It happens to the best of us. You create a marketing campaign and launch it with high hopes of success. It looks great on paper and you sit back, ready to reap the rewards of your hard work.
Then it happens.
That great campaign falls flat- like a lead balloon.
Now you are left with a hole in your marketing budget thanks to a marketing strategy that doesn’t perform. You’ve just crashed and burned. What now? Where do you go from here?
Is there life after a failed marketing strategy?
Some of our best lessons are found in our failures.
The good news is, you will survive. You can come back from this – and come back better. Here’s how to climb out of that hole and get back on top.
Try to start mitigating when you first see it circling the bowl.
The earlier you can get on top of a failing marketing campaign, the less damage there will be. This is why goal setting and monitoring are so important. Remember, everyone who has launched a marketing campaign has experienced a failed one at some point. It doesn’t have to mean that the campaign is a total loss.
Everyone has had that aha moment when they realize their campaign is in the toilet. The next steps separate the beast from the bunny. Are you going to hide away timidly, or are you going to take it on, head on, and win? The earlier you start mitigation, the better.
Tighten up your marketing strategy with AB tests.
If you aren’t monitoring your marketing, you need to start NOW, today. It’s that important. The run AB tests so you can see what is working and what isn’t. You can get some very specific, useful data with just a couple of simple AB tests. And you can even do it with your social media.
Experiment with different designs, messages, content, everything. Find out what your target audience responds to best and keep gathering intel, applying it to our campaigns. This also gives you the security of early detection so you can act quickly.
Look at what your competitors are doing and say something unique.
The marketing world is c-o-m-p-e-t-i-t-i-v-e. When it comes to social media and content marketing, it can be downright brutal. Your target audience has literally thousands of other brands fiercely competing for their attention – and their business.
So, if you are out there looking like your competitor, saying what they are saying, what is there to make you stand out? Then you just blend into the woodwork, the plain little wallflower, never noticed.
Don’t be that wallflower! Find your voice and approach your marketing from a new direction. Give your audience something they won’t see elsewhere.
Create a cohesive strategy.
Marketing strategies are nothing more than individual components that come together. Well, in a perfect world they all come together. If your campaign is not cohesive you will get a strategy that is all over the place. And failure is soon to follow.
Take some time, sooner rather than later, to sit down and really evaluate your marketing strategy, piece by piece. Look for ways that they connect to the overall strategy as well as the goals. If you don’t see the connection, make the necessary adjustments to get it there or consider scrapping it.
Reevaluate and hone your target audience.
Targeting a broad audience may seem like a good idea. You have to reach a lot of people to get conversions, right?
Well, not necessarily.
It is actually the smarter move to hone your target audience and market to them. This way your leads are relevant. These are people who want or need your produc tor service.
The shotgun approach (spray and pray) seldom works. Bring your target audience into tight focus and market to them. Relevance is the key.
When all else fails, go in a whole new direction.
Sometimes a marketing campaign really is a lost cause. Sometimes you just need to scrap it and try something new. Now, don’t go reinventing the wheel. If you have a great strategy, try a new angle. Freshen your content. Sharpen your focus.
Then again, if you see that you need a new strategy altogether, then just do it. This does not mean that strategy is wrong; it just might not be right for right now. Keep it in your pocket for now. It might work at another time.
Don’t let a marketing failure derail all of your efforts.
Things happen. Situations change. Audiences evolve. Businesses grow. It’s all part of the deal. You market your business (or someone else’s) and there will be failures. There will also be successes.
What you need to remember is that no marketing campaign is 100% successful – ever. Just don’t cling to a campaign that is dead in the water. If you do, you’ll just go down with it.
Let go, regroup, and tackle it from another direction.
If you find that you need some fresh content or ad copy, see Writer Access first. We have some of the best freelancers in the business and they’re ready to help you with your marketing campaign. Call today or visit our website to connect with one of our friendly, knowledgeable representatives then get your marketing where it should be.
Stephanie M is a writer living in East Central, Alabama, but she didn’t always lead such a peaceful, carefree life. A few years ago she made a daring escape from the “cube farm” at a Federal Agency in Washington, D.C. (after eight very long years) where she worked. as an analyst focusing on disaster response, technical writing, program management, and FOIA.
