Your Marketing Has Good Bones. So What’s Lurking in the Attic?
Every business has a few skeletons in its marketing closet.
Maybe there’s a website page nobody’s touched since 2021. An email list collecting cobwebs. Or an advertising campaign that’s been running for months, quietly draining the budget.
And then there’s that contact form nobody realized was broken.
Terrifying.
In the spirit of Halloween, we’re opening the doors to the marketing haunted house. Let’s see what’s hiding inside and what you can do about it.
Room 1: The Website That Time Forgot
You enter the first room. Everything looks okay.
But the homepage is still advertising a service you discontinued two years ago. The team page features employees who haven’t worked there in ages. Somewhere in the basement, a blog post from 2020 is still wishing everyone a Happy New Year.
Your website might look perfectly fine at first glance, but outdated information can create confusion.
And if your business has grown, expanded its services, or changed its target audience, your website needs to keep up.
Time for a review?
Start with your five most visited pages. Review the information, test your contact forms, and check whether each page gives visitors a clear next step.
You might be surprised by what you find.
Room 2: The Social Media Graveyard
Here lie the abandoned Facebook pages, forgotten LinkedIn accounts, and content calendars that never made it past January.
RIP.
The last post? A company Christmas party from two years ago.
An inactive social media presence can raise questions about how active your business is, especially when someone is researching your company for the first time.
Of course, you don’t need to be everywhere. Your business might benefit more from a strong LinkedIn presence than posting daily on five different platforms.
How to raise your content from the dead:
Find out where your audience actually spends time.
Then build a content calendar you can maintain. Share recent projects, industry insights, company news, and answers to questions your customers are already asking.
Consistency gives people a reason to keep checking in.
Room 3: The Landing Page of No Return
Congratulations! Your ad worked.
Someone clicked.
They arrived at your website.
And then…
Nothing.
No inquiry. No phone call. No form submission.
Just another visitor who disappeared without a trace.
This particular marketing mystery is more common than you might think.
Sometimes, visitors land on a page that doesn’t match the ad they clicked. Other times, they’re greeted by a lengthy form, confusing navigation, or an offer that takes too much effort to understand.
Follow the footprints:
Open your ad and click through it like a potential customer.
Does the landing page deliver what the ad promised? Is the next step obvious? How long does it take to complete the contact form?
Review your analytics to see where visitors are leaving. That information can help you identify where your marketing funnel needs attention.
Room 4: The Budget-Eating Monster
Deep inside your marketing department lives a creature with an expensive appetite.
It feeds on monthly ad spend, outdated campaigns, and the phrase, “We’ve always done it this way.”
Nobody knows exactly what it’s producing.
But every month, it gets fed again.
If you’re investing in marketing without reviewing performance, you could be spending money on campaigns that no longer support your business goals.
And impressions alone won’t tell you whether your marketing is generating valuable opportunities.
How to tame the beast:
Take a closer look at what your campaigns are actually delivering.
Track qualified leads, conversions, and the cost of acquiring new business. Compare results across channels and identify which campaigns deserve more attention.
You may discover opportunities to adjust your spending and improve performance.
The Final Room: The Strategy That Never Existed
You made it through the website, escaped the social media graveyard, and survived the budget monster.
Then you find one last door.
Behind it is a marketing calendar filled with random promotions, last-minute ideas, and campaigns that don’t seem connected to anything.
There’s no clear direction.
And that’s perhaps the scariest discovery of all.
Without a defined strategy, even well-designed ads and great content can struggle to produce consistent results.
Your marketing should support specific business objectives. That means understanding who you’re trying to reach, what action you want them to take, and how you’ll measure success.
The way out:
Start by identifying your most important business goals for the next quarter.
Then review your current marketing activities. Which ones directly support those goals? Which need to change?
Use those answers to build a plan that gives your team a clearer direction.
Every Haunted House Has an Exit
The good news is that most marketing nightmares are fixable.
A neglected website can be updated. An abandoned content calendar can be revived. Underperforming campaigns can be reviewed and improved.
And you don’t have to wait until something goes terribly wrong to start making changes.
With the end of the year approaching, now is a good time to investigate what’s been hiding in your marketing strategy.
Got a Marketing Skeleton in Your Closet?
At JHD, we’ve seen our share of marketing mysteries. We help businesses examine their websites, campaigns, and digital strategies to find opportunities for improvement.
If something isn’t working, we’ll help you figure out why and what to do next.
Ready to get those skeletons out of the closet? Fill out the form below, and let’s talk.
No jump scares. We promise.
Jason Bass is a marketing strategist, community builder, and founder who turns bold ideas into real momentum. At the helm of Jason Hunter Design, Pixel Partner Digital, and The Citizen, he brings clarity to chaos, structure to startups, and firepower to brands ready to scale. Known for his visionary thinking and down-to-earth leadership, Jason helps businesses grow — not just in revenue, but in purpose and impact.