Marketing Got Harder This Year, and Wellbeing Practices Are Not Imagining It

LOCALiQ's 2026 survey of 500-odd UK marketing professionals found most of them think marketing has got noticeably harder in the last year, and rather a lot of them feel overwhelmed by how fast it keeps changing. This includes practices like yours, even if nobody surveyed you directly.

Page updated: 13 Aug 2026

Whole-practice growth for wellness practices. Rooted in Wiltshire, UK, working worldwide.

Small wellbeing practices juggling marketing on the side can take some comfort in knowing the professionals are struggling too, though comfort doesn't pay for adverts.

Original Research	A survey of UK marketing professionals reporting rising difficulty and a sense of being swamped by change.
Source	https://localiq.co.uk/blog/uk-digital-marketing-statistics
Overview	LOCALiQ polled over 500 UK businesses on satisfaction with marketing, budgets, training gaps and which channels they actually use.
Year	2026
Publisher	Brand, LOCALiQ
Relevance to Wellbeing	Strong evidence for general marketing overwhelm, but the survey wasn't aimed at wellbeing practices specifically, so treat it as a mood reading rather than a niche diagnosis.
Our Verdict	Too early to tell it confirms the general mood rather than anything specific to coaches, therapists or clinics.
Our Summary	Confirms marketing overwhelm is near-universal, not a personal failing. Useful shorthand for explaining to clients why marketing needs a proper plan, not more ad-hoc posting. Sample is UK businesses generally, not wellbeing practices, so exact percentages may not translate. No breakdown by business size or sector, so it's hard to know how small solo practices fared.
Our Geo View	Applies broadly to all countries, though the underlying sample was UK-only.

Abstract of wellbeing niches and revenue flow

Recognise how this might impact your practice

Why this might matter to you

Coaching: this matters because if marketing feels harder for you lately, it isn't because you've lost your touch, it's the general climate.
Therapy: this matters because clients who ask why your marketing seems patchy will accept "everyone's struggling with this" more readily than they'll accept silence.
Training: this matters because trainers juggling bookings and content often feel behind, and the data says that feeling is shared by nearly everyone else too.
Alternative Healing: this matters because if the digital noise feels louder than the work itself, that's apparently the industry-wide experience, not just yours.
Clinical: this matters because clinics weighing up whether to invest in proper marketing support now have evidence that doing it alone is genuinely getting harder.
Retreat/Centre: this matters because centres relying on word of mouth may need to accept that word of mouth alone is fighting a much noisier battlefield than it used to.

Where this came from

LOCALiQ asked several hundred UK marketing professionals how they were coping, and the answer, roughly, was "not brilliantly".

LOCALiQ, UK State of Digital Marketing Report, 2026. Full source, not paywalled.

Credibility flags: survey-based, sample size over 500, methodology disclosed at a summary level; publisher is a commercial marketing brand rather than an academic or government body.

How we scored this

A relevance score out of 100, built from three things: how well it fits the six practice types, how recent it is, and how solid the methodology behind it is.

55%

Practice fit, 25How new, 100How solid, 50

Marked down slightly on method confidence since it's a brand-run survey rather than independently conducted, but scores well on recency and reasonably on practice fit given how transferable general marketing overwhelm tends to be.

It's worth considering changes to your marketing practices

What this means for your marketing

Put a line on your website or in your newsletter acknowledging that marketing has genuinely got harder this year, so clients don't think it's just you.
Say it before it comes up: mention to clients upfront that you've brought in support because doing it all solo stopped making sense.
Brief your team, if you have one, that "we're all overwhelmed by this" is now a documented industry fact, not an excuse.
Stop chasing every new platform or trend this month and pick one channel to do properly instead.
Use the stat in a social post if it fits your tone, but check it still holds true before you quote a hard number.

Who this is most useful for

Practice type	Relevance	Recommended action
Coaching	Medium	Use it to reassure clients that marketing struggles are widespread, not personal.
Therapy	Medium	Reference it when explaining slower marketing progress to clients or supervisors.
Training	Medium	Use as backup for investing time or budget in proper marketing help.
Alternative Healing	Low	Treat as general context rather than direct guidance.
Clinical	Medium	Cite when justifying marketing spend to partners or practice managers.
Retreat/Centre	Medium	Use to explain why word-of-mouth alone may no longer be enough.

Best before: revisit when LOCALiQ publishes its next annual report, likely early 2027.

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