Marketing Campaign Failure: Learn From These 3 Mistakes

Why did your last marketing campaign fail?

Or worse, are you suffering from marketing failures, quarter after quarter?

It’s been said that the best way to solve financial problems within a company is marketing, but if your marketing isn’t generating results, then how can you turn things around?

Here’s a few points to consider as you review where you’re going wrong:

You’re casting too wide of a net

On of the greatest temptation that any marketer grapples with is the concept of more.

Marketers often believe that more leads to more conversions, and those turn into hot leads, or product sales. Therefore, it’s common for marketers to chase after more site visitors.

This often leads to:

• Oversaturation of marketing media
• Erratically chasing the wrong prospects all over the internet with re-targeting
• Re-targeting the wrong marketing targets seemingly to the point of stalking and harassment
• Using social media channels incorrectly in order to advertise
• Making humiliating social media mistakes out of anxiety and neediness

Here’s the thing about more:

Quantity doesn’t always equate to quality.

In fact, quantity and quality are usually mutually exclusive. It doesn’t matter how many site visitors you obtain if those visitors aren’t the type of customers who would buy your product, or convert into a strong sales lead who’s ready to ask for more information to make a substantial purchase.

Think of it in terms of fishing:

You could cast a wide net, but you’d catch a wide variety of fish. Some of those fish wouldn’t be the type you were looking for. Some would be too small, or perhaps, too large. And many would already be dead!

But if you thought about the type of fish you’d like to capture before you went fishing, then you’d take specific steps. You’d use a certain type of tackle and bait. You’d use a certain type of fishing pole, fishing line, or a specific type of net.

And you’d fish for your desired breed in very specific waters. That’s because you already know that certain types of fish can only be found in certain bodies of water. With all of this in mind, you’d use your time and your money far more efficiently, and you’d vastly increase your chance of capturing the type of fish you were looking for!

You made assumptions about the prospect’s next steps.

Here’s the bottom line about calls-to-action:

Unless you’ve included a clear call-to-action at the end of your marketing pitch (creative), then you’re not finished yet!

It should be obvious that after you go through all of the effort in identifying your marketing/sales targets, advertising your product/service, leading your prospects to your site, and pitching your site leads, you’d direct them on the next steps they should take.

But you’ve failed to take this sales generating step…probably because you assumed that your prospects are smart enough to know what to do next.

It’s true that you’d never want to insult their intelligence, but at the same time, assumptions are conversion-killers! On the other hand, it only takes a few extra moments of care to lead your prospects towards the next logical step, and yet, those few extra moments yield a plethora of opportunity, and money!

Customers aren’t clear why they should buy from you

Regardless of how wonderful, life-changing, innovative, meaningful, easy-to-use (add in your favorite superlative) your product is in your mind (marketer), customers could care less unless it means the same in their minds!

Yes, you create, manufacture, or market the product in question, but at the end of the day, the customers hold the cards. They make the decision on whether or not your product is worthy of the time and money it costs them to make a purchase.

With this in mind, you (marketer) need to implement a tool that works in your favor while making your potential customers feel that you’re thinking about their needs:

The unique selling proposition (USP)

The concept behind the USP is very simple. You’re using very concise langue to explain to your prospective customers why yours is the product that’s worthy of their purchase. Plainly, the USP explains what separates you from your competition, and ideally, why you’re different.

Timing really matters

As of the time of this writing, the children in my neighborhood will be back in school within the week. All of the local retailers are stocked to the brim with school supplies, clothing, shoes, lunch snacks, and everything that parents would typically purchase in order to make their children’s first day of school (and the months that follow) a smashing success.

Therefore, it wouldn’t benefit retailers to start advertising, say, athletic gear to help customers to reach their top-of-the-year fitness goals. It would be weird and out of place for retailers to start their Christmas season previews, and it would be a bit out of step for retailers to start advertising Halloween candies, costumes, and decorations.

Just as there are seasons of the year, there are retail seasons, and they need to be respected. In marketing, that means that your advertising and sales copy should address a targeted retail season if you hope to convert with ease.

And having said this, it’s also smart to keep in mind that there are seasons where customers are more prone to spend money than others. During spending lulls, it’s often best to connect with customers by providing helpful, educational information, instead of forcing them to spend money during a downbeat time in spending, across the board.

Tagged digital marketing, eCommerce, marketing, social media