Ten Reasons Why Most Marketing Fails
Are your marketing efforts not delivering the results you expected? If this is the case, this could be due to a multiple reasons some of which I will be explaining in this article on Ten Reasons Why Most Marketing Fails.
Reason 1 - Poor Understanding of What Marketing Really Is
I find that most marketing fails because a large percentage of people do not really understand what marketing really is. Marketing guru Mark Stevens expressed it nicely when he said: "Marketing is not about spending money on such things as advertising, direct mail, and P.R. Those are just tools. Marketing is about growing your business - its revenues, profit, and valuation."
Reason 2 - Setting Your Budget First, Marketing Goals Second
The majority of businesses tend to create a budget first and then set their marketing goals second! This usually results as spending camouflaged as marketing yielding mediocre financial returns. Executing without a strategy just does not make sense.
Reason 3 - No Sales Focus
One of the most common mistakes I see is organisations not realising that the sole purpose of marketing is to support the sales process. Your marketing collateral should be driving lead generation and lead conversion.
Reason 4 - Mass Marketing
Mass marketing is dead. Yet there are plenty of businesses that still engage in this type of "shot gun" approach. Your money is best spent on sending tailored marketing communications to the niche market sub-segments who are likely to engage your services or buy your products.
Reason 5 - Too Linear
More often than not, the marketing efforts of most companies are too linear. By that I mean that they only execute one marketing initiative at a time. Everyday we are bombarded with marketing messages demanding our attention. To gain the attention of your prospective clients you need to adopt a swarming effect. Multiple marketing communications using different media supporting the same message is required to cut through the marketing clutter.
Reason 6 - Inconsistency
Is your branding consistent across all your marketing? Your brochure and website shouldn't look like they're from different companies. Successful marketing is achieved through communicating the same consistent message across multiple marketing tools.
Reason 7 - Believing in Generalities
As a result of the lack of knowledge on what constitutes successful marketing, a large percentage of people adopt marketing generalities or "urban myths" as gospel. Examples include expecting a 1% to 2.5% success rate with direct mail. There are many factors that come into play in determining the success of a marketing campaign. Test and measure to find out what works for your Company.
Reason 8 - Copying Competitors
Those businesses that do not know any better resort to copying the marketing of competitors. There is always a danger with this approach. Not only are you not creating any differentiation between you and your competitors, you run the risk of copying expensive marketing mistakes.
Reason 9 - Marketing efforts not tactical
Most marketing fails due to the lack of a plan or structure. Usually this results in the use of marketing initiatives that are not tactical leading to poor outcomes. If you are not consistent and regular in the way that you communicate your message, you should expect only one outcome - failure.
Reason 10 - Focus on Technology and not Results
One common mistake I am starting to see more and more is Companies adopting digital marketing techniques and not executing them correctly. The focus should be on the user experience and driving results rather than individual digital marketing methodologies or technologies.
As Jeffrey Hauser once said: "Realise that the marketing that actually attracts your potential customers is built upon the foundation of understanding what type of customer you are seeking. Once you have formulated a profile of the perfect customer, you can plan a strategy for marketing to them."
Scott Tyler - IIBEGWP Magazine Issue #25, July-August 2009
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