Esther
Good morning. And welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. I'm Esther
Melanie
and I'm Melanie.
Esther
And today we're talking about why marketing fails.
Melanie
Why does marketing fail? Well, in my opinion, I think the main reason why it fails is lack of consistency. People do a great, you know, powering start and then they stop. They just think what I've done enough and they just don't remain consistent. What about you?
Esther
Yeah, definitely. Consistency is key, because if you're using a digital marketing strategies and digital marketing tools to get your message out and to get your marketing out there, then it can't just be one and done one weekend, a week long campaign and then just think, well, everybody's seen it now, you know, people forget people don't see it. People need reminders that something is coming up, that you have X-Y-A for sale, that you have an event, whatever it is that you're marketing. It's all the same biz. You need to have consistent marketing and it needs to be strategic. So having your strategy and as we have said this time and time again, have a strategy. Don't just send stuff it into the universe without having a follow up and a strategy in place as to why you are sending that information right there.
Melanie
I think the confusion that some business owners experiences that I seem to be talking an awful lot all the time and maybe it's just too much. Maybe I shouldn't be always talking about myself. And I've got to say, I agree with you. It's no, it's not the best way to market yourself is to constantly bang on about yourself. The other thing is people tend to use the same images all the time as well, and people stop seeing those after a while. You know, we've got both of us have got blogs that we've written for ourselves and for other people. And Interestingly enough, we need to do is just change the featured image and maybe a few words around the top and people will go back to that link. And previously maybe they read half or maybe just the first paragraph at this time because you've used a different image and they can see it's being read previously. So obviously it must be good consumable content. Is that funny? There's a psychology where people go. Oh, well, this is being read lots and lots of time, so it must be good. And hopefully it is, you know, but by changing the image and maybe just a few words around it, even though the title is still the same, people feel it's something fresh and still as useful as ever.
Esther
Yeah, definitely. Definitely changing some things up and you can do AB testing. You can see if one colour works better than another or certain wording, works better than others. And always remember that people are in different stages of your sales funnel. They are in different times, whether it's the first time they're ever seeing you, whether they've seen you for 20 times before that. Whatever it is, they're at a different stage and they might not be ready to buy after just saying you want. Usually they are not. What is it? Five to twelve times. It's what they reckon.
Melanie
Yeah, this is an average of seven times a contact and that contact be done anyway. It can be through photos or videos or reading content.
Esther
Email
Melanie
It doesn't have to be just one, yeah! Doesn't have to just be one method.
Esther
But definitely changing up your method because your audience may like different things. I, for example, do not like watching videos without subtitles because I usually watch my videos when you know I have to be in a quiet place or putting the kids to bed or watching TV. So there's other things going on. So you need to have the subtitles, whereas I much prefer to read it, read it as a blog or read it as a short article.
Melanie
Also, I think another area way of marketing fails is that people fail to put up calls to action. They don't say what they want the audience to do. They just assume that the audience will know what to do, and it's not because they're daft or the crazy or anything like that. It's just it's not always obvious what you want somebody to do. And you know, some platforms like Facebook, for instance, andmInstagram gives you the option to actually add a call to action, but not all of them do not as effectively. So sometimes you just have to put in writing what you want your audience to do. Do you want them to click to learn more to go to a blog? Do you want them to know? Analyse will read something before they make a decision. And it's all part of the sales funnel that Esther was mentioning. So it helps people make a decision and goes from awareness, consideration and conversion. But you really have to tell people how to do that.
Esther
Yeah, but not every call to action should be sell, sell, sell. So you do not have to have contact us. Contact us. Call. No, you now get in touch. Those should not
Melanie
buy now.
Esther
They should not conclusively be your call to action. There are so many as Melanie says. Read more. Click to learn more. You know, ask us a question.All of those
Melanie
see menu doesn't mean you actually purchasing. You just happen to look.
Esther
You know, see other options as to what you're selling them. So there are so many things that you have to have in mind. And as Melanie touched on earlier, another thing would be the human factor. Be human in your posts in your marketing. Okay, people like to buy from people. We have said this before as well. People like to buy from people that they know like and trust. How can they know, like and trust you by not thinking that you're a bot?
Melanie
Well, yes. And I think people forget to have a conversation. You know, I appreciate we all want to make money and we all want to have job security. You know, this ultimately what keeps out how house is running and that sort of stuff. But having a conversation with people asking questions, not actually asking the better as you, but where it potentially better as your audience and they start feeling that they can relate with you and connect with you. And they're not constantly feeling, as Esther said, being sold to all the time. Ever think when was the last time you actually directly asked a question on your social media to your audience?
Esther
And it doesn't even have to just be social media marketing. It can be your traditional marketing. It can be if you have a video campaign or newspaper campaign. If you just put it out there once you're not getting your whole entire audience. Like we said, five to twelve times seven is around the optimal that people who see what you have put out there will actually respond to that ad. And like I said, some people may be in the closer to the one or two times that they see it because they're ready to buy. They are at the point of just going, I need help with this. Where can I get it? And you're the first person that they see. And you come with all your recommendations on your Google My business reviews and your Facebook reviews, and you come highly recommended by people that they might not even know, but they're ready to buy and they're ripe for the picking. But if you are going after an audience that doesn't know anything about what it is that you are selling or what it is that you're offering them, it's going to take them longer to trust you, so don't give up after the first one. Don't give up after the first ad that you run on social media, either it takes time.
Melanie
Another reason why marketing potentially fails is that your offer isn't clear enough, so you may have wonderful call to actions, but your copy or the wording that you're putting around your offer isn't clear enough. What I would recommend there is whatever copy or whatever text you've written is to get to show it to somebody who's a friend, or maybe even somebody else who's in the similar industry as yourself. A lot of people have these relationships don't they? And just say, what do you think about this? You'll be amazed, actually, what kind of feedback you get. Sometimes if you are so stuck in your own business, you don't actually realise what you're doing is right or wrong. Sometimes you need an outside opinion. There's a local enterprise office over here in Ireland who's got mentors that can help you with that sort of thing. And whichever country you're in there will be a state training body or mentoring body that you can go to for affordable viewing. If you like if you don't want to go to your friends or family or potentially or competitor.
Esther
Yeah, definitely. There are so many things that can go wrong, but there are so many ways that you can make it go right. So focus on what is working. Don't just use one aspect of marketing use several whether it's video, audio, written images, there are so many that you can use, use as many of them as possible because your audience isn't all the same and just enjoy it
Melanie
and be consistent. As much as we encourage you to use different platforms, try to use the amount that you can actually physically manage when you start spreading yourself too thinly, then that's just as bad. To be honest, we much prefer if you did two or three really, really well, less and remember to speak when people come to you is amazing when people pay.
Esther
So always remember that we are here to answer any of your questions. You can find us on all the social media platforms and we'll be back next week for more Monday morning. Marketing Bye Bye
Melanie
That's all for now.
