A prospective client called me recently, frustrated. She had done everything right – or at least, everything she had been told was right. She was posting consistently on social media. She had run Facebook ads. She had a newsletter. She had a promotional offer with a deadline and everything. But…almost nothing was happening.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “I’m doing all the things! I thought that is what marketing is all about!”
I asked her one question: “Have you taken a look at whether or not your messaging is aligning with the realities that your audience is dealing with right now?”
After thinking for a minute, she admitted that no, she was still basically the same messaging that she had been using for a couple of years, and that had worked for her in the past. And by “the past” she meant 2023-2024.
The Market Has Changed. Most Marketing Hasn‘t.
Here’s something that should give you some interesting food for thought: According to data compiled in the end of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, 68% of small businesses are spending more on marketing this year. Yet, fewer than one in five feel confident any of it is working.
Read that again. More money. Less confidence. That is a gap that anyone who is in charge of marketing for their business really shouldn’t ignore.
This gap is not being caused by lack of effort. Most business people I know are refusing to give up and doubling down instead – raising marketing budgets even when it means cutting back elsewhere – all in the hopes that sales, which have gone flat in nearly every sector – will increase. But there is one thing that most businesses are not considering here, and it’s time that we talk about it.
A lot of businesses are still marketing to who their customers were in 2022-2024, not who they are right now.
And right now, your customers are tired. They’re tired of the ever growing cost of living – groceries, gas, and other necessities eating their budgets. They’re tired of being retargeted by the same ad seventeen times. They’re tired of urgency tactics and countdown timers and “limited time offers” that somehow never actually expire. They’re tired of some guy with a YouTube channel telling them they can make $300,000 in 15 minutes from their couch with AI – or whatever the fad of the moment happens to be – because they know it’s not true, and more than that, they resent being played. They’ve developed a kind of low-grade marketing immunity – a reflex that kicks in the moment something feels like they are being “sold to” – because they are just figuring out how they can afford to get by, never mind spend more money.
Your real competition is not your competitor down the street, or a new trend that everyone is talking about on social media. It’s that immunity – a wall that your customers have built around their attention, and these days? It’s going up faster than ever before.
What Tired, Skeptical Customers Actually Respond To
Contrary to popular belief, skeptical people are NOT impossible to reach. They are just harder to convince. And that distinction matters enormously, because it means the businesses that understand this will have a significant advantage over the ones still running the old playbook from 2 years ago and hoping they will miraculously get the same results today.
Skeptical customers respond to one thing above everything else: the sense that you actually understand their problem. Not clever copy. Not a well-timed offer. Not a beautifully designed campaign. Just genuine relevance, delivered honestly.
This is where psychology-driven marketing earns its keep. Because understanding what your customer is feeling right now – not six months ago, not in an idealized buyer persona document, but right now — is the difference between a message that lands exactly where you want it to land, and one that gets scrolled past without a second thought.
Here are a few things that are working right now, because they respect where customers actually are above just about anything else:
Lead with empathy before you lead with the offer. If your customer is stressed, stretched, and skeptical, the worst thing you can do is open with a hard sell. Acknowledge the reality they’re living in. Show that you see them before you ask them to see you.
Specificity builds trust faster than any claim.
Vague promises — “better results,” “grow your business,” “take your brand to the next level” – have been so overused that they don’t really register with people unless there is substance to back it up. Specific, concrete, honest language cuts through. Instead of telling them nebulous things like “We help businesses grow,” give them something specific that explains HOW, such as: “We help business owners figure out why their marketing isn’t working and fix it.”
Social proof is powerful – but it has to be real.
Customers are savvier than they get credit for. They can smell a manufactured testimonial from a mile away. Authentic, specific, detailed testimonials from real people in real situations carry enormous weight right now precisely because trust is so scarce.
Consistency beats cleverness.
Showing up reliably, saying useful things, and not going quiet between promotions – that’s what builds real relationships right now. Do it while making clear you actually understand what your customer is up against, and you’re not just another business talking at them. That kind of steady, empathetic presence signals stability, and stability is exactly what an exhausted customer needs to see.
The Inconvenient Truth About “Doing All the Things“
Allow me to share with you what I told the prospect which inspired me to write this post (and is now working with us to reconfigure her marketing plan): The answer to marketing that isn’t working is rarely more of it.
More posts, more ads, more emails – none of it matters if the underlying message isn’t connecting with where your customer actually is. And right now, where your customer is is tired, careful, and considerably less patient with marketing that feels like it’s talking at them rather than to them.
The good thing about bad times – whether they be economic, or in general – is that they don’t last forever. The businesses that will look back on this period as one where they still managed to break through to their audiences aren’t necessarily the ones spending the most. They’re the ones paying the closest attention – to their customers, to the market, to the gap between what they’re saying and what’s actually being heard.
That requires strategy. It requires understanding human behavior. It requires being willing to stop, look honestly at what’s working and what isn’t, and make deliberate choices about how you show up.
It is, in other words, the opposite of just “doing all the things.”
The Bottom Line
Your customers haven’t just stopped buying. They are just being more cautious with their spending. They’ve stopped tolerating marketing that wastes their time, insults their intelligence, or ignores the reality they’re living in.
Meet them where they are. Be specific. Be honest. Be consistent. And for the love of everything that is delicious and chocolate: Stop sending them the same retargeted ad for the seventeenth time. That’s not a campaign strategy, people. That’s a digital restraining order waiting to happen, and guarantees they will DEFINITELY not buy something from you.
The good news? When you get this right – when your message actually connects with the person reading it – it is highly likely to work much better than anything you’ve tried before. Because a tired, skeptical customer who decides to trust you is a far more loyal customer than one who was simply dazzled by a flashy offer.
Earn the trust first. Everything else follows.
