When Digital Marketing Fails

There's a depressingly sad story about failed marketing campaigns you may be familiar with.

It goes something like this:

You prepare to launch a new product or service. Do all the right things.

You develop the content, developed processes for handling the huge number of expected new customers, schedule pre-launch events and have begun building the right level of interest.

You've carefully strategised email campaigns, PR, advertising, promotion, develop landing pages and tune your pricing models based on "scientifically proven" techniques.

After some hesitation, you hit the "start button".

Start Your Engines

A feeling of excitement. Heart beating faster...heavier.

It's going to absolutely fly right?

It's heating up around you.

3...

Any time now. Waiting...

2...

Waiting...

1...

Go!

When Digital Marketing Fails

So where did it go wrong?

You followed the rules. Took advice from the experts. Why didn't it work?

Don't tried and tested methods virtually guarantee success?

Are "playing it safe" and "digital marketing" oxymorons at the best?

It seems that merely doing what has worked in the past, what's already been tested and proven may no longer be enough.

To Make a Difference with your Marketing means to Make your Marketing (Uniquely) Yours

The reality is:

What's been proven has already been done... It's yesterday's news.

If you're mimicking someone else's strategy and approach, then there's a good chance it will fail.

Audience Blindness to Marketing Techniques

More and more people are being exposed to more and more marketing message, strategies and techniques online.

This means, they're developing a kind of blindness to the latest tactics and techniques.

What may have been captivating and novel yesterday is "old news" today; even one hour later!

Your audience online will, over time, experience all sorts of banner blindness (60% of people suffer from banner blindness) and, according to panelists at a recent 4A's Transformation conference, they are also experiencing a kind of "marketing tactic blindness" as digital marketing becomes more conventional and its impact less shiny.

Don't get me wrong.

It's not that launch videos, webinars and social selling are wrong. It's that established ways of social selling, webinars and video promotions may no longer be enough.

If you've been doing what's been shown to work in the past, and you're not experiencing the results you expect, take that to mean that something needs to change.

What Sets Market Leaders Apart

Think about any industry or niche.

Who are the leaders?

There is a good chance one or two names will immediately come to mind.

After that, it may get a little more difficult. (Certainly market share for the 3^rd placed in that industry will be significantly smaller than the 2^nd.)

There are well-understood reasons why there are only a few at the top. (If you want to know why this is the case, buy yourself a copy of 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.)

One could be so bold and reduce it down to a single, common trait...

Market Leaders Aren't Afraid to be First

Market leaders are not afraid to venture out and do what no-one else has done.

Look at some examples:

• Nintendo Wii »

  Instead of trying to compete for the male-dominated gaming market, they targeted families and made video games fun and accessible for all ages.

• Cirque du Soleil »

  They could have followed the template of predictable musical entertainment. Instead they combined music, acrobatics and circus performance into a high-class, memorable experience.

• Curves »

  Rather than create the same boring gym environment, they created a fitness centre specifically for women who wanted to get in shape and embrace their natural beauty and curves.

They all broke away from traditional norms, created something new and in the process, became #1 in their industry.

What it Really Takes to be #1

Well, for a start, if your job title contains the word "Chief" and "Officer", and you haven't yet done so, you'll want to read The CMO Manifesto: A 100-Day Action Plan for Marketing Change Agents. It's kind of become a definitive guide for senior-level managers.

Alternatively, or maybe even additionally, we liked Inc.com's "12 Habits of Successful Marketing Executives". (Especially 5, 6 and 7.)

But we couldn't go past Hubspot.com's "The Secret to Being an Awesome Marketer? Act Like a Child.. It really does exemplify the fearlessness and exhausting curiosity that digital demands from marketers.

Leaders are Risk Takers

Market leaders are opportunity-makers and look for information and expertise to evaluate if its worth pursuing an opportunity.

Of course, that will usually involve some risk.

Calculated Risks!

A calculated risk-taker has the following qualities:

• Decisive

  Being able to act on incomplete information and good at judging when incomplete information is sufficient for action;

• Self-aware

  Having the ability to accurately assess their own capability;

• Analytical

  Being good at evaluating the likely benefits against the likely costs of actions;

• Goal-oriented

  Setting themselves challenging but attainable goals;

• Effective Information Managers

  Uses information and data to evaluate opportunities by calculating the probability that their actions will be successful.

What To Do When You Don't Know What To Do

Risk takers bet it all on one roll of the dice. If they fail, they fail spectacularly and in such a way that they don't live to fight another day.

They literally go out in a blaze of glory.

But that is not what the best leaders do. The best leaders figure out a way to reduce risk with every step they take.