Question

4. Why do marketing plans fail? What steps might a marketing manager take to increase the probability of success?

Answer 1

Unrealistic expectations are a major reason why marketing campaigns struggle. Executives, partners, or consumers may anticipate a plan to be carried out in a rather ambitious manner and the team does not want to demonstrate why they are unable to achieve such outsize objectives. This will set up advertisers for failure. Alternatively, the stakeholder may not completely understand the marketing purpose, or why a campaign is operating in a certain way. Without full communication, which includes goal setting, a campaign is hopeless from the start.

Improper setting of goals will overwhelm a whole marketing campaign. And advertisers who launch goalless campaigns are even more likely to fail. The goals should be concrete, data-based and rational. Although well-done marketing strategies can produce powerful results, consumers need to understand what to expect before the campaign begins so that everyone is on the same page.

In a certain stage of the sales funnel most marketing strategies are directed at a prospect. This is also at the top of the funnel, or in the stage of perception. 68 per cent of marketers, however, have not identified their funnel, which means they lack understanding of the purchaser path. To understand their goal, the marketing team should define the buyer's path and how they are going down the sales funnel. This helps advertisers make campaigns smarter. In addition, marketers can make more targeted ads by getting knowledge of the buyer in the awareness stage that will guide them through the purchaser journey.

A campaign has no way to move forward without this information; it's basically tossing out information and hoping consumers appreciate it and take action. Marketers most importantly have to spend time thoroughly identifying the desires, expectations and threats that inspire buyers. Key components that need to be identified and recorded are pain points, market interest, and institutional expectations. Comprehension of the consumer is a key factor of marketing success.

Marketers need to continually check, refine, adjust and learn. Without this, advertisers do not have the expertise to develop campaigns, ensuring campaigns are likely to fail. Marketers who have a learning, adaptation, replication, and optimization method will take and change weak points of a campaign in real time.