Where do your customers actually find you?

Have you ever stopped to ask where your customers actually find you?

Not where you post.
Not where you feel you should be.
But where people genuinely discover your business, decide to trust you, and eventually book or buy.

One of the biggest misconceptions in marketing is that you need to be seen everywhere.

Instagram.
Email.
LinkedIn.
Google.
Something new because everyone else seems to be doing it.

So marketing starts to sprawl. A bit here, a bit there, a newsletter when there’s time, a post squeezed in between everything else. It looks busy, but it rarely feels intentional - and it’s exhausting!

Activity isn’t the same as effectiveness

Most businesses aren’t short on effort. They’re short on certainty.

When you’re not quite sure where your customers come from, every channel feels like a risk. So instead of choosing, you hedge. You show up everywhere just in case. The result is often marketing that feels reactive and inconsistent, because it’s driven by uncertainty rather than insight.

Slowing down to make better choices

When I work with clients, this is one of the first places we slow things down.

Before channels or content, we look at:

• Who they’re actually trying to reach

• How those people tend to make decisions

• What prompts trust at different stages

• Where attention genuinely sits in their world

For some businesses, Instagram is the right place to focus. For others, it’s email, or Google searches, or repeat customers and word of mouth.
Sometimes it’s collaborations, partnerships, or simply being visible in the right local places. None of these are right or wrong in isolation. They only make sense in context.

Why channel choice feels so overwhelming

Choosing marketing channels feels hard when you start with the channels themselves.

Instagram asks for constant presence.
Email asks for consistency.
LinkedIn asks for a voice you may not feel comfortable using.

When you haven’t first clarified who you’re speaking to and why, every option feels heavy, and marketing becomes something you carry, rather than something that carries the business forward.

Letting behaviour lead the decision

The shift happens when you stop asking where should we be? and start asking how do our customers behave?

Where do they look when they’re researching?
Who do they trust?
What reassures them enough to take action?

Once you understand that, channel decisions become lighter. Fewer platforms, clearer priorities and more breathing space.

Marketing stops feeling relentless and starts to feel intentional.

Less everywhere. More right places.

Most hospitality and lifestyle businesses don’t need to be everywhere. They need to be present, consistently, in the places that matter most to their customers. That clarity alone can remove a surprising amount of pressure.

It allows marketing to support the business in the background, rather than constantly demanding attention.

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Calm, considered marketing for hospitality and lifestyle businesses, shaped by real experience inside the industry.

If you’d like help understanding where your customers actually find you, and how to focus your energy more intentionally, I’m always happy to have a conversation.