In less than five years, the talent industry has weathered a remote work revolution, the Great Resignation, a shift toward skills-based hiring, DEI programs in constant flux, economic downturns, hiring freezes, and an AI tidal wave still finding its level. Honestly, we’re tired just from typing that sentence.
And the challenges don’t stop there…sales cycles are lengthening, buyer behavior is evolving, and attribution has grown more complicated. You’re fighting to stand out, keep your audience engaged, and exceed expectations that keep climbing higher.
With all that in mind, your marketing strategy needs to keep up.
Consider this your marketing reality check. We’re going to explore seven warning signs that your marketing strategy isn’t working, and how to turn things around before 2026 arrives.
Red Flag #1: Lack of Clear and Valuable Goals
The biggest and most common red flag we see when talking with internal marketing teams and executives about their marketing strategy is goal misalignment, or a lack of goals altogether.
Too often, marketing teams operate with vague objectives, like “increase brand awareness” or “generate more leads.” Meanwhile, leadership is laser-focused on revenue growth or customer retention. The disconnect creates the illusion that marketing is “successful” because tasks are completed. But the true impact on business growth isn’t being measured.
What to Watch For
Marketing goals aren’t tied to business goals
If the business is trying to double its revenue, and marketing is focused on producing thought-leadership content that isn’t designed to drive the sales cycle, that’s a misalignment. Every marketing effort should map to a measurable business objective, whether that’s increasing deal size, reducing churn, or expanding into new markets.
Focus on activities versus outcomes
Activity-focused marketing measures effort rather than impact, like tracking emails sent instead of meetings booked or measuring event attendees without connecting to pipeline influenced or deals closed. Yes, activities matter—they’re the engine that drives results—but unless the team ties them to outcomes, marketing risks becoming a cost center instead of a growth driver.
Quick Win: Conduct a 30-minute goal audit
Schedule a focused session with your CEO or leadership team and tackle 3 questions:
- What are the top 3 business objectives for the next 12 months?
- How should marketing specifically contribute to each objective?
- What metrics will prove marketing’s impact on these goals?
Take those answers and change your marketing goals based on them.
Red Flag #2: Your Data is Unclear or Disconnected
Data should inform everything you do, including your marketing strategy. But most of the time, it’s scattered across disconnected platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, your ATS, candidate databases, and that spreadsheet that you’re still using from 2021, leaving your teams struggling to connect the dots.
In fact, a recent study from Quickbase found that upwards of 70% of employees spend around 20 hours a week simply chasing down information from different technologies.
When prospects are expecting more personalization and faster solutions for their problems, fragmented data and the time spent searching for it could be what kills the sale.
What to Watch For
Mismatch between MQLs and SQLs
Do your marketing and sales teams agree on what makes a qualified lead? Or are you constantly fighting about a lead’s score and if they’re sales-ready? If it’s more fights than flow, you’ve got a problem.
Engagement rate mysteries
Quick: How many people attended your last webinar? How many impressions did your last LinkedIn post get? If you can’t find that info easily, you’re missing out on knowing what your audience really cares about.
Buyer journey gaps
Technology and service buyers don’t always follow a predictable buying path. They research, go dark, meet with other providers, and analyze you against criteria you may not even know about. While you may never have full visibility, you should have an understanding of what their journey generally looks like.
Quick Win: Schedule data reviews
Carve out time to review the data you have across all marketing channels. Monthly is a common timeline, but weekly or bi-weekly could also be helpful for your team, especially if you are testing new tactics.
Red Flag #3: Your Content is Generating Noise, Not Interest
Content is how you establish yourself in the market–it’s your thought leadership, your expertise, and how buyers trust you. It should be a cornerstone of your marketing strategy. Many teams mistakenly focus on creating more content when they actually need to create better content.
A LinkedIn study on thought leadership found that “64% of buyers say that an organization’s thought leadership content is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities” versus its marketing materials. Your content should be unique and share your expertise, not just your product or service. And if it’s not driving interest, engagement, and ultimately, revenue, it’s time to reevaluate.
What to Watch For
Low engagement on content
This could be low time on page for blogs (anything less than 2 minutes means they’re probably skimming rather than reading), low watch time on videos, or low impressions on LinkedIn, all signal your content isn’t resonating.
High unsubscribe rate
Overall, a steady number of unsubscribes on your emails isn’t something to worry about. After all, people being clear when they aren’t interested helps you narrow your audience. But if you’re consistently seeing more and more unsubscribes, your content isn’t matching audience expectations.
Lack of speaking offers or industry references
When your content starts finding your audience and making an impact, you’ll see your company being referenced throughout the industry, and speaking opportunities should follow. If those aren’t happening, there’s work to do.
Quick Win: Audit your most successful content
What content pieces are the ones that have driven the most engagement and action? Review them and see what they all have in common. Bring that knowledge into your next content meeting.
Checklist: Is Your Marketing Actually Driving Growth?
Use this checklist to quickly assess whether your marketing is a true growth driver or if it’s
leaving opportunity on the table. Give yourself one point for each statement you can confidently say is true.
Growth Alignment
Revenue Growth & ROI
Market Impact & Momentum
If you checked 0-4 boxes:
You’re focused on activity, not outcomes. Time to align, measure, and build a new strategy.
If you checked 5-8 boxes:
Try taking a more disciplined approach to where you invest and sharpen what makes you different to accelerate growth.
If you checked 9-12 boxes:Your marketing is aligned and driving growth. Double down on what’s working and focus on category leadership.
Red Flag #4: Sales and Marketing Misalignment
We’ve been talking about aligning your sales and marketing teams for a while, and it’s still one of the biggest challenges we see companies facing. But it’s well worth the work to get aligned. A Gartner study found that sales organizations that prioritize alignment with marketing are nearly three times more likely to exceed new customer acquisition targets.
When these teams operate with different definitions of what makes a qualified lead, who the target buyers are, and what messaging should be used, you present an inconsistent front to the market when consistency matters most.
What to Watch For
Departmental finger-pointing
When your marketing team is saying that sales doesn’t follow up with leads correctly and your sales team is saying that marketing isn’t delivering qualified leads, you’ve got a problem.
Lack of shared KPIs
While not all metrics will apply to both teams, there should be some results that both teams are held accountable for.
Poor communication between teams
When was the last time your sales and marketing teams met? Teams should be meeting regularly to share intel, problem-solve, and be a support for each other.
Quick Win: Build shared KPIs
Consider metrics like qualified opportunities, meetings with potential buyers, actual pipeline growth, and revenue per channel (lead source) so your sales and marketing teams can see the full picture.
Red Flag #5: Overreliance on Vanity Metrics
Vanity metrics (think: likes, impressions, views, etc.) are great. They can help you understand when you’re on the right track with your marketing efforts. The problem arises when you focus only on vanity metrics and ignore growth or revenue metrics (marketing-sourced pipeline, qualified meetings, etc.)
What to Watch For
High website traffic, but low conversion rates
You’ve got people coming to your site, but they’re not filling out forms, checking out multiple pages, or staying for a while. That means either 1) you’re being found by the wrong audience or 2) your site isn’t appropriately highlighting what you do and who you do it for.
Good open rates, but no clicks on emails
If you’re consistently seeing a lack of clicks or the click rate is dipping often, you’re not compelling readers to take the next step.
Quick Win: Add UTM links
Adding UTM links can help you understand the customer journey. They also make sure that you’re seeing the real action that people are taking with your marketing.
Red Flag #6: You Sound Like Everybody Else
Take a screenshot of your website. Now take a screenshot of a competitor’s website. Remove the logos. Could you honestly tell the difference?
The fact of the matter is that talent and HR tech companies are notorious for sounding the same across the industry. Every tech product is a “disruption,” and every staffing firm is “dedicated.” Now, those things tend to be true, but market differentiation is going to be the thing that makes your buyers think of you rather than your competitor.
What to Watch For
Lack of understanding in your value proposition
What exactly do you bring to your customers? How is it different from what your competitors provide? It can be hard to define your unique value, but nailing it down will make a world of difference.
Inconsistent or unclear brand voice
Do you sound like an entirely different company depending on the channel you’re posting? Using similar voice and tone across channels can take some work, but consistency is what will make your brand stick.
Quick Win: Talk to your customers
The best way to make sure you sound unique AND appeal to your audience is to mirror the way your customers describe you. Set up some time to speak with your current customers. Listen in on sales calls. Hear how people speak about you and the problems they need you to solve.
Red Flag #7: Inability to Pivot
The new normal is no normal. Strategies that are too beholden to opinions and egos can’t move the way they need to. You need to have a marketing strategy and a game plan, but you need to be willing to move when the tide shifts.
What to Watch For
Decision-making bottlenecks
Having too many people involved in the creation or approval process for new marketing materials can not only cause an influx of drastic edits, but it can also slow down the launch.
Messaging that hasn’t been reviewed in over a year
The market is changing too fast not to review your messaging, website, etc., at least yearly. What worked in 2025 likely won’t work in 2026. While you don’t need to overhaul everything every year, a quick review can make sure you’re still aligned with your goals and your audience.
Quick Win: Establish decision authorities
Create a clear matrix (like a RACI chart) to define who is responsible for what role in a project.
Recognizing these warning signs takes an honest look at your marketing strategy. But turning them into a growth strategy requires specialized expertise in the talent and HR tech markets. That’s exactly what our 360° Marketing Evaluation delivers. During our evaluation, we lead an in-depth assessment to better understand your current marketing, how it’s driving revenue, and, most importantly, how it aligns to your goals. We do a deep dive into:
- Team structure, including roles and responsibilities
- Budget and current investments
- Marketing technology and automation tools
- Goals, current marketing strategy, and campaigns
Then we’ll build a plan that fills in the gaps between where you are and where you need to be so you can hit every goal you have with confidence.
And when you’re ready to get to work, we’re available as a full-service marketing partner. We can fill critical gaps and work alongside your team, as an outsourced marketing agency, or by building out your team with our Recruiting support.
It can be hard to come to terms with things that aren’t working. But the more honest you can be with yourself, the quicker you can see success. Remember: The companies that will lead the talent and HR tech landscape in 2026 are those strategic enough to acknowledge what’s not working, and decisive enough to change it.