Why Your Marketing Message Isn’t Landing (and How to Fix It)

When Your Message Doesn’t Land: It’s Not Always the Words

Small business owners often assume that if a message doesn’t land or generate sales, the problem is the message itself. They rewrite it, repackage it, or scrap it entirely. But here’s the truth: sometimes it’s not the message that’s off, sometimes it’s the audience.

The most powerful marketing happens when the message and audience align. If you’re speaking to the wrong group, even the most polished words won’t resonate. And if you’re speaking to the right group with the wrong message, you’ll miss the mark. Alignment is everything.

Why Testing Matters

Instead of seeing a post or campaign fall flat as a failure, view it as a test. We often hear that failure is part of success. The same goes for your marketing. Try different angles. Share the same core idea three ways: one that’s emotional that inspires a reaction or action, one that’s fact-driven that educates value or a process, and one that shows the value a customer will receive from your product or service. Then watch how your audience reacts.

Sometimes the lesson is in the wording. But sometimes, it’s in realizing who is (and isn’t) engaging. That tells you if you’re talking to the right people, or if you need to revisit how clearly you’ve defined your target audience.

Tips for Realignment

Here are a few practical tips from my Alignment Framework you can use to align your message and your audience:

• Get specific about who you serve. Don’t just say “business owners.” Are they restaurant owners? Boutique shop owners? Consultants? Each group has different priorities.
• Match your message to their priorities. What problem keeps them up at night? Payroll headaches? Marketing visibility? Too many administrative tasks? Speak directly to that pain point.
• Simplify. If your audience has to work to figure out what you mean, you’ve already lost them. Clear, straightforward language always wins.

Why a Framework (and a Coach) Helps

Of course, it isn’t easy doing ALL the “things” alone. It can be challenging to understand that you have multiple audiences and how to “speak” to each one. Sometimes drilling down into the specifics of what you do and why you do it can be confusing or maybe you aren’t even sure what questions to ask to even get the answers. We’ve all been there right? So what is the answer?

Get help! Find a buddy, an accountability partner, or join a mastermind group to help you ask the hard questions and really peel back the layers so you get the essence of your business marketing language honed in to speak to your audience and generate real actions!

Sometimes you need or want a professional to help you get there faster or with more clarity, this is where a marketing coach can be extremely helpful by asking the right questions and giving you a solid, repeatable framework to align your message with your audience. A coach brings structure, proven processes, and an outside perspective to help you uncover where the disconnect really is and how to fix it.

When your message doesn’t land, don’t rush to rewrite it. Pause and ask: is this really about the words, or is it about the audience I’m speaking to? When you align the two, every message becomes more powerful.