Why Your Marketing Efforts Are Failing (And How to Fix Them for the Long Term)

I hear it constantly from fractional executives: "I need clients now. I need to fill my pipeline immediately. I don't have time for strategies that take months to pay off."

Trust me, I understand the urgency. When you're building a consulting practice, cash flow matters. But this short-term thinking is precisely why so many marketing efforts ultimately fail.

The Immediate Results Trap

Here's a hard truth: effective marketing is never an overnight success story. The desire for immediate results is natural - we're wired to seek instant gratification. But this mindset creates a fundamental disconnect between expectations and reality, setting you up for frustration and abandonment of strategies before they have time to work.

In my years of experience, I've only seen two marketing approaches deliver genuinely quick wins:

1. Strategic partnerships that create immediate access to a new audience (though these often fizzle out quickly)
2. PR hits that generate a spike of interest followed by a rapid decline

Everything else - everything that creates sustainable growth - takes time to develop. I'll say it clearly: The only consistent marketing that works over time is a long-term game.

The SEO Mindset

Consider how most people approach search engine optimization. Everyone understands that SEO takes at least six months before you see meaningful results, with the best outcomes appearing years down the line. Yet many of these same people expect immediate returns from other marketing activities.

What makes SEO so powerful is its compounding effect. As you publish more content, build domain authority, and generate backlinks, your results snowball. You eventually reach a point where you're getting more traffic with less effort than when you started.

This is the mindset we need to bring to all marketing efforts. Consistency compounds. Authority deepens. Relationships strengthen. But only if you stick with it.

Understanding the Two Phases of Marketing

To build an effective long-term strategy, it helps to understand that marketing works in two distinct phases:

1. Awareness Building

This is the "Hello, I'm Bradley, and this is what I do" phase. It's about expanding your reach within your target niche and making relevant decision-makers aware of your existence and expertise.

It's important to remember that your audience isn't "everyone." Of the hundreds of millions of companies with LinkedIn profiles, only a small fraction could benefit from your specific expertise. Focus on building awareness with that specific audience.

2. Trust Development

Once someone knows who you are, you need to develop sufficient trust for them to consider working with you. This is the phase where you demonstrate your expertise, showcase your approach, and help prospects overcome objections before they ever speak with you.

When someone reaches out after following your content for months, they're not starting from zero - they already know your philosophy, your experience, and your approach. The sales conversation becomes dramatically easier because the relationship is already established.

Think about it: when you get on calls with me after listening to this podcast, you already know quite a bit about my approach. You've researched me on LinkedIn, checked out Mylance, and have a good sense of whether we'd work well together. That's the power of consistent content over time.

The LinkedIn Advantage for Fractional Experts

While there are many platforms to build your presence, LinkedIn offers unique advantages for fractional executives. The key benefit is the ability to nurture relationships over time with your ideal audience.

Unlike cold email or paid advertising, LinkedIn allows you to build a community that repeatedly sees your content. Here's how it works:

1. You connect with a relevant decision-maker
2. Even if they don't respond initially, they're now in your network
3. Your consistent content appears in their feed regularly
4. When a pain point you address becomes acute for them, they're primed to reach out
5. They already have a sense of your expertise and approach

This ability to maintain a warm presence with potential clients over months - sometimes even years - is incredibly valuable. But it only works if you're consistently showing up.

Building Your Network with Precision

The foundation of this approach is connecting with the right people. If you're sharing brilliant insights with the wrong audience, you're wasting your time.

LinkedIn allows you to add approximately 100 connections weekly (though this varies based on your profile and Social Selling Index). That's potentially 400 new relevant decision-makers in your network each month.

Where do you find these connections? You have several options:

1. Use a curated list service (like what we offer at Mylance) that specializes in your niche
2. Build your own lists using Sales Navigator, Apollo, or ZoomInfo
3. Identify companies in your target market and connect with relevant decision-makers

The key is being intentional about who you add. Every connection should be someone who might reasonably need your services someday.

Content That Builds Authority

Once you're growing your network, consistent content is what builds trust over time. Aim to post at least three times weekly - daily is ideal, but consistency matters more than frequency.

I recommend a mix of written posts and video content. While I successfully built my presence using just written posts for three years, adding video significantly deepened my connection with my audience. Seeing someone's face and hearing their voice creates a stronger impression than text alone.

What should you post about? Share your expertise by addressing common questions and challenges in your niche. For example:

Let's say you're a fractional CMO specializing in marketing attribution. Instead of posting "Hire me for attribution work!" share insights like:

• Common mistakes companies make with their marketing measurement
• How proper attribution changes marketing investment decisions
• What an effective marketing dashboard should include
• The top metrics that truly matter for growth

These topics showcase your expertise without explicitly selling. They demonstrate that you understand the problems your potential clients face and know how to solve them.

The Compound Effect of Consistency

Here's what happens when you commit to this approach over time:

1. Your network steadily grows with relevant decision-makers
2. Your consistent content strengthens relationships and builds credibility
3. Inbound inquiries begin to increase as your authority grows
4. Sales conversations become easier because prospects already trust your expertise
5. Your close rate improves since prospects are pre-qualified and pre-sold

Eventually, you reach a tipping point where you have more interested prospects than you can handle. This creates a position of strength - you can choose the most interesting projects, raise your rates, or even begin scaling beyond just yourself.

When a client engagement ends, you'll have a warm list of prospects ready to fill that slot. The feast-or-famine cycle that plagues many consultants becomes a thing of the past.

Resetting Your Expectations

If you've been frustrated with your marketing results, it might be time to reset your expectations. Instead of asking "How can I get clients immediately?" shift to "How can I build a sustainable pipeline that provides clients consistently for years to come?"

The immediate gratification approach leads to perpetual urgency and anxiety. The long-term approach creates stability and growth.

This doesn't mean you can't pursue short-term opportunities while building your long-term strategy. Leverage your network for referrals, reach out to past clients, and explore partnership opportunities. But don't abandon the consistent effort that will pay dividends for years to come.

Taking Action Today

Here's a simple framework to get started:

1. Define your ideal client precisely: Who specifically benefits most from your expertise?
2. Build your connection strategy: Commit to adding relevant decision-makers to your network weekly
3. Create your content calendar: Plan topics that showcase your expertise and address client pain points
4. Commit to consistency: Set a sustainable posting schedule and stick to it, even when it feels like nothing is happening
5. Track your progress: Monitor metrics like network growth, post engagement, and inbound inquiries to see the gradual improvement

Remember that on day 30, it might feel like nothing is happening. On day 90, you might see small signs of traction. By day 180, you'll likely see meaningful results. And by day 365, you could have transformed your business entirely.

The key is starting now and maintaining consistency. The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is today.

The Long View Wins

Marketing for fractional experts isn't about tricks or hacks. It's about demonstrating your expertise consistently to the right audience until they need what you offer.

Be patient. Be consistent. Be valuable. The results will come - not overnight, but sustainably. And when they do, you'll have built a foundation that supports your business for years to come.

Mylance

‍This value-added article was written by Mylance. Mylance takes your marketing completely off your hands. We build the marketing machine that your Fractional Business needs, but you don't have time to run. So it operates daily, growing your brand, completely done for you.Instead of dangling numbers in front of you, our approach focuses on precise and thoughtful input: targeted outreach to the right decision makers, compelling messaging that resonates, and content creation that establishes trust and legitimacy.To apply for access, submit an application and we'll evaluate your fit for the service. If you’re not ready for lead generation, we also have a free, vetted community for top fractional talent that includes workshops, a rates database, networking, and a lot of free resources to support your fractional business.