Not all marketing activity is successful. In our experience there are four main reasons why marketing fails:
1. It wasn’t targeted enough
There are too many people in the world to target everyone, plus it’s impossible to have universal appeal. Consequently, an un-targeted “spray and pray” approach rarely gets results.
2. It used the wrong channels
It can be easy to get sucked into using a channel that doesn’t fit your customer base. For example advertising on a website that isn’t a good match, or focusing on Instagram when your customers use LinkedIn. No matter how many people you reach with your marketing, if they aren’t the right people, it won’t have any impact.
3. The approach was too ad-hoc
Trying random marketing tactics as and when rarely works, plus it can be difficult to measure results. Audit your marketing, understand your audience, identify their pain points and help them solve them, and incorporate this insight into a marketing strategy which drives results.
4. It wasn’t joined up
For anyone outside your business it is confusing if your business looks different, sounds different or has a different message when they encounter you in different places. Understanding your brand, tone of voice and how you communicate will bring clarity and consistency to your messaging.
What to do instead?
The most effective marketing campaigns are planned to achieve specific objectives. They target a specific audience with consistent activity across the channels used by the target audience.
