Reasons Your Marketing Efforts Aren’t Working

Successful businesses take their marketing efforts seriously. According to Gartner, the average business was expected to spend about 9% of its revenues on digital marketing. Furthermore, “Marketing leaders have secured bigger budgets to define markets and attract, acquire and retain customers. Yet, increased funding is a double-edged sword. It brings new opportunities but puts more pressure on marketers to deliver and prove a return on the investments.”

Yet, money alone isn’t enough to guarantee that you’ll marketing efforts will work. Key reasons why your marketing efforts may not be working include not knowing who the members of your target audience are and using the wrong marketing automation software. Your marketing efforts could also struggle if you know who your target audience is but you have not yet identified the best ways to reach these people.

A sign that you’re using the wrong marketing automation software is the fact that you don’t have access to detailed marketing reports, the types of reports that show you how people found you online, which pages of your website people entered and exited from and the keywords people used while visiting your website. The latter reveals what visitors to your website were looking for. If they exited your website after doing a certain keyword search (i.e. free shipping, no local taxes), you could find out exactly what you need to add to your website to please these prospects.

Trying to please the wrong people can also set your marketing efforts back. For example, if you develop marketing campaigns to get a thumbs up from the chief executive officer, division managers or supervisors, you could end up turning off your potential customers. Trying to please senior management without considering the needs and likes of your potential customers could force you to come across as a sales force rather than a devoted friend to prospects.

It could also cause you to buy weak marketing automation software. Don’t think so. Consider the last time you told senior management about a marketing system that you were sure would help increase your company’s sales only to have your idea shot down because senior management said it was cutting back on spending. Commit to buying the cheapest product on the market and your company could end up losing money in the long term.

It could also hurt your brand. Over reaching or trying to fill everyone’s needs is another reason why your marketing efforts might not be working. You could get out of the habit of trying to be all things to all people by surveying members of your target audience. Ask them what they want from products or services your company produces.

Also, ask members of your company’s target audience what they appreciate most and least about dealing with your customer service representatives. Use your energy to try to give prospects the experiences they want. Email and social media platforms built into robust marketing automation software could also help you uncover specific business likes, dislikes and wants prospects have. Take the time to do this work so you don’t yield mediocre sales results at the end of the year, making it tougher on yourself to sell senior management on an improved marketing system.

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