How to Know Your Marketing Tactics are Failing

The world of marketing is nowadays tougher than ever. In this day and age, the human brain is so accustomed to advertisements, they can easily spot when a company is trying to sell them something under the guise of friendliness, and they’re also nearly unresponsive to traditional means of marketing. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a lot of marketing tactics fail. New ones need to be invented, and old ones adapted for such customers. That is why we’ve compiled lists of the most common indicators that something about your marketing tactics isn’t working, what could the causes be, and how to find appropriate solutions.

What Are the Indicators of Failing Marketing Tactics?

Not enough conversions

You might be seeing enough website traffic, and the visitors’ on-page time is solid, but the conversion numbers are still low. This means that your business receives plenty of exposure and attention, but not enough visitors are turning into customers.

Sales are going down

Do you see a decline in sales? They’re usually a sign of customers either disconnecting with the brand message, disagreeing with a certain change you implemented, or a whole variety of other reasons. The first important step would be to check the numbers and see how big the losses are, and when exactly they started to go down. They could be an immense help in figuring out just what went wrong.

Declining or stagnant traffic

When fewer and fewer people visit your website (or the number stays the same), it’s time to re-evaluate how your marketing department invites users to engage with the brand. Poor traffic indicates a disinterest in the product or service. Or, you have become indistinguishable from other companies in your niche.

Visitors don’t spend time on your website

The most important way in which visits become conversions comes in the form of quality content and offers. They make people subscribe to your newsletter, share the website to others, and ultimately spend money. When you see low engagement numbers, that means people visit your website, find the info they need and leave. There isn’t enough good content to make them stay there a while longer.

User engagement is low

Seeing fewer customer emails with inquiries, comments on products, reviews and overall interest? A deserted website could also be a sign of bad design. The marketing department needs to work with the designers, to ensure people are visually drawn, and content-motivated to discuss your brand. Their engagement needs to come from you, as organic discussions about companies between consumers rarely come up naturally.

Where Did the Marketing Tactic Fail?

You’re attracting the wrong audience

A fairly common mistake is realizing too late that the marketing strategy you chose doesn’t match your target audience. Instead, it appeals to a completely different audience, causing low conversion rate.

Your message is unclear

At the heart of every good company is the message they’re sending with their product or service. Not being absolutely clear on the message you’re conveying with your marketing will confuse visitors, making them less inclined to trust the brand.

You’re not standing out

Marketing tactics that fail to make a brand stand out in the sea of brands will inevitably cost the company conversions and lead to poor sales.

There is no clear marketing strategy

Many companies make the mistake of using various marketing tactics without creating a strategy first. It’s akin to following a map to buried treasure, without first studying the map to consider the pitfalls that lie ahead. You’ll simply “solve problems as they come up”.

Your SEO is not good enough

The leads could be all wrong, and the outreach very short, and not relevant enough. Ensure you have an SEO specialist, like Cube Digital, who can comb through the issue and point out what needs to be improved.

The content is subpar

Focusing on generating plenty of content without ensuring the quality is top notch can spell disaster. Even in SEO and content writing, it’s about quality, not quantity.

What Are the Solutions?

1.      Don’t copy others’ marketing tactics

Just because it works for them, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you. You need to ensure that your brand, the way you do business, and your message and values all make you stand out from others. When people start choosing their products based on the difference in price alone, instead of the brand itself, that’s when you have a problem.

2.      Have a concise message

You know how Nike’s motto is the famous “Just Do It”? It’s a message that calls people to action, a message of motivation, perseverance, and a healthy life. Your brand needs to have the same approach – a clear, concise message that communicates what you’re all about.

3.      Have a strong marketing strategy

Before any kind of marketing, you need to carefully craft a good strategy. This means setting clear goals for the company and finding ways in which marketing can help achieve them. Anticipate hurdles and pitfalls. That way, you minimize chances for failure.

4.      Focus on growth

Once the company reaches a bigger goal, it’s easy to shift focus on menial tasks. This can make you drop your guard and lose touch with the market. A part of your focus always needs to be devoted to constantly planning out ways to grow and expand.

5.      Improve your customer engagement

Potential customers need to be engaged almost constantly. Promotional offers, coupons, giveaways, events… find ways to get them talking, buying and promoting your brand. Having a custom piece of software designed that will be more suited to customer engagement and personalisation can also go a very long way.

6.      Get marketing and sales departments together

You might want to try merging your sales and marketing departments for the best results. Few people actually know that together, they can create the most powerful marketing strategy for your firm, as they complement each other.

7.      Don’t assume what people want – ask them

Have surveys, create polls on social media, ask people for open feedback on your product. And do this all the time. It’s the only way to clearly know who your target audience is and what they want. Also, keep an eye on google analytics. See how you fare after each marketing stunt, to gauge customer’s response. This can save you from a lot of repeated mistakes.

8.      Quality over quantity

Make sure that you always offer quality content. When customers see more of the same content, or one that wasn’t well thought-out, they’ll get the impression of your marketing team being lazy and unwilling to engage customers.

What is the takeaway?

Seeing an indicator that something is wrong with marketing, like say, declining sales, doesn’t mean that there is one ready-to-go solution that will fix it. Which is why we can’t offer universal solutions. We offered guidelines on dealing with problems most companies face with their marketing tactics, because the solution depends largely on the industry, your target audience, product, and so much more. Poor performances can stem from bad marketing choices, yes, but they can also come from cluttered web page design. That is why it’s important you always be consulting with your marketing team, and staying in the loop.