Why Isn't My Marketing Working? The One Question That Fixes It

Why getting reviews and feedback isn't enough - and what manufacturing businesses really need to understand about their customers.

Here's something that might surprise you: most manufacturing business leaders think they know their customers, but the truth is they often don't.

I see this constantly when working with SMEs in manufacturing.

They get reviews, feedback (good and bad), and chat to customers regularly. From all this, they build an impression of who their customers are and what they want.

But there's a massive difference between getting feedback and having genuine customer insights.

And this gap is what's making your marketing feel like you're shouting into the void - even when you're investing in outsourced marketing services or trying to build marketing capability internally.

Why your marketing isn't working: the real problem Manufacturing SMEs face

I always recommend customer interviews as part of any proper marketing strategy for SMEs. But here's where I get challenged every single time: I tell businesses to interview their absolute best customers - the ones who absolutely love them.

"Surely you should interview the unhappy customers?" people ask. "Wouldn't that give you better insights into what's wrong?"

Here's why that's backwards thinking, especially for manufacturing businesses.

Unhappy customers have already told you what's wrong. They've moaned about delivery times, complained about specifications, and generally made their feelings clear.

That feedback is useful for operations and customer service, but it doesn't help you understand why people choose you in the first place.

What you really need to understand - particularly if you're looking to grow your manufacturing business and stop wondeting why your marketing isn't working - is why your best customers keep coming back again and again.

These are the people who represent your ideal customer base - the ones you want more of.

The one question that changes everything

When I do customer interviews for SME marketing consultancy work, there's one question that consistently unlocks the real insight: 

"What was going on in your business when you first needed our product?"

This isn't about features and benefits. It's about getting to the emotional and commercial trigger behind their purchase decision.

Let me give you an example from one of our manufacturing clients.

Instead of hearing "I needed better quality components," they discovered stories like: "Our biggest customer was threatening to walk away because our previous supplier kept letting us down on delivery dates. I was facing the possibility of losing 30% of our revenue and having to make redundancies."

See the difference?

One is a rational need ("better quality components"), the other is an emotional and commercial story ("I was facing potential business failure").

Why this matters more than you think for marketing

Understanding these emotional triggers transforms how you approach marketing for manufacturing business and solves the puzzle of why marketing isn't working.

Because here's the truth about how people buy:

People buy with their heart first, then justify with their head.

This applies just as much in B2B as B2C.

Yes, B2B marketing tends to be heavily features and benefits driven, but the people making those purchasing decisions are still humans. They're still driven by emotions, pressures, and personal motivations.

When you understand what was really going on in your customer's business when they first needed your product, you can speak to those same emotions and situations when marketing to prospects facing similar challenges.

The strategic value of real customer insights for Manufacturing SMEs

This isn't just nice-to-know information. Proper customer insights become the foundation for everything else in your strategic marketing:

Your messaging becomes more relevant because you're speaking to real situations, not imagined problems.

Your content resonates more deeply because you're addressing the emotional triggers behind rational needs.

Your advertising converts better because you're connecting with prospects at the moment they're experiencing those same triggers.

Your positioning becomes clearer because you understand what customers actually value about working with you.

This is particularly crucial if you're working with a marketing consultant or marketing agency - or if you're building internal marketing capability.

Without these insights, you're asking your marketing team to build strategy on assumptions rather than facts, which is often why marketing isn't delivering results.

Moving beyond surface-level feedback

Most manufacturing businesses rely on reviews, surveys, and casual conversations for customer insights. While this feedback has value, it only gives you surface-level information.

Customer interviews go much deeper. They help you understand:

• The emotional context behind purchase decisions

• The real problems customers are trying to solve (versus what they say they're solving)

• How they felt during the decision-making process

• What really matters to them (versus what they think should mattr)

• Why they chose you over alternatives

  
  

This depth of understanding is what separates marketing strategy from tactical marketing.

Most marketing "strategy" is really just tactical planning.

Real strategy starts with understanding your customers at this deeper level.

Getting customer insights right for your Manufacturing business

If you're going to invest time in customer interviews - whether you're doing them yourself or working with outsourced marketing support - here are the key principles:

Interview your best customers, not your worst. You want to understand what creates loyalty and advocacy, not what drives complaints.

Ask about context, not just features. "What was going on in your business when..." reveals far more than "What do you like about our product?"

Go beyond the rational. Push for the emotional story behind their decision.

Look for patterns. One interview is interesting; ten interviews reveal trends you can build strategy around.

Don't make it a case study. You're not looking for testimonials about how great you are. You're looking for insights into why people need what you offer.

This is particularly important for manufacturing businesses, where the sales cycle is longer and the consequences of poor supplier choices are significant. Understanding the emotional triggers helps you connect with prospects during those critical decision-making moments.

The bottom line

Marketing without proper customer insights is like trying to have a conversation with someone while wearing a blindfold. 

You might occasionally say something that resonates, but mostly you'll be missing the mark - and that's exactly why your marketing isn't working.

The manufacturing businesses that get this right - that really understand the emotional triggers behind their customers' decisions - are the ones whose marketing feels effortless. Their messaging hits home, their content gets shared, and their sales conversations feel natural.

Because when you truly understand why your best customers love you, you can find more people just like them.

Ready to discover what your customers really think about your business?

If you're a manufacturing SME leader who knows your marketing needs to be more strategic but doesn't have the internal capability to make it happen, our Marketing Discovery Call could be exactly what you need.

We'll conduct a customer insight audit to identify the gaps that might be holding your marketing back, and show you how proper customer understanding can transform your approach to growing your business.

Book your complimentary Marketing Discovery Call here

Your Marketing Department helps ambitious manufacturing SMEs build marketing strategy on solid foundations. Because understanding your customers properly is the first step to marketing that actually works.