Let’s be real. If your business is struggling, it might be time to admit that your scrappy, “figure-it-out-as-you-go” marketing approach has hit its limit—kind of like trying to DIY your home improvements.
Eventually, you gotta call in the pros.
But how do you know you’ve reached that point (other than being stuck on the struggle bus)? Good question. There are a few warning signs we’ve come to recognize through our work with clients, so let’s dig in. We’ll even offer you some cold, hard data to help make it more palatable.
1. Your Leads Went from Stream to Trickle to… Dust
We get it. Realizing your lead generation has all but dried up is panic-inducing. You’re not the only biz owner obsessively checking your CRM, refreshing emails, and wondering if people even know your business exists.
But here’s what the research tells us (we’ll call it both encouraging and terrifying). If you wait longer than 5 minutes to respond to a lead, you could lose them altogether.
Five minutes, folks.
That’s less time than it takes you to decide what to order for lunch, and yet it can make or break a potential sale.
So, if your team is constantly scrambling to keep your pipeline full or you’re watching qualified prospects slip away because you don’t have systems in place to respond quickly, there’s your sign. The goal isn’t to drum up more leads. It’s to put in place systems and processes that close deals. Period.
2. Your Competition Knows Where to Party (Catch Up, Wallflower!)
Nothing stings quite like Googling your own industry terms and watching your competitors dominate every single result while you’re nowhere to be found.
The numbers are pretty brutal: less than 1% of people actually click past the first page of Google results, and the top organic result captures more than 25% of all clicks. Considering this, if you’re not at least on page one, you might as well be invisible.
3. You’re Playing Budget Roulette
Flying by the seat of your pants might work during vacay, but it’s a disaster for biz and marketing. If you’re still using the “try it and let’s see what sticks” approach, we can guarantee your credit card statements will not be impressed.
Gartner’s latest data confirms that 64% of CMOs say they don’t have enough budget to execute their marketing strategy effectively. Worse, marketing budgets dropped to just 7.7% of company revenue in 2024, down from 9.1% in 2023.
So not only is there less money to work with, you also need to be smarter about how you spend it. No clear strategy means expensive trial and error. Which means measuring success is impossible, because whoops… you never defined what success looks like in the first place.
4. Your Website Looks Like a 2010 Relic
This one hits close to home because we’ve all seen it—business owners desperately clinging to a website that “still works” while secretly knowing it looks…bad.
Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab did fascinating research on this. Finding that most users make lightning-fast judgments about your website’s credibility based almost entirely on design and appearance.
Think about that for a second.
All those hours you spent crafting blog posts or about us pages?
Most visitors will judge your entire business based on whether your homepage looks good before they even read a word.
Nutshell? If your site looks wonky on mobile, takes ages to load, or makes a visitor feel like they’ve time-traveled, you’re turning potential customers away.
5. Your Social Media Strategy Is “Post-It and Ghost-It”
75% of B2B buyers use social media to research vendors.
Social media feels deceptively simple until you realize you need to show up consistently, create engaging content, and somehow please the ever-changing algo gods across multiple platforms that all have their own personalities and rules.
We get it. If you’re like most businesses, you probably start strong, then life happens.
Posts become sporadic, engagement drops, and suddenly your social media presence feels more like social media absence. Meanwhile, your competitors are consistently showing up and building relationships with your potential customers. See the problem?
Reality Check. It Might Be Time for the Cavalry
Look, we’re not here to tell you an agency will solve all your problems or work miracles. But the data on outsourcing marketing functions is pretty compelling.
A solid 51% of B2B businesses now use a mix of both in-house and outsourced marketing solutions. This means they’re not just outsourcing the creative tasks anymore—they’re bringing in outside help for analytics, operations, and strategic planning too.
Why? Because specialized expertise is expensive to build internally, the learning curve is steep. An agency can bring cross-industry experience, proven processes, and access to tools and tech that would cost a fortune to acquire and learn on your own.
A true partnership with an agency doesn’t replace your team; it makes your team stronger. We amplify what you’re already doing. Kind of like adding nitrous to your engine. The result is:
- Higher quality leads that convert
- Better ROI on your marketing spend
- Access to specialized skills without the overhead
- Data-driven insights that make sense
- Strategies that scale with your business
If that sounds attractive, or you’ve identified yourself in any of these scenarios, it might be time to consider some help. And no, that doesn’t mean you’ve failed at marketing—it means you’re smart enough to recognize when specialized expertise can accelerate your growth. Let’s chat.
Helpful Resources:
https://stellapop.com/social-media-marketing-strategies-that-convert/
https://stellapop.com/create-a-killer-marketing-strategy-to-devour-your-competition/
http://stellapop.com/the-loop-how-stellapop-gets-work-done-and-done-better/
