How to Decide Where to Invest Your Marketing Time, Money, and Energy

There are 144 people subscribed to my podcast on Apple Podcasts. Over the last 60 days, 12 of them listened there, and only nine stayed for more than half an episode. If you've ever looked at numbers like that and wondered where to invest your marketing time, money, and energy, I'm sitting right there with you.

Here's the other side of it. I run a six-figure business. I serve eight clients, and I'm generating the ever elusive 10K+ months. And I still don't have it all figured out.

So this post is me doing what I did on the podcast: processing out loud. I'm walking you through the numbers I'm looking at, what my gut is telling me, and how I'm deciding what stays and what goes heading into the fourth quarter. If you're a founder asking yourself the same questions, I hope this gives you permission to ask them honestly.

How Do You Decide Where to Invest Your Marketing Time, Money, and Energy?

Start by naming the job each channel has in your business, then look at two kinds of data: the numbers on the dashboard and how the work feels. When a channel isn't doing its job and you dread showing up for it, both are worth listening to.

This month, when it was time to sit down and plan October's podcast episodes, I felt so much resistance. Then when it was time to record, I didn't want to talk about the topic I'd originally chosen. That resistance told me something. It told me it was time to step back and look at the whole picture, including the questions I've been sitting with since I mapped out my own Cornerstone strategy here back in July and August.

What Is My Podcast's Job, and Is It Doing It?

My podcast has two jobs: generating conversations and creating content I can use on other platforms. Right now, the numbers tell me it isn't fully doing either one.

My podcast was never about volume. It's about conversations with guests, conversations with you about the mental load of marketing, and the conversations I hope to have with people who heard something on the show or saw a clip that resonated with them.

According to Buzzsprout, the show gets about 30-ish downloads a week. Some weeks more, some weeks less. But downloads don't equal listens. You can be subscribed to a show and have episodes download automatically without ever pressing play. My own phone is full of podcasts I've downloaded and never listened to.

Then there's the repurposing side. I've been sharing podcast clips consistently for years, with different tweaks along the way. The reach is dismal at best, and the engagement is close to zero. The people liking my clips are my husband (occasionally), my business coach, my former business coach who has become a friend and cheerleader, and a handful of other online friends.

When I ask myself whether the podcast is doing its job as a middle of funnel nurturing tool and a repurposing engine, I don't think it is.

Why Are Relationships and Referrals Still My Biggest Growth Lever?

Every client I have ever landed has come from a relationship or a referral. That's the clearest pattern in my business, so it's where the numbers tell me to spend more time.

So I started an experiment. I downloaded a list of everyone who has ever booked a call with me in Calendly over the past several years, and I've been reaching back out to them. My message is pretty simple: I haven't done a very good job of keeping up with the people in my corner, and that changes now. Your name came up on a spreadsheet (yes, there's a spreadsheet involved). What's going on with you and your business lately? Here's what I've been up to.

I've had 27 conversations in the last month. About half the people I reached out to didn't respond, and that's okay. There's no pressure on them. The other half did, and we've had good conversations about business, life, and all the things.

Here's the hard part about relationship marketing: it's a long game. I can measure how many conversations I had, how many replies I got, and how much time I spent. What I can't measure yet is whether any of it leads to a client. That might take months. It might take years. Relationships and referrals have a long runway, and you won't see the results right away.

Are Vanity Metrics Telling You the Truth About Social Media?

Not always. I had a reel reach 51,000 views recently, and it brought in football fans instead of ideal clients or community members who could support my business goals.

We love looking at social media numbers because they give us instant validation. A comment, a share, a repost feels like proof that the market is listening. And my numbers on LinkedIn and Instagram are all over the place.

That viral reel was about football, so it attracted people who like football. It didn't bring me followers who might hire me or connect me with other business owners.

When I ask what social media's job is in my business, I think about the whole funnel. At the top, it's discovery through reach and ads. In the middle, it's engagement and connection: sharing my thought process, how I help people, and what it looks like to be a mom founder. At the bottom, it's conversion, where someone decides they want me in their corner as their marketing director and books a call. So far, social media isn't doing that job.

What I Learned From Outsourcing My LinkedIn

From July through September, I ran an experiment. I hired a LinkedIn specialist to help with my presence there. She repurposed content I'd already created for the podcast and Instagram, and she created some original content too.

Her strategy was built around volume. She was sending 20 to 40 connection requests a day on my behalf. But I'd estimate only about 5% of those requests went to people I'd consider my ideal audience, whether that's a potential client or a community member. It felt off. I kept asking myself why we were doing it.

The content she created wasn't getting more reach or engagement than the content I'd been repurposing myself from Instagram. And having someone else connect and engage for me felt inauthentic. Instagram is where I like to hang out. LinkedIn already feels a little less natural for me, and outsourcing the relationship part made that worse.

I had committed to 90 days, and I ended the experiment before then. My gut told me it wasn't the right strategy for me right now. She was professional and responded well to my feedback, and if you're comfortable having someone handle engagement for you, I'm happy to pass along her name. It wasn't the right fit for me at this time. (If you're weighing LinkedIn too, I talked through the personal profile vs. business page decision in an earlier episode.)

Should You Spend Money on Ads or Invest in a Warm Audience?

I don't know yet, and I'd rather tell you that than pretend. I'm weighing cold traffic ads against paying for visibility with a warm audience of ideal clients, and I haven't made the call.

I've been experimenting with social media ads all year without much success. I rewrote an entire landing page, so part of me wants to give it a fair chance with some ad dollars behind it and see if the new messaging lands better with a cold audience.

Another option is investing in a networking group I'm already part of, through a featured spotlight or approved member placement where I'd get more visibility with a pool of my ideal clients.

And then there's a third option: taking that money and paying myself a little more. A new set of golf clubs sure would come in handy. Honestly, I'd rather spend that money on golf clubs than give it to Mark Zuckerberg.

Email is on the list too. Are people reading? Is it worth sitting down to write an email every single week? All of those questions are swirling at once.

Do You Need to Keep Marketing When Your Business Is Busy?

Yes. Clients come and go, so marketing while you're busy protects you for the season when you won't be. The harder question is how much marketing your current season calls for.

With my current roster of clients, I could probably work 10, 15, even 20 hours less per week if I stopped marketing myself and only did client work. I could play more golf, read more books, and spend more time with my son, including helping with homework (not my favorite part, but it has to get done).

But as a marketer, I know better. Contracts end. Clients don't renew. Something changes in their business, and the work wraps up. That's how it works, and it's okay. It's also why I can't stop marketing completely, even when I feel like I'm at capacity.

You might be sitting where I am, wondering if you even need to grow the business, or if you want to. Those are fair questions, and the answers should come from your life and your capacity. It's the heart of what I mean when I say consistent, not constant.

Why Is Not Deciding Still a Decision?

Choosing to keep going is a decision, even if it doesn't feel like one. When you don't stop, change, or scale back anything, you've decided that's where your time, money, and energy will keep going.

I hate uncertainty. It's so uncomfortable. Part of me wants to sit back and wait for the answer to come to me. But waiting is still a choice.

So for me, the question is whether I lighten my load in Q4. What would happen if I opened up some capacity to see what comes to me? What would it look like if I wasn't recording a podcast every single week, posting every day, spending time and money in Ads Manager, or holding myself to a set number of outreach conversations per week? I don't know yet. And I might be experimenting with some of that in October.

I'm also paying attention to data that doesn't show up on a dashboard. Hosting The Marketing Mixer excites me. Inviting people to it feels good and energizing. That's a signal too. Your gut and your energy count as data, right alongside your download numbers and your engagement rates.

What I'm Changing in Q4

When I hit record on that episode, I hadn't fully decided to change the podcast schedule. By the end, after talking it through out loud, I had.

For the fourth quarter, the podcast is moving to every other week instead of every week. I'm committing to that for Q4, and then I'll check in on how it feels. We can always change course and pivot down the road.

I'll still be showing up on Instagram, especially in stories, because that's where I like to hang out. I'll keep sharing this journey of how a marketer decides how to market her own business in a season of uncertainty. And I'll keep highlighting what running a business as a mom founder looks like, the messy middle included.

Come Process It Out Loud With Us

If you're in a similar season of uncertainty, you don't have to sort it out alone. Our next Marketing Mixer is November 19, and we have honest conversations like this one every single time. It's a space for mom founders to connect, talk a little about marketing, and talk a lot about the mental load of marketing, running a business, and being a mom. We support each other and cheer each other on.

Save your spot for the next Marketing Mixer: https://www.theconsistencycorner.com/mixer

And if this resonated, send me a DM on Instagram @theconsistencycorner. Especially if you're an external processor like me, I'd love to hear what you're sitting with.