You spent hours building something you’re genuinely proud of and then you release it into the world, expecting your audience to eat it up. Instead? Crickets.
Before you decide to burn the whole thing down and convince yourself no one wants what you’re selling, pause. The problem probably isn’t your offer. It’s how you marketed it.
In this episode, I’m breaking down the five questions you need to ask before you throw your offer in the trash, plus what to do when the real issue is visibility, messaging, or positioning, not the actual thing you built.
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Five Questions to Ask Before You Throw Your Offer in the Trash
Let’s walk through the key questions that’ll help you figure out if it’s actually your offer that’s the problem, or if it’s just a marketing issue.
1. Did Anyone Actually See It?
If you posted something once or buried a CTA at the bottom of a newsletter filled with five other things, your people probably didn’t see it.
I was meeting with a client who created this huge valuable resource for their audience. But we didn’t give it its own launch. It was just thrown in as a sidebar CTA in their email newsletter and maybe a post in their Facebook group, where posts get buried fast.
Their response: “Well, we only got 55 downloads.”
Okay! 55 downloads from one low-effort promotion is proof of concept. That tells me the offer is good — you just need more traffic, more awareness. You need to talk about it more.
Did your audience even have a real chance to see what you built?
2. Did You Test Multiple Angles?
If all your content sounded the same — “Hey, here’s my offer, go buy it” — then you didn’t actually market it. You just announced it.
Marketing isn’t repeating the name of your product.
Marketing is telling the story. Painting the picture. Speaking to the pain points. Showing the transformation.
Instead of saying “Here’s this resource,” you need to be talking about:
- Are you experiencing X, Y, and Z? When you download this, here’s what happens.
- Here’s a transformation that happened with my client who did these things.
- Talk about your client’s mentality going into this package. Where they’re at. If they’re in that mental headspace right now, those are the people whose ears perk up.
When you paint that picture and tell that story, people lean in.
You need to hit the same idea from different sides. Try benefit-focused messaging, storytelling, show proof. Test, refine, repeat.
There’s a very good chance your audience will be receptive to some angles and not others. See what works and build off of that.
3. What Actually Happened When People Did See Your Content?
Let’s say people clicked your email link but didn’t convert. That means they’re interested, but your landing page didn’t close the deal. There is interest. It’s just a messaging issue or you don’t have enough information there.
Same thing if people DM you asking about it, then ghost after you share the price or details. You sparked their attention, but something after that initial spark didn’t work.
Track everything. Were there posts that got likes and saves? Comments? Or was it a ghost town?
If people engaged and didn’t buy, it’s probably a messaging, timing, or positioning issue, not an offer issue. The offer has good bones.
But if no one even looked your way, you might have a visibility problem. People aren’t seeing your content enough, or it’s not speaking to them.
4. Was It Clear Who This Offer Was For and What It Helped With?
Clarity is the thing that sells.
Is your content actually saying what the offer does, who it’s for, and why it matters right now? Or did you fall into the cycle of over-explaining, over-naming, or being vague?
There’s a lot of fake marketing where people use corporate buzzwords that don’t actually mean shit.
You’re so wrapped up in your expertise that you’re talking in industry jargon while your audience just wants to know if your recipe will help them bake sourdough bread without it burning. They don’t care about the science of fermentation — they just want to know if it’ll work.
I’m guilty of this too. A few years ago, one of my most popular services was my full suite marketing package, but it never sold as “full suite marketing.” People came in thinking they just needed help with social media. Once we were working together, they realized they needed the full suite, but they didn’t buy into that initially.
When I segmented that offer and renamed the intro part “The Groundwork,” it got eaten up. People love the Groundwork. Same exact offer, different positioning.
My full suite marketing package still exists — it’s just divvied up into three different places to match where my audience is mentally when they’re thinking about what they need.
The offer was good. Nothing technically changed except the naming and positioning.
Because confused people don’t convert. Make it easy and simple!
5. Did Your Offer Match Your Audience’s Level of Readiness?
You might be selling the advanced deep dive when people are still struggling with step one. They won’t buy, not because they don’t need help, but because it feels like too much too soon.
This is why creating an offer suite is valuable. Entry-level offer. Mid-tier offer. High-level offer. Meet people where they’re at.
The Groundwork is my entry-level offer because everybody needs a brand strategy and content strategy in place first. You start with the Groundwork, then you can go into social media, then consulting, once the foundation is laid.
Build packages. Make tiers and brackets. Figure out what your audience is ready for, what they need, and how their brain works so you can match your offer to their readiness level.
But What If It Actually Is the Offer?
Let’s say you’ve genuinely promoted your offer multiple times, you’ve used different content angles. You’ve sent solid amounts of traffic to that webpage, and you still got zero traction.
Then yeah, it’s time to take a closer look at the offer itself and ask:
- Did I create this based on actual audience research, or did I just educatedly guess and miss the mark?
- Does this solve a current and urgent problem that they’re actively trying to fix, or is this solving a problem that I know they have, but they’ve got blinders on right now?
- Does it feel tangible and valuable, or is it confusing and vague?
You can’t force somebody to buy something they don’t want. If the offer itself is confusing, if it’s solving a problem they don’t give a shit about right now, or if that offer is based on what you think they should care about but they don’t, then there’s going to be an issue.
Sometimes the offer is off. But way more often than not, the offer is typically solid and it just needs sharper positioning, clearer copy, more eyeballs, or more time.
The “More Time” Factor
People go hard in the paint for a week, then close cart. But your audience still hasn’t had a chance to see it because they’re busy. They’re in busy season with a million things going on.
When they finally log on and see your offer, they’re like, “Oh my God, this is so cool. I need this. Oh shit, wait, I missed the window.”
I’ve had that happen to me as a consumer. I started reading the sales emails, got excited, clicked over to the sales page, and they’re like, “Sorry, offer’s gone.” Sorry I was late. I guess you don’t want my money!
Your audience isn’t paying attention in the way you think they are. It’s not that people are intentionally ignoring you — they’re just overloaded.
According to Google’s 2025 Holiday Shopping Insights Report, consumers now expect a minimum of seven-plus brand interactions before making a purchase.
If you post once and expect a flood of sales, that’s not realistic. Your audience hasn’t had enough exposure yet to take action.
I think about my own consumer habits. I’m still in the market for a treadmill after three months. I’ve stared at this webpage, read the specs and reviews a bajillion times, definitely more than seven. There’s Black Friday sales going on, and I’m still like, “Maybe.” But I know I’m going to pull the trigger.
Every time I’m interested in someone’s offer and they send me an email, I’m a little bit more like, “Okay, maybe today is the day.”
Final Thoughts
Before you toss out that offer, before you burn it all into the wind and you’re just like, “Everything’s fine, it’s fine, I just wasted all my time and effort” — just test.
Don’t just shout “buy now, buy now, buy now” and expect change.
You don’t need to pivot. Just promote harder. Create more content. Talk about it in different angles. And don’t assume that silence is rejection when it might just be poor visibility.
So get out there more. Give your offer the airtime it needs so it can land with your people and let it roll.
Because nine times out of ten, the offer isn’t actually a miss. It’s just that your marketing isn’t enough, or you’re not marketing it in the right way, using the wrong messages.
Try it out. Test it out. Ramp up your frequency.
You got this.
🎧 Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
