Marketers plan the high-level vision, messaging, and execution of their campaigns in excruciating detail, aspiring to generate a meaningful return on investment (ROI). Unfortunately, marketing campaigns don’t always go this way.
How do you handle a failing marketing campaign? And what should you do next?
Establish an Authority
First, you should establish an authority within your organization, especially if you don’t already have one. The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is typically the locus of accountability for marketing in larger organizations, but you may or may not have one in place, especially if you’re just starting out.
If you don’t have a CMO, it might be a good idea to hire a fractional CMO. A fractional CMO is a kind of temporary, as-needed CMO. You can hire them as a contractor for a limited engagement or for ongoing needs as you see fit. As a kind of external consultant, your fractional CMO won’t have all the responsibilities and obligations of a typical CMO, but they can serve as a leader and guide for your marketing strategies.
In any case, it is important to have one or more people in charge of improving your marketing strategies. These people will identify the root causes of your marketing failures and recommend solutions for better results in the future.
Understand That Failure Is Part of the Process
Understandably, many business leaders see failed marketing campaigns as exclusively detrimental. But this isn’t quite the case: in fact, failure can be part of the marketing process. Each failure in your advertising and marketing campaigns will teach you some valuable lesson, assuming you’re open to receiving that lesson. What’s important is that you figure out why the failure occurred so you can prevent such an eventuality in the future. If you can do this, each new marketing strategy you implement is going to be better and more effective and, accordingly, less likely to fail.
Analyze the Root Causes
One of the most important strategies to implement at this point is an analysis of root causes. In other words, why did your marketing strategy fail?
You probably already studied the data if you know enough to identify this as a failure. You know that you’ve gotten a negative or neutral return on investment (ROI) from this specific tactic, or you’ve otherwise been unable to achieve your objective goals.
Knowing that, why did this failure occur?
These are some of the most critical points to analyze:
Audience
You should start by looking at your target audience and your understanding of them. Do you feel confident that you’ve properly identified your target demographics? Did you do all the requisite market research to properly understand how those people think and interact with the world? Do you have customer personas developed, and did you use those customer personas as part of your brainstorming and development? Improper audience understanding is a common reason for marketing failure.
Competition
Next, look at your competition. You may have properly analyzed your audience and created effective messaging for them. Still, you won’t stand out if your competitors have beaten you to the punch or have more compelling messaging. It’s important to differentiate your business and outdo your competitors in at least some regard if you want your marketing materials to be effective.
Channels
Is the failure attributable to choosing a platform or channel that isn’t appropriate for your audience or goals? For example, more than half of TikTok users are between 18 and 34 years old, with only 14 percent of users who are 55 years old or older. Advertising on TikTok isn’t a good idea if you exclusively market to older demographics.
Messaging (high-level)
Consider your messaging at the highest level. What feelings are you trying to stir in your audience? What problem are you trying to solve, and how are you presenting your solution? Why would an audience member find this messaging compelling?
Messaging (low-level)
From there, you can look at your messaging at a low level. What design, copywriting, and other presentation decisions did you make for your marketing campaigns? How could you make these efforts more effective and persuasive?
Begin Anew
Once you’ve successfully analyzed the root causes, you should be able to walk away with key lessons that can inform and support your future marketing efforts. How can you adjust your understanding of your audience? Which channels should you cut, and which ones should you integrate into your work? How can you adapt your messaging? This probably won’t be the last marketing failure your business encounters, but if you keep learning from those failures, you’ll be on a solid road to long-term success in your marketing campaigns.
Photo by Eva Bronzini: Pexels
