"Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the marketing health check is?" Or something like that.
I’m pretty sure that’s not exactly how the rhyme went, but you get the gist.
Seriously, it gives me the ick how often I’m asked to audit marketing that’s “just stopped working,” only to find out no-one has actually looked at it, like properly looked at it, since it was set up by “some agency we worked with a couple of years ago,” or one of the staff who also “knew a bit of Facebook ads.”
Don’t get me wrong, neither of those things is inherently bad, as long as someone’s keeping an eye on things. But generally, they aren’t.
And that brings us back to the spring clean.
You’ve probably already thought about clearing out the garage, decluttering the office, maybe even resetting a few personal habits. Good for you. Now why not do the same thing for your marketing. Trust me, your business and your bank account will love you for it.
And lucky for you, I’ve got just the recipe to help make it a whole lot simpler.
Start with the marketing that's actually working
Before you change anything, look at what’s happening right now. Which channels are bringing in leads? Which ones are just costing you money and looking busy? Which pieces of content get shared, and which ones sit there with zero engagement?
You don’t need a fancy audit for this. Pull up your last two quarters of stats. Traffic, leads, conversion rate, cost per lead, cost per new client, and be honest about what you see. If something’s been flat or declining for months and you haven’t asked why, that’s your starting point.
An audit doesn’t automatically mean you have to change something, but it does mean you’re being purposeful and protecting the engine that drives the revenue and growth in your business. If you’re still hitting your numbers, awesome, keep going. But if not, this will help you identify why, and take some action before you burn a whole lot of cash.
Is your ideal customer profile still relevant?
What’s that you say? You don’t have an ideal customer profile? You’re not on your own, but you are flying blind. Here’s a fun AI agent to help you create an ideal customer profile in no time flat.
So, back to your ideal customer. A lot can shift in six to twelve months. Budgets tighten, priorities change, whole industries adjust how they buy. The client who wanted “fast and cheap” last year might be chasing “reliable and low-risk” this year. Think about the political turmoil, the economic uncertainty, the housing market. If that much has changed, and your ideal customer profile hasn’t, you’re likely aiming at a target that no longer exists.
Go back to your actual client list. Who are you winning now? What are they telling you in sales calls, review meetings, in support tickets, in the questions they ask before they buy? If that doesn’t match the ideal customer profile sitting in your marketing plan, it’s time to update it.
Does your messaging still hit the way you want?
Your messaging needs to be a direct answer to what your ideal customer wants and values right now, not six months ago. So once you’ve checked your ICP, check whether your messaging actually speaks to it.
Read your website copy, your ads, your emails, out loud. Would today’s ideal client stop scrolling for this? Or does it sound like it’s answering questions nobody’s asking anymore? Or worse, is it sounding tone deaf to the worries and concerns people have today? That can cause untold damage to your brand that’ll take months, or years, to recover from.
If your messaging misses the mark, you can burn a lot of cash, really fast, saying something nobody wants to hear.
Are your funnels still converting?
This is where you’re likely to see the first signs of trouble. Having a customer profile that’s out of touch is damaging. Having messaging that’s off point is costly. But you won’t know either of those is an issue unless you’re keeping an eye on what’s converting and what’s not.
A few red flags to keep an eye on...
The top of your sales funnel is where you’re growing awareness and visibility of your brand Things like Facebook and Instagram ads, social posts, and blog or SEO content that put you in front of new people. When it’s working, people engage: they like, comment, click through. When people have gone quiet, that’s usually a sign your targeting or messaging is out of step with who you’re actually trying to reach now.
The middle of your funnel is where attention turns into trust. Your email list, downloadable guides, free consultations, nurture sequences, and ads that retarget people who already visited your website or engaged with content at the top of your funnel. When it’s working, people opt in and stick around, open your emails, and even send messages or replies. When people have stopped joining your email list, stopped taking up your free offers, or you’re seeing fewer emails opened, your nurture sequence might be built for a client who wanted something different a year ago.
The bottom of your funnel is the final push that converts prospects into actual customers. Incentivised offers, quotes, proposals, sales calls, checkout pages. When it’s working, conversations turn into sales. When people make it all the way to that conversation and still don’t sign on, or take a lot longer to decide than they used to, it often means the offer, pricing, or the objections you’re addressing no longer match what buyers actually care about.
If you can’t say, right now, what your conversion rate is at each of those stages, that’s a gap worth closing before you spend another dollar driving traffic into it.
What to do with all this
All of these are signals that you need to take some action. But what?
You don’t necessarily need to rebuild everything. Spring cleaning isn’t about throwing it all out, it’s about being honest about what still fits and what doesn’t. Keep what’s working. Fix or bin what isn’t. And make sure your ideal customer profile, your messaging, and your funnels all still agree with each other.
If you’re seeing your engagement rates tank, leads drying up, and revenue lines going in the wrong direction, but you don’t know what to do about it, having a chat with us is a great start!