Failure is just about one of the most dreaded things in human life. While everyone is prone to failure at one point of life or the other, the best way to avoid defeat is to learn from other people’s mistakes and fails. Could it be that is the solution to the marketing strategies that keep failing?
Regardless of how well crafted a marketing strategy is, it can fail due to several reasons, among them the following:
Marketing strategy not written down
Do you know that most top brands more often than not operate without a concrete marketing strategy? Something about having been in the industry long enough lures them into thinking that success can be achieved in the same way it was the previous years. However, in more ways than one, operating without a marketing strategy is already a fail even before you start.
It is indeed very likely that a strategy that worked for a company in the previous years will fail in the current one, because of the different dynamics that keep changing, including audiences, technology, value demanded, among others. Ideally, you must be intentional about putting down the intricate details of the marketing strategy, with clear outlines of how the strategies are to be attained and in what periods.
Unmet buyer needs
What is the point of having a marketing strategy that does not comprehensively cater for buyer needs? A business exists for the sole purpose of satisfying customer needs, which explains the wide usage of Google rank trackers by business owners.
Besides, if you do not take adequate time to study the audience and learn about their interests and preferences, you will always fall short in delivering value to them. The worst part is that your target audience is not patient enough to stick around until you figure out a way to meet their needs, and will, therefore, opt to seek other alternatives.
Undefined goals
The success of any marketing strategy should be founded on clearly stipulated goals. If you are a marketer unsure of what the primary and secondary goals you intend to achieve are, then most certainly you are signing up for failure.
Having concrete goals ensures that every member of the marketing team is conversant with what the overall marketing goal is, say, to double the profit margins, as well as their individual goals in the marketing campaign. This way, every team member can work for their individual goals with a mindset up for the overall goal.
Overlooking the place of competitors
In marketing, the only way to go up is by capitalizing on the loopholes of your competitors. However, you may find that most marketers put together a fantastic marketing strategy that does not account for the place of competitors in the tactics and techniques. This is particularly common among top brands who feel like they already have leverage with the market share. The problem is, the audience is very dynamic, and in days, they could all turn their attention away from your brand toward your competitors.
For this reason, make competitor research a core part of your entire marketing strategy. Find out all there is to know about message dissemination channels, audience engagement techniques, monitor their website development, along other tactics. From there, try to replicate the positives you identify, and greatly capitalize on their negatives.
Misalignment with corporate strategy
Much as a marketing strategy is a crucial part of the company’s operations, it cannot be placed as of a higher value than the corporate strategy. Once your marketing strategy is misaligned with the corporate one, then it screams out failure.
Remember that the marketing team is not solely responsible for driving sales and accomplishing corporate goals. Therefore, focus on the alignment of the strategies within an organization, so much that they complement each other. This way, the profit margins will be higher, and the growth rates will be significant.
Shallow research or lack of it thereof
A marketing strategy is in the simplest of terms a communication plan for your marketing campaigns and messages to your target audience. This means that as a marketer, you must be very certain of why indeed you are coming up with a strategy.
This calls for in-depth research to learn more about the product strategies in line with the demands of the market share. You also need deep insights on which products you will be competing with, some of your top competing brands, the nature of the audience and where they are most likely to be at, the kind of channels most suitable for your target audience, keywords to use in targeting them, just to mention a few. All this shows that with shallow research your strategy will fail.
