Failure

Good Day

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July.

Sometimes marketing and ad campaigns don’t work and you get zero response. Some might think that’s a failure, but in fact it is not. Good news: All marketing is testing; you are always trying to do better than your last ad. When you get no response, you know something did not match up. It could be who you are targeting. Maybe they are not the correct group for what you are offering.

Or it could be the message and the offer. Could it be that the message/offer is not compelling enough for the target group? Maybe your call to action is weak or unclear. Or the reward for taking action was not great enough for them to take action!

It can be that maybe the media selected was not the correct one to reach your targeted group. You used Facebook when a business to business direct mail sales letter would have been better.

Most marketing and advertising people state that it has to be one of the above. I say it could also be your timing. Everything else could be perfect, but if it got delivered on the 4th of July and it’s a LinkedIn ad for business to business, just how many people do you think will really see it? In the direct mail world we try to get messages in people’s mailboxes near or at the end of the week when they will take the time to look at it vs. the beginning of the week when they are more tired and rushed.

One other point is follow up. In most cases you have to expose your target to your message more than one time (at least 4-5 times) before they notice you.

Also only change one element at a time and track what you are doing.

Finally, it is a failure when you give up after one try.

Until next week,