How I Decide What a Business Should Fix First in Its Marketing
The most obvious marketing problem isn’t always the one I’d fix first. An outdated logo is easy to notice. A missed inquiry, a poorly targeted advertising campaign, or a website that attracts the wrong customers can be harder to see—and more expensive to ignore.
That’s why I’m cautious about starting with whatever someone is most frustrated with that week.
After more than 20 years in marketing, I’ve learned that a business can have several legitimate problems and still only need to focus on one or two right now. Deciding which ones deserve attention is a big part of marketing strategy. So is being willing to leave the others alone for a while.
I Start With What the Business Actually Needs
Before I look at rankings, advertising, or design, I want to understand what the business is trying to accomplish.
“More leads” isn’t specific enough. Does the company need more service calls, larger projects, repeat business, or inquiries for a particular product line? Is there room to handle more work? Are certain jobs much more valuable than others?
Those answers change my priorities.
An HVAC business trying to fill open service appointments has a different immediate need than a manufacturer trying to reach a small group of purchasing managers. Both might need better websites. That doesn’t mean a website rebuild belongs at the top of both lists.
I also ask what’s already working. A scattered marketing plan often gets treated as if everything needs replacing. I’d rather protect the activities producing useful business and find the gap around them.
My starting question is simple: What needs to happen in the business that isn’t happening now?
I Separate What’s Known From What’s Assumed
Marketing decisions get messy when assumptions start passing for facts.
A slow month doesn’t automatically mean SEO has stopped working. Plenty of website traffic doesn’t prove the website is doing its job. And an owner feeling tired of the company’s branding doesn’t necessarily mean customers have a problem with it.
I want to see enough evidence to make a reasonable decision. That usually means looking at recent inquiries, where they came from, whether they were a good fit, and what happened after someone reached out.
I’ll compare that with website analytics, search performance, and advertising data. But I don’t treat the report as the whole story. The people answering calls and preparing estimates may know something the dashboard doesn’t: callers keep asking for a service the company doesn’t offer, for example.
If tracking is incomplete, I say so. I won’t pretend I can confidently rank marketing problems using numbers I don’t trust.
Sometimes the first fix is modest: test the forms, check how calls are recorded, and start noting the source and quality of each inquiry. Not a months-long reporting project. Just enough visibility to stop guessing.
I Follow the Customer’s Path Until Something Breaks
My background started in graphic design and art direction. I care about how a business presents itself. But launching more than 100 websites has taught me to look beyond the appearance of a page.
I try to follow the path a prospective customer takes. Can they find the business? Can they tell whether it offers what they need? Do they have a reason to trust it? Is the next step obvious? Does someone respond?
Each question points to a different kind of problem.
If qualified customers aren’t finding the business, I’ll look at search visibility, advertising reach, referrals, and other sources of attention. If people arrive but don’t inquire, I’ll look more closely at the message, the offer, the evidence, and the website experience.
If good inquiries arrive but go nowhere, buying more traffic may be the wrong answer. The issue could be response time, sales follow-up, pricing, or a mismatch between the advertising promise and what the business actually provides.
Consider a home service business serving Corinth, Mississippi. Its website might look good but leave visitors unsure whether their address falls inside the service area. Before recommending more content or a new campaign, I’d make that basic information easy to find.
I’ll also open the site on a phone and try to contact the company. A hard-to-use form or hidden phone number can turn a simple customer task into work.
I Put Active Waste Ahead of Cosmetic Frustration
Once I understand where the trouble is, I look at what it’s costing the business to leave it alone.
A broken inquiry form deserves immediate attention. So does paid advertising sending people to an unavailable service or a page that doesn’t match the ad. Those problems are losing opportunities or spending money right now.
A dated visual detail may matter, but it usually doesn’t belong ahead of those repairs.
That doesn’t mean branding always waits. If a company can’t clearly explain what it does or why someone should choose it, that confusion affects the website, advertising, content, and sales materials. The message may need attention before any of those pieces can improve.
This is where I resist blanket advice like “start with SEO” or “you need a new website.” Sometimes that’s right. Sometimes it’s an expensive way to avoid a smaller, more immediate problem.
I also look at dependencies. If an ad campaign needs a clear service page to work, that page comes first. But a few weak pages don’t automatically justify rebuilding the entire website. I’d rather define the smallest repair that meaningfully addresses the problem, then decide whether broader work is warranted.
I Weigh Impact, Confidence, and Effort
Not every marketing issue comes with a clear dollar amount attached. There’s judgment involved. I find it useful to weigh three things: the likely business impact, my confidence in the diagnosis, and the effort required to make the change.
A fix with a clear connection to qualified inquiries, strong supporting evidence, and a manageable workload usually moves up the list.
A large project based mostly on a hunch usually moves down—or gets turned into a smaller test.
For example, if Google Ads search terms show that the business is paying for searches unrelated to its services, that’s something concrete to address. If someone suspects the entire brand is holding the company back, I’d want more evidence before committing to a full identity project.
Speed alone isn’t the deciding factor, though. Changing a button label is easy. Clarifying which customers the company wants to serve is harder. The harder decision may have much more value.
I’m looking for useful progress, not a long list of completed tasks.
The Business Has to Be Able to Follow Through
A marketing strategy has to fit the people expected to carry it out.
Managing marketing for more than 20 organizations annually has made me practical about this. An owner running daily operations may not have time to approve weekly articles, record videos, review campaigns, and chase down customer photos.
A plan that depends on all of that can stall before it produces anything useful.
I want each priority to have someone responsible for it, a realistic deadline, and a clear definition of finished. If the business can’t support the work, I narrow the scope or change the approach.
I also keep a “not now” list. It gives valid ideas somewhere to go without letting every request interrupt the current work. Different departments can all have reasonable needs. They still can’t all be first.
I Define What Would Make Me Change My Mind
Before a fix goes live, I decide what I’ll look at afterward.
If I’m improving a service page, I want to know whether it helps generate more relevant inquiries—not just whether people spend longer reading it. If I’m tightening ad targeting, fewer clicks may be acceptable if fewer irrelevant inquiries come with them.
The review period should match the work. I can test a repaired form immediately. Search visibility and a long sales cycle need more time.
For a business owner trying to get organized, I’d write down the main business goal, the problem most likely blocking it, the evidence supporting that diagnosis, and the next action. Then assign responsibility and a review date.
That’s enough to start making a scattered marketing effort more deliberate. The plan can change as better information comes in.
Bottom Line
I don’t decide what to fix first by choosing the newest tactic or the loudest complaint. I look for the problem most directly interfering with the business goal, then ask what it will take to address it.
Fix what’s broken. Get better evidence where it’s missing. Put larger projects in the right order. And give the first priority enough attention to find out whether it actually helped.
Brian "JR" Williamson
Founder & Marketing Director
20+ Years in Marketing Strategy • SEO • Websites • Brand & Digital Growth
Florence / The Shoals, Alabama
Jackson, Tennessee
