Not every marketing strategy is going to work. It’s a fact of business that every startup, small business, and enterprise should know. However, it can be difficult to determine whether you should hold onto a marketing strategy just a little longer or go back to the drawing board—and both can result in equally negative outcomes.
With that in mind, what are the signs that a marketing strategy is failing—and should either be scrapped or modified? Here are several of the most common examples:
1. Low engagement rate
Your marketing campaign is in full swing, and yet your target audience is not responding. You are not getting enough comments on your posts, people are not talking about your new product, and every other success parameter on your list is certainly not receiving a checkmark. If this is the case, it’s an obvious sign that your marketing strategy needs some work. Better yet, it may be an indication that you need help from a full-service digital marketing agency to revive your campaign and/or help you think of new approaches.
2. High bounce rate
This aspect pertains to the percentage of web visitors that enter the site and leave immediately without exploring other pages further. There can be several reasons for a high bounce rate, including slow loading times, poor image quality, untrustworthy web design, or a complicated user interface. A high bounce rate can also stem from a lack of valuable content on your website, especially if your business is relatively new and people are looking to know more about your brand, products, and services.
Reducing your bounce rate starts with determining what’s causing the high bounce rate in the first place. Once you single out the cause/s, you can fix what is wrong and await the results.
3. Wrong audience
Just because you are reaching an audience doesn’t mean your marketing campaign is successful. If that audience is not the one you’re aiming for, you are not very likely to achieve conversions instead of reaching the audience that your products or services would appeal to.
4. Low conversion rate
Aside from reaching the wrong audience, there are other possible causes of a low conversion rate, such as the lack of follow-up, poor site optimization, bad CTAs, and unclear value propositions. Again, the key to fixing a low conversion rate is identifying the cause/s.
A low conversion rate often means that your business is raking in customers or leads but is failing to convert them into customers. That said, it can be a sign that you are attracting enough leads but are doing something wrong in the steps thereafter.
5. Bad public relations
Nothing can ruin a marketing strategy more than bad PR. If a customer has a bad experience with you, they are more likely to tell a friend or family member all about it than if they have a good customer experience. With that in mind, paying attention to customer relations is imperative to positive word-of-mouth marketing.
There are many ways to strengthen PR and, in turn, improve your marketing. Here are some of the best strategies that you can apply:
- Responding to both positive and negative feedback
- Handling customer complaints, grievances, and requests as fast as possible
- Offering something to customers to turn a bad experience into a good one
- Being sincerely apologetic for mistakes on your part
- Responding to customer queries quickly, no matter the mode of communication
- Offering multiple methods of contact for customers
- Hiring people to manage your social media platforms (which are usually the first point of contact for customers)
- Picking your battles on social media
If all else fails or you need help with handling PR, it may be high time to hire a PR manager on your marketing team.
6. Low web traffic
Another sign of a failing marketing strategy is receiving low web traffic despite all your efforts. In this situation, you may need to revisit your SEO strategy and find out why your website is not ranking on searches.
Assess your content, metadata, keywords, links, and other aspects of SEO. Better yet, hire a digital marketing company that can assess your SEO strategy for you and come up with actionable ways to improve it.
A marketing strategy is almost always a hit or miss. If it’s not working, you are probably missing something or doing one or more steps wrong. Don’t wait for your marketing strategy to hit the earth before reevaluating—if these signs apply to your business right now, then it’s high time to go back to the drawing board and find out where you’re going wrong.
