Tweet

The anatomy of failure: Four questions to ask when your marketing isn’t working

Written by: George C. Huang

Article Overview: When you're unhappy with your marketing results (or other business results, for that matter), it's all too easy to blame yourself, blame others, and/or blame circumstances beyond your control. Typically, that approach doesn't help you move forward; it either keeps you stuck or moving backwards. But there's a simple approach to getting unstuck from the business "blame game;" read on to learn it.

The anatomy of failure: Four questions to ask when your marketing isn’t working

Does this sound familiar? You run a marketing strategy and it flops miserably. What’s the first thing you do?

All too often, if you’re like a lot of entrepreneurs, you start pointing fingers. You blame other people, including the very clients and customers you seek to attract. You blame circumstances that are beyond your control, like the weather or the season of the year.

And, inevitably, you end up pointing more than one finger back at yourself. In addition to this self-flagellation, self-doubt creeps in. You start to wonder if you’re ever going to do the “right” thing, if you’re good enough, if you’re [fill in the blank] enough.

The truth is, no amount of blaming others or beating yourself up has ever made a significance difference in the world. It is tempting, however!

Four questions that work

What does work is to re-frame your marketing strategies and outcomes. Look at whatever has happened as a learning experience. After all, whether something worked or (especially) if it didn’t work, you might as well learn something valuable from it.

Right now, recall a specific marketing effort that didn’t work out as well as expected. It might be something from the recent past or something you’re going through right now.

Now ask the following questions:
1. What worked?
2. What didn’t work?
3. What did you learn?
4. What will you change about your strategy, moving forward?

That’s all there is to it; four simple questions. Your biggest challenge will be to get into the habit of asking these questions before you start blaming others, yourself, or circumstances.

Let’s take a look at an example

Say you are working on lead generation for, say, your gourmet chocolate company and you run a marketing campaign that’s designed to appeal to chocolate lovers through the internet.

You run a Google Ad Words pay-per-click campaign. You spend thousands of dollars for all the people who “clicked through” your online ad. Your web traffic analysis tells you that thousands of visitors came to your site, but only a handful stayed for more than a minute or bought anything. So, you only have several hundred dollars in revenue from it. Obviously not an ROI that’ll keep you in business.

Let’s look at the four questions:

1. What worked?
Well, at least some people clicked through, so that tells you that some people are indeed interested in purchasing chocolate through the internet.

2. What didn’t work?
Of course, spending thousands of dollars to make several hundred didn’t work. But it also didn’t work that you initially attracted visitors to your site but that most didn’t stay for very long. And of the potential customers who went further into your site, only a fraction were inclined to buy anything.

3. What did I learn?
It would be easy to say to yourself, “Internet marketing doesn’t work. People don’t by chocolate online; they need to see it and smell it.”

But what if you said, “What I learned is … Some people do buy chocolate from the internet. I wonder why so many people came to the site, but so few bought anything. What if my marketing message on my website is confusing or turning people off?”

4. What will I change about your strategy, moving forward?
Maybe you’ll give this strategy another trial. But this time, you’ll refine your website’s marketing message. Maybe make the site more attractive, both in appearance and in the words you use to describe your products. Words that sell are words that evoke powerful emotions—could you do a better job of filling the room with the alluring aroma of sweet, irresistible delectables with your words?

Four simple questions

Now, isn’t that better than the alternative of finger-pointing and other non-productive forms of getting the results you want from your business? By the way, these questions apply to just about any business situation, not just marketing. Heck, they apply to just about any life situation!

Asking (and answering) these four questions can completely change your world. Get into the habit of exploring them, before going down the “blame, shame road,” and you’ll prosper mightily. This, clearly and simply defined, is the road to “more profit, greater freedom, and lasting contribution.”

To your prosperity!

Related Articles
  Spam: You probably hate it but can you define it?
  Communication Skills - What we need to be Aware of.
  Find out how to Communicate Effectivly
  The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited - Book review
  Knowing Your Rights with the Media and Press

Article Tags: chocolate lovers, circumstances, do the right thing, google, gourmet chocolate company, habit, lead generation, learning experience, marketing campaign, marketing strategies, marketing strategy, pointing fingers, self doubt, self flagellation, simple questions, thousands of dollars, truth, weather, web traffic analysis



Related Forum Posts
Re: Hello Everyone - Not to sure about the early success part apart from getting actual business to advertise on it. I made a post in, what i hope was the correct area in a differnet area. I posted a script that i just came up with and was hoping to get some feedback from it. Ive tried starting so many thing in the past from multi-level marketing to an adult swingers type site and just cannot get anything to work. To look at myselfin the mirror hurts anymore. I see a failure and whats worse, being married and 4 kids i look at. Ive been told by everyone i know that i make things harder than need be. I am always thinking about things and the outcome rather than just doing it and not thinking about it. I am investing in myself or trying to since punching a time card working for any company isnt so great.
Re: Old vs New Facebook - There isnt much difference from the oldand the new facebook except the interface.i think its a marketing strategy.no big deal.
Re: Google Places Review | How to Get a Review on Google Places? - Hi Evan, Yes, I am planning more. I have multiple videos coming out this year on: Social media marketing Email marketing Lead Generation Organic search marketing Conversion rate optimization Analytics Content marketing Paid search marketing I am looking for SEO / Internet Marketing questions people have. I enjoy producing videos answer tuff SEO questions. Let me know if you are any of your members have any they want answered. Jeff
Marketing Strategies - Hello, I'm building a web development business plan and I'm starting to think about the marketing it. That is, in order to get my business up and running, I'm going to have to market myself. So I've got questions: What kind of agencies should I be looking for? What's the most cost effective way to marketing myself? How can I research marketing agents to see who's got the best success records? Does anybody have any good answers to these questions, or just addition advice?
Re: A great website is closing down - Hmm.. Sad to see such hard work result in failure. Although we've all experienced and anticipate the potential for failure it's always unfortunate when a venture doesn't work out. Hope they can catch the next one. Phil


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Five Daily Marketing Habits to Increase Sales

Steps For Starting A Small Business

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.