you know, what's the problem? For example, I work with the brand that provides freeze dried fruit coated in chocolate. I mean, people don't really have a problem and go, I need chocolate to fix this.

Well, there could be like a million and one problems to fix with chocolate, but some people might just have a desire.

So you need to talk to the people who have the problem that you solve or the desire that you have a solution for.

You need to talk to people who want a solution.

Because some people don't know, they're not problem aware and that means they're also not looking for a solution.

And you need people who are ready to take action.

The next common reason I see is that there's no strategy or funnel or find your content.

And I see this a lot. So posting random content and hoping that it will kind of like magically lead to sales, that's not a strategy.

And just posting content that says I have this buy it, that is not a strategy either because again, it does not tell people in a way, who it's for,

why, like what it does for them and why they should even want it.

So you need like all of the pieces.

You need a journey, you need content that attracts.

You need a lead magnet that captures someone's email address so you can actually follow up with them.

You need emails that nurture them and then you need an offer that invites them.

Marketing is a system. It's not a one off event. It's not like a few social media posts and you're kind of done. It's a whole system.

You need to connect, you need to attract, you need to nurture and you need to invite.

An invite is like asking them or like telling them that you have the thing that they want and they can buy it.

And sometimes people only go to that last one. It's like they're like, buy my thing.

You haven't told me why I should even care about it. So it's a whole strategy, a whole system. It's not just a one off event.

The next common one that I see is that you're inconsistent because you're burnt out.

And let's be honest, consistency is hard when you're spinning your wheels.

You get motivated, you post for a few weeks, then you disappear for a month because you're just exhausted.

Then you feel guilty or your sales dry up, then you overthink, then you hide.

Sound familiar? Yeah. You don't need to be everywhere, but you need to have a sustainable rhythm that works for your life and business.

If that is two times a week posting on socials, then do that.

I'd rather have you two like post two times a week for like, you know, consistently every single week than six times one week and like not nothing the next week.

It needs to have sustainable rhythm, like consistency.

That's going to work for you and for your business.

Okay, so that's, you know, talking about inconsistency. Another one that I see is you're just too close to it.

You're inside the bottle and you can't read the label.

You have probably stared at your messaging, your bio, your offers so long that you actually can't tell what's clear anymore.

And that's why outside eyes, a fresh perspective, a strategic review can change everything.

It's hard to be inside the bottle.

It's hard to, you know, come up with all of this for your own business. It's much easier to do it for other businesses. I find it hard for my business and I can easily do it for now for others.

It's just hard when you're inside the bottle.

All right, how to fix it without burning it all down.

Now that we've looked at the common problems, let's have a look at how you can course correct without scrapping everything.

Because you don't need to.

Step number one is pause and audit.

Before you keep posting, running ads, trying the next thing.

Pause, have a look at what's already in place and ask yourself, what's working?

Even if it's working a little bit, what are the gaps?

Is my offer clear and is my audience aligned?

And then look at do I have a clear journey from stranger to sale?

Step number two is to simplify your focus. You don't need more platforms, you don't need more content.

What you need is you need one solid offer, you need one strong lead magnet and you need one consistent channel to show up on start simple and then build from there.

You don't need all the things.

You don't need this and that and TikTok and reels and Instagram and Facebook and I don't even know what else that is.

You don't need more of that.

One offer, one lead magnet and being consistent on one channel.

That's where you need to start.

Step number three is get a second set of eyes.

This is honestly where the magic happens.

You don't need to figure this out alone, and you probably shouldn't.

Like I said, it's so hard to read the label from inside the bottle. And that's exactly why I created the sales accelerator. It's a personalized strategic review of your marketing so that you can finally see what's working, what's missing and what to fix.

It's where you get a custom video from me.

Walking through your website, through your socials, through your office, through your funnel, and I give you clear, actionable steps to move forward.

Honestly, getting a second pair of eyes on it, someone who's outside the bottle can read the label, can see those steps forward and just go, this is where I think you have an opportunity. I would change that.

That's literally how I walk through it. I just look at all of it and go. I think that messaging is a bit vague. It could do with a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

I send you the video and that's it.

So if you, if your marketing isn't working, you are tired of guessing, you're done with spinning your wheels.

Or maybe you're wondering what you're doing wrong.

Take this as a sign to stop the cycle.

You can get results, but you need to step back.

You need to look at the big picture and make adjustments.

And like I said, you don't have to do it alone.

The sales accelerator is your first step to clarity. It's like having a marketing strategist look under the hood of your business and tell you exactly what changes to make so that you can start seeing results.

So if you want to book that in, I'll pop the link in the show notes, but it's newschoolofmarketing.com accelerate and I can't wait to actually give you some feedback. It has helped so many people just, you know, getting some fresh eyes and go, oh, yeah. And sometimes you're like, oh, how did I not see that? But again, it's because you're too close. I have the same with my business.

I need to get someone else to look at it every so often because I'm too close to it.

So if you want me to have a look at yours, grab that link. Newschoolofmarketing.com /accelerate. I pop it in the show notes as well,

and I can't wait to go under the hood of your business.

All right, that was it. I hope it was helpful. Until next time, keep marketing your business every day.