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Marketing Failures: 4 clues why it happens and repeats

by ewenmack
22 replies
This is a guide to pinpoint where the fault lies
so you can fix it.

Let's dive straight into the 4
steps on a ladder, starting from the lowest where
most are...

1 Emotion-Driven Decisions: This is where greed and desperation
take over the driving force. The prime motivation is to move away
from something bad The majority of marketing decisions are based on this.

When you are in the fear and desperation frame of mind,
you become prey to the marketer selling you his or her "easy" system.

This is the first place to check to see if you have fallen for it.

2 Data: You are heading in the right direction when looking at your own data.
However, there are 2 more stages beyond your data.

3 Data Knowledge: This is where you know how to make adjustments
in the message, the targeting, the timing and the media.

4 Wisdom: This is saying, for example, "you shouldn't be optimizing for
sale on a website but rather optimizing for a phone call because of a
debt consolidation company hit a wall at 4% conversion to sale on the website
but took the phone call to sale to 40%, a 10X lift."

It's asking what we are really wanting to achieve here and
having a broad base of knowledge and tools to get the outcome.

Having the right tool for the job at hand only come from broad knowledge,
not on a narrow subject.

End

Getting yourself to the 4th stage on the knowledge ladder is the goal.

Obviously, you don't get there the next day
or taking a course to get there.

Many times those who are operating at the pinnacle, still have blind spots so they will
seek out the few who they have identified themselves at the wisdom level.

And that is the key, being able to identify those who are at the top of the ladder, the wisdom stage. so you can get to where you want to go faster and skip some of the hurdles.

There you go, a handy guide on how to locate why your marketing and business isn't
growing the way you want.

Best,
Ewen
#clues #failures #marketing #repeats
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  • Profile picture of the author chuckholmes
    Marketing has the 3 M's. Market, message and media.

    As long as you can get those three things right, it normally works out well.

    Your market must be crystal clear, easy to reach, and able and willing to buy what you have.

    You must have the right offer, something irresistable, they can't say no to.

    Finally, you must use the right media to connect with them.

    Hope that helps. Learned these lessons from Dan Kennedy.
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    • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
      Originally Posted by chuckholmes View Post

      Marketing has the 3 M's. Market, message and media.

      As long as you can get those three things right, it normally works out well.

      Your market must be crystal clear, easy to reach, and able and willing to buy what you have.

      You must have the right offer, something irresistable, they can't say no to.

      Finally, you must use the right media to connect with them.

      Hope that helps. Learned these lessons from Dan Kennedy.
      I think Dan Kennedy is missing one ingredient...
      or it could be under market but isn't identified, understood and
      know about the impact.

      And that is timing.

      This is when a person decides he or she has to have something.

      They make that decision on their own without any interference of
      an ad.

      There are obvious events like births, engagements, marriages, divorces and death.

      Their's lesser known event purchase triggers, like buying a new home,
      renting a home, now old enough to ndrive a car., requirement to do study for a professional license.

      The next tier is lesser known again.

      About to buy a matress because just recently returned home from staying at a nice hotel.
      A big uptick in spending at a men's barber leads to diamond ring purchases.

      And a totally weird one, a big uptick on laundry and drycleaning spending,
      leads to switching auto insurance providers.

      That last set came from algorithims set to mine $1 trillion dollars of annual spending inside one of the top 3 credit card companies.

      Target mine their customer base to prdict what their customers are going to buy next based on previous purchases. What look plain and bad advertising from them,
      is in fact very clever. Just putting the darn product the customer is most likely wanting to buy next with a smattering of others so not to tip them off that they are being profiled.

      All about the timing.

      Best,
      Ewen
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      • Profile picture of the author eccj
        Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post

        I think Dan Kennedy is missing one ingredient...
        or it could be under market but isn't identified, understood and
        know about the impact.

        And that is timing.

        This is when a person decides he or she has to have something.

        They make that decision on their own without any interference of
        an ad.

        There are obvious events like births, engagements, marriages, divorces and death.

        Their's lesser known event purchase triggers, like buying a new home,
        renting a home, now old enough to ndrive a car., requirement to do study for a professional license.

        The next tier is lesser known again.

        About to buy a matress because just recently returned home from staying at a nice hotel.
        A big uptick in spending at a men's barber leads to diamond ring purchases.

        And a totally weird one, a big uptick on laundry and drycleaning spending,
        leads to switching auto insurance providers.

        That last set came from algorithims set to mine $1 trillion dollars of annual spending inside one of the top 3 credit card companies.

        Target mine their customer base to prdict what their customers are going to buy next based on previous purchases. What look plain and bad advertising from them,
        is in fact very clever. Just putting the darn product the customer is most likely wanting to buy next with a smattering of others so not to tip them off that they are being profiled.

        All about the timing.

        Best,
        Ewen
        What's the impact of cell phone spying going to have on timing?

        We all know that our cell phones are listening to what we say and are tracking where we go.

        Go into Lowe's and stand by certain products and ads for that product start to show up on your phone; products you weren't even looking for.

        Talk about something around your phone and ads for that thing start showing up the next day.

        I think the impact of timing is going to go down if we depend on computers to come up with the answers. Basically diminishing returns.

        An advantage ceases to be an advantage when everybody has it.

        Obviously what you are talking about is a tad different; Hotel leading to a mattress purchase. Maybe other marketers wouldn't make that connection. But if the connection is coming from credit cards and being shared across the web then the only advantage left is who is willing to spend the most for ads to those people.

        Then we are right back to who can pay the most being who can convert the most, get the highest LTV, raise the most money, etc.

        Thoughts?
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        • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
          Originally Posted by eccj View Post


          Thoughts?
          I see your point on diminishing returns.

          That is based on the number of marketers who have access to the same data.

          So those that own, control and exploit that data
          are going to always win.

          For example,
          take a company that has data on their customer base, like Target.

          It's closed.

          They don't allow others access to it.

          They can go out into the market and find the same attributes as their biggest spenders. A look-a-like audience.
          They can map the zip codes with the highest density of where their customers live and blanket the whole zip codes where they live.

          Or take the geo-targeting further, they can see where the biggest spenders live and blanket that whole zip code.



          They can set up algorithms to trigger when a customer is most likely to buy a line of products based on a past purchase. Which btw, they have done.

          Nothing but data insights into their own customer base.

          This puts a barrier, a moat around their business they can defend.

          Now, where there is more common data readily available to all,
          say demographic data like births, marriages, turning an age when
          they will need medicare or driving lessons,
          bought a new home,
          they are not real advantages, therefore,
          the marketer has to jostle amongst the other players in the market.

          Best,
          Ewen
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      • Profile picture of the author max5ty
        Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post

        I think Dan Kennedy is missing one ingredient...
        or it could be under market but isn't identified, understood and
        know about the impact.

        And that is timing.

        There are obvious events like births, engagements, marriages, divorces and death.

        All about the timing.

        Best,
        Ewen
        One of the biggest motivators in purchasing certain items is getting a new boyfriend/girlfriend (affair).

        An uptick in a laundry, dry cleaning or visits to a hair salon probably tells on a person if it's out of their normal spending habits. Charge card companies know all this.

        Love changes a person.

        I spent Sunday and yesterday in Nashville, it's only about 7 hours from where I live here in Ohio.

        One of my cars is a Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid and the hotel I was staying at was about $300 a night.

        It amazes me that even at a nice hotel where you would think most people have money, there are still people that take selfies by my car. There are people that will splurge, and once they do there's a desire to be part of a certain lifestyle.

        There are certain points in a persons life when they throw all caution to the wind. They'll eat at the fancy restaurants...and they'll dream for a little bit. I usually wonder what jobs they have to go back to, and why just that brief getaway somewhere is so important to them.

        As marketers, we have life so easy because we know how to make money.

        With all the artificial intelligence that you and I study as business owners, the way to win the war is with social media.

        If a company understands how to win the social media war, they can win the customers.

        We can study how often a person uses the bathroom and for how long...where they lie in their bed and how many covers they use...but if we can understand how to get the masses to believe in our company, we've won. Social media can trump any study if done correctly.

        Thanks for your post Ewen, I always love reading your stuff.
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  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    To Ewan,


    Dan Kennedy somewhere wrote that, at any given time, something like 3% of people you reach are ready to buy (reach via your lists based on well-researched criteria), that a third would be easy to convince, a 3rd could be convinced with work, and a third would never buy from you.


    That you're going to do best when you create a farm of possible buyers, and stay at the top of their attention, for when they're ready to buy.


    But, most of the time, he just went with media, message, and market, presumably assuming people read the fine print or knew it.


    I noticed that a lot of people, when they open a business, are at phase 1 and think that's all they need. They move to phase 2 after spending a good chunk of money on advertising/marketing and get nothing or not enough back.


    Phase 3 takes a bit longer and most make it. Phase 4, few get there... some even after years... "Because, you know, I make $10k a month and that's plenty."


    Thanks for your post.
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  • Profile picture of the author socialentry
    Originally Posted by ewenmack

    So those that own, control and exploit that data
    are going to always win.

    For example,
    take a company that has data on their customer base, like Target.
    I'm a bit pessimistic.

    My prediction is that there'll be so many low hanging fruits that the moat won't matter for most of us here at the WF.

    Others' experience will of course vary but I've noticed at best technological change is seen as very expensive but necessary to keep up with the times.

    Or at least in Canada skepticism toward STEM permeates every aspect of culture from the local kindergarden to Bay Street. I think it would take a big change in societal attitudes before data science becomes widespread.



    If we accept that 40-60% stat about corporate IT projects failing is true, most organizations just won't able to adapt.

    Programmers have a saying that states "every evil stems from premature optimization". I think there should be a similar saying in business.

    Even if said data project is successful, data science cannot save companies from bad macro decisions. E.g. What do you make of Target's failure in Canada for example?[COLOR=inherit !important]


    #s3gt_translate_tooltip_mini { display: none !important; }    [/COLOR]
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    • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
      Originally Posted by socialentry View Post


      Even if said data project is successful, data science cannot save companies from bad macro decisions. E.g. What do you make of Target's failure in Canada for example?[COLOR=inherit !important]

      #s3gt_translate_tooltip_mini { display: none !important; }      [/COLOR]
      Very true about bad decisions from the top.

      There will be other macro transformations that
      will impact and may even decimate whole business sectors through
      new and better use of technology.

      Going from analogue and bits to digital and bytes
      have been examples which will keep going.

      The companies won't see the change coming because
      the changes aren't coming from inside their industry.

      Ebay and Craigslist wipe out the main revenue streams of newspapers.

      Airnb owns no hotels.

      Uber owning no taxis.

      Even car washes aren't immune.

      In a affluent area of South America
      it seemed like a good place to have car washes.

      It was with the increase in luxury car numbers

      That didn't change when there was a sudden drop in their use.

      It wasn't more car washes coming in.

      It was technology.

      Better weather reporting been made available on a app
      .

      The car owners would look up
      the weather forecast and see how far away was the rain.

      If it was close to rain, they would leave their cars out in the rain.

      Nobody would see that coming to affect the car wash business.

      Cosmetic company executives thought they were immune to
      technology.

      Until it was bought to their attention
      a teenage woman created a 3d printer for cosmetics
      so that other women can print their own cosmetics
      at home based on the colors they can see over the Internet for free.

      Data science as we have been referring to is about studying what took place,
      whereas new business standards and categories like Uber take several pieces of technology and combine it in ways that have never been done before
      to create a faster more convienient way of doing things for the end user.

      Can't comment about Target in Canada as I know nothing about them.

      Best,
      Ewen
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      • Profile picture of the author eccj
        Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post

        In a affluent area of South America
        it seemed like a good place to have car washes.

        It was with the increase in luxury car numbers

        That didn't change when there was a sudden drop in their use.

        It wasn't more car washes coming in.

        It was technology.

        Better weather reporting been made available on a app
        .

        The car owners would look up
        the weather forecast and see how far away was the rain.
        I would think anyone who's been to South America would figure out real quick that investing in car washes is a bad idea. They simply don't take care of their things down there.

        All the data in the world can't buy common sense.
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Data science is probably more far from " NEW " than anyone is willing to admit. Think Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax - OR Visa, Mastercard, Discovery, and Amex... the financial data pool is ridiculous. We discuss " How do we identify people that are going to do a kitchen reno? " any of those will know.

    Then you get into more modern data.. Google, Apple, Amazon etc... again ridiculous amounts of data.

    Retail data.. Any chain grocery store, Target, Walmart, Home Depot, any offline store with a loyalty card - data is more about habits, trending, and product placement.

    Of all the ones listed tho.. Google is the one to be looking at. Google is first and foremost a Data collection company. That is literally how they make and do what it is they do. Each and every single product Google provides is doing 1 of 2 things. #1 Mining Data, or #2 displaying the Data that has been mined.

    An example.. I used to be a Apple fan boy.. great phones blah blah blah... all of my way to many company phones are now android phones. Apple keeps their data, Google sends me reports of everywhere that phone has been How many hours driving. A pretty exact proximity of locations. How many driving miles ( last month my actual mileage vs what was on my phone - there was a difference of 3.2 miles)

    Google is " transparent " ( using the term very very loosely ) with the data it collects... its simply understanding how to utilize the available data.

    In the online arena.. how many people use weblog data? I read it and hear it all the time... there is nothing there.. LOL. Understanding what you are looking at, having the ability rto extract it in a manor that is usable... its actually pretty scarry some of the things you can do with that data.

    IP data is something that a weblog gathers.. don't even have to have cookies for this ( for those in the EU ) you can then get ahold of an IP map ( try this on for size: https://iplocation.com/ ) Now imagine looking at zip codes based off of IP address' and then flopping over to facebook and targeting hot geographic locations.

    AND THEN.. for those a bit more technically inclined.. you can look at this: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...pi/5RT6kUAzl6s and of course a very interesting question... and yes there are API's out there that actually do this.

    I think the biggest misconception in the " Data Game " is understanding there is plenty of data available for our use.. but we are so stuck on thinking we actually have to be mining the data, vs obtaining and using other bigger data for our uses.
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  • Profile picture of the author affmarketer101
    Nice info for it. I also saw that my weakness is making decision based on emotion.
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  • Profile picture of the author zeus136
    Sometimes with marketing you could be doing everything right but there could be a weak link in the chain which you have overlooked for example most landing / squeeze pages I have seen have been poorly produced. Why go to all that effort to send someone to a terrible landing page?
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    • Profile picture of the author max5ty
      Originally Posted by zeus136 View Post

      Sometimes with marketing you could be doing everything right but there could be a weak link in the chain which you have overlooked for example most landing / squeeze pages I have seen have been poorly produced. Why go to all that effort to send someone to a terrible landing page?
      If you've advertised and got someone to your landing page (which I think is a dumb idea, there's better ways), then just shut up and give them what they want.

      Since most people are on cell phones, quit making them give you an email address. Get their cell number and send them the crap. If they're on a PC, then it's ok I guess to get their email if you're positioning yourself to newbies.

      If they're on a cell phone and you ask for email, then you're wanting them to check their email for further instructions. BS. Make it easy.

      I have no clue why so many are still into email addresses. I check mine every couple days and usually just delete everything.

      And for the love of everything people...quit with the webinars.

      I see crap about webinars on Facebook every day. Enough already.
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      • Profile picture of the author animal44
        Originally Posted by max5ty View Post

        I have no clue why so many are still into email addresses.
        Because in a recent email campaign we made over 9000 sales in 4 days. Not an unusual result...
        To do that with telemarketers we'd need a room full of expensive people who would need to be supplied with desks and telephones, and holiday pay, and sick pay, and who would need to be paid regardless of sales...
        email makes sense.

        Originally Posted by eccj View Post

        All the data in the world can't buy common sense.
        And that's why there'll always be room for the little guy...
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        • Profile picture of the author max5ty
          Originally Posted by animal44 View Post

          Because in a recent email campaign we made over 9000 sales in 4 days. Not an unusual result...
          A company I worked with made over 1.5 million sales in a week just through people sending a text for an offer. Kinda blows away the 9000 through email.

          Just saying.
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          • Profile picture of the author animal44
            Originally Posted by max5ty View Post

            A company I worked with made over 1.5 million sales in a week just through people sending a text for an offer. Kinda blows away the 9000 through email.
            What is a text but an email by another name...

            And it's difficult to make more sales than the number of people you're sending the offer to... (though not impossible).
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            • Profile picture of the author max5ty
              Originally Posted by animal44 View Post


              And it's difficult to make more sales than the number of people you're sending the offer to... (though not impossible).
              If I'm doing an ad campaign for Bob's biggest burritos in the world and I say text xxxx to xxxx, it's a winner if over a million people respond.

              Point I was making in my post was that I didn't say send an email. It's crazy to ask for an email when someone is using their cell phone.
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          • Profile picture of the author eccj
            Originally Posted by max5ty View Post

            A company I worked with made over 1.5 million sales in a week just through people sending a text for an offer. Kinda blows away the 9000 through email.

            Just saying.
            And I once worked with a company that made 80 billion through having people give money to someone at a cash register. Kinda blows away 1.5 million.
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            • Profile picture of the author animal44
              Originally Posted by eccj View Post

              And I once worked with a company that made 80 billion through having people give money to someone at a cash register. Kinda blows away 1.5 million.
              Now I'm feeling inadequate...!
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              • Profile picture of the author eccj
                Originally Posted by animal44 View Post

                Now I'm feeling inadequate...!
                It was a JV of sorts. Show up on the middle of the night and get paid more than minimum wage for throwing boxes off a truck.
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            • Profile picture of the author max5ty
              Originally Posted by eccj View Post

              And I once worked with a company that made 80 billion through having people give money to someone at a cash register. Kinda blows away 1.5 million.
              Nice job guy!
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    #1 E; totally loved Auckland. I was there 2 months ago.

    #2 E; #1 is THE answer to online marketing failure and hey, life failure. Humans are afraid, predominantly. The fear manifests as desperation or greed. Most if not all of their actions are motivated by fear and charged with a fear energy, leading to fear-filled results. Aka, struggle and failure. Or a select few marketers develop the insidious skill of manipulating desperate and greedy folks into giving them money. They do so because they are terrified; and it matters not if they are millionaires. Usually you see these cats on Google Page 1 under the 1st or 2nd result of "(Insert Name) Scam" LOL. Fear manifested some money, and a fear-filled result too.

    Ryan
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