You're Doing All the "Marketing Stuff". So Why Isn't It Working?
Introduction:
There's a pattern I'm seeing more and more in businesses.
They're not doing nothing.
Actually, they're doing bloody loads.
They're posting on social media.
They're networking.
They've got a website.
They've created offers.
They might have an email list.
They're showing up, creating, tweaking, trying new things and generally doing everything they've been told they're supposed to do.
Look at each of those things individually and you might think:
Yep. That's all working.
But the business still isn't growing in the way they want it to.
And that's because doing lots of marketing "stuff" isn't the same as having a connected business ecosystem.
The question I want you to start asking: What happens next?
Someone discovers you on social media.
What happens next?
Someone visits your website.
What happens next?
Someone downloads your freebie.
What happens next?
You meet someone at a networking event who's interested in what you do.
What happens next?
Someone buys from you.
What happens next?
That one little question tells me an awful lot about a business.
Because if the answer is repeatedly "well... nothing really", you've probably found your problem.
You don't necessarily need more marketing.
You need to connect the marketing you're already doing.
ACTION 1: Draw your ecosystem
Grab a piece of paper. Seriously.
Write your business in the middle and around it write down every way somebody can currently come into contact with you.
Social media.
Website.
Google.
Networking.
Recommendations.
Email.
Events.
Podcast appearances.
Lead magnets.
Whatever is relevant to your business.
Don't write down what you plan to do.
Write down what's actually happening right now.
Now look at each one and ask:
Where does that person go next?
Draw the line.
If you can't draw a line, you've found a gap.
ACTION 2: Look at your audience building
This is a big one.
Because you can have the best ecosystem in the world, but if nobody new is entering it, eventually you're just talking to the same people.
Ask yourself:
What am I doing every week to bring NEW people into my world?
Not posting for the people who already follow you.
Not emailing the people already on your list.
Not hoping Instagram magically puts your Reel in front of thousands of potential customers.
What are you deliberately doing to grow your audience?
Networking?
Collaborations?
SEO?
Speaking?
Referrals?
PR?
Lead generation?
Partnerships?
If you can't immediately answer that question, that's somewhere I'd be looking very closely.
ACTION 3: Follow one lead through your business
Pick one person who showed an interest in your business recently.
Maybe they downloaded something.
Sent you a message.
Made an enquiry.
Met you networking.
Clicked through from an email.
Now follow what happened.
Did you capture their details?
Did they receive anything afterwards?
Did you follow up personally?
Did you continue nurturing that relationship?
Was there an obvious next step?
Or did they essentially disappear back into the wilderness while you went off to create Thursday's Instagram post? 😂
Lead generation without follow-up is just collecting names.
And this is one of the biggest disconnects I see.
ACTION 4: Look for the dead ends
Now go back to the ecosystem you drew.
Circle anywhere somebody can reach a dead end.
A website page with nowhere obvious to go next.
A lead magnet with no follow-up sequence.
An email with no call to action.
A networking contact you never speak to again.
A social account that generates engagement but never moves people anywhere.
A customer who buys once and never hears from you again.
Those dead ends matter.
Because individually, every part of your marketing can look perfectly healthy.
Your social media is active.
Your website looks good.
Your emails are going out.
Your offers exist.
But if they're not connected, people fall through the gaps between them.
ACTION 5: Don't add anything new yet
This might be the most important one.
When you find a gap, resist the temptation to think:
"Ooh, I need another platform."
You probably don't.
If leads aren't being followed up, another Reel won't fix it.
If nobody new is discovering you, changing your Canva templates won't fix it.
If people join your email list and then hear nothing from you, posting seven days a week won't fix it.
And if customers buy once and disappear, starting a TikTok account definitely isn't going to bloody fix it. 😂
Fix the connection before adding another moving part.
This isn't just a small business problem
This is something we look at with our corporate clients too.
Because the bigger a business becomes, the easier it can actually be for activities to end up in silos.
Social is doing its thing.
Email is doing its thing.
The website is doing its thing.
Sales are doing their thing.
On paper, each part might look absolutely fine.
But step back and look at the whole ecosystem, and suddenly you can see where the connections aren't happening.
That's often where the real growth opportunity is hiding.
And it's exactly why I've become so interested in diagnosing the problem before prescribing the solution.
And the early results are fascinating
I've recently launched my Business Ecosystem Score, and already there's a pattern emerging.
44% of the businesses who've completed it have the pieces of an ecosystem happening - they're just not properly connected.
Another 33% are still building the foundations.
22% are visible but leaking opportunities.
And so far, not one has reached the point where they're genuinely ready to optimise and scale.
That's fascinating to me.
Because it doesn't say:
"Businesses need to do more."
It says:
"We need to get much better at connecting what we're already doing."
Your 15-minute ecosystem challenge
So here's what I want you to do before you disappear off and create another piece of content:
Draw your current ecosystem.
Identify how NEW people are entering it.
Follow one recent lead through it.
Circle every dead end.
Choose ONE connection to fix this week.
Not ten.
One.
Maybe it's finally creating the follow-up emails for your lead magnet.
Maybe it's contacting those people you met networking.
Maybe it's giving website visitors an obvious next step.
Maybe it's putting some actual time into audience building rather than creating more content for the audience you've already got.
Fix that before you add more stuff.
And if you're looking at your piece of paper thinking "I don't actually know which bit I should fix first..."
That's exactly why I created the Business Ecosystem Score.
It takes just a few minutes and helps you identify where your business ecosystem is right now and where the gaps might be.
Get your Business Ecosystem Score
Because I'm increasingly convinced of this:
The answer isn't doing more stuff.
It's making the right stuff work together.
Other resources to help you get started, download my FREE Social Media planner to start planning out your content
