Top 4 Reasons Marketing Fails
Ask a business owner or leader and many will tell you they wish marketing would cost less and achieve more. While most businesses know that marketing is an essential part of maintaining their business, the time and know-how it takes to execute successfully can be a top source of frustration for many. Add in the pandemic, which has turned many marketing strategies on their heads, and you’ll find many leaders concerned that their marketing strategy doesn’t fit today’s socially distanced landscape of today.
Here are some ways we help ensure better results for your marketing efforts:
Don’t skip the planning part. A lot of businesses try a ‘throw-it-on-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks’ approach to their marketing. They may try something they’ve read about, or heard a colleague boast about having good results. They do very little research to uncover if it’s a good match for their own business and an effective way to reach their ideal clients.
Having a strategic plan may be the “unsexy side” to marketing, but it is the glue that sticks. Just like a builder wouldn’t construct a new house without a thorough blueprints the same principle goes for marketing. Now more than ever, having a plan works.
Know your tactics. There are about 300 marketing tactics available to us but only 15 are truly useful in our socially distanced environment right now. Just like having the right tools to paint your spare bedroom makes the job easier, utilizing the right marketing tools is crucial for lead generation success. Not all marketing tools are created equal. Some ‘capture’ leads, others ‘drive’ traffic. Some tools are passive, others are active. A few are just right for ‘staying in touch.’ Having the right mix is a recipe for success.
Know your audience. Marketing experts tend to say this to exhaustion – but it’s a core truth in effectively marketing your business. One of the most frequently seen mistakes is when a business attempts to market to ‘everybody.’ The reason this doesn’t work is that it’s expensive and difficult to frame a message that reaches ‘everybody.’
Instead, reaching out to your ideal audience segments let your marketing dollars work smarter for you. Spending the bulk of your budget on your ‘dream client’ is a more cost effective approach than spraying a little bit of money trying to reach everyone.What are their needs and pains? What problems can your company solve for them? What is their buying process? Grouping your customers by segment is key.
Do more than one thing. The term “muti-pronged approach” is talked about a lot. Here’s what it means. When you put your ideal audience at the heart of your marketing strategy, your tactics will find your messaging at every turn. You know it’s working when your prospect says, ‘I see you guys everywhere!’
Many marketing approaches try one tactic at a time for a few reasons: they can easily measure if it’s working, and also to simplify managing funds. And while that makes sense, it’s counter-productive. Marketing is like putting money in a savings account – the results are cumulative. Each marketing tactic builds off the others.
Using more than one tactic is important. Be diverse. This approach provides your business with more opportunities to get in front of them that will pull them closer to your business.
Thinking that you want to make better use of your marketing budget? Let’s have a conversation.
