The No. 1 Reason Why Most Marketing Plans Fail
It’s often not the marketing plans that fail, but the roadblocks that occur in the execution process.
There is one thing that stalls results more than any other problem in marketing.
If the devil is in the details in operations, the devil is in the follow through when it comes to marketing. There are often a million small battles between planning and execution.
It’s important to note: Failure in marketing cannot be called failure unless there has been and established, intentionally designed marketing plan, 100% follow-through, and complete, strategized consistency. That consistency should span over at least 12 months, with minor 90 day adjustment pivots, and audience reads if there is consistently no measured traction.
In my view, the no. 1 reason why most marketing plans and marketing departments fail, is the same reason why almost any decent plan fails: A lack of follow through.
Many brands have disjointed marketing teams. More often than not, if there's no traction after 3 social media posts, the CEO wants to shift the plan; if there's no increase in visibility after 3 blog posts, a founder wants to try a new full strategy they heard on a podcast; another department head had a different H1 idea without understanding why the first one was chosen. These are unfortunately common roadblocks marketing teams encounter. Roadblocks that stifle creative vision and ultimately stall any measurable growth.
Efforts will never pay off if you are not consistent with those efforts. The marketing campaigns that I’ve seen be successful, are the ones with clear plans that were executed. Overall, you cannot evaluate the results of a marketing strategy without ensuring you've had complete commitment and consistency with the following 3 things:
Messaging and Comms Consistency
In any marketing and communications strategy you need to have first established a brand's messaging. It's not just about tone, voice, and the details of a brand's messaging guide, the utmost importance lies in communicating a brand's mission in all that they do, say, and communicate.
Operating as a Mission-Driven Company or Organization
There are a lot of brands out there who don't have an established mission. In fact, the mission has gotten lost or was never even discussed. It was merely a hurried addition to their about page that they had to fill in quickly. It's importance was considered marginal and lost after the initial brand and concept strategy meeting. The lost mission is traded for panic revenue side quests and randomly throwing darts at various targets they heard about on a podcast or read in a book. But the reality is, very little marketing delivers overnight growth.
People can feel when the mission becomes revenue. But don't people create companies to make money? It's an obvious question, but long-term companies build off purpose and client needs rather than a pure drive for revenue. If the product or service doesn't fulfil an actual need or purpose, there really isn't any reason to try to build or market it, unless the company's mission is purely revenue-centred. If that's the case, that mission will trickle down into your marketing and won't bode well for long-term growth. Today, people want people-centred companies and organizations.
The most successful companies I’ve seen lived, breathed, and expressed their mission in every part of there company.
Choose not to fail: Establish your mission and message in your company and make sure is the undercurrent it in all that your company does. For everything that doesn't serve that mission, leave it, delete it, get rid of it.
One strategic vision and plan of execution by marketing and creative experts will set a company up for success.
Strategic Vision and Execution
Marketing requires one strategic vision. It does not require 17 different opinions and suggestions from everyone who stops by to read the new hero banner. If Sam from accounting has an idea about the new H1, it’s best to leave his brainstorming and creative vision for the accounting department.
A problem a lot of people have working in marketing is that everyone outside of the department thinks they know what could work, too. And maybe they even have great ideas. But that's not the point. Too many chefs in the kitchen is a recipe for a disjointed meal. Or in this case muddled messaging and inconsistent branding.
Follow-through should contain one pre-planned vision with a group of marketing and creative experts. Then, there should be an actionable time frame where the vision is executed consistently. The vision doesn't stop until completion unless there is a real audience read that it's not working. And by not working, I don't mean traction – often traction takes time, especially with new products – but it’s possible something in the messaging isn't vibing with the audience. If this is the case, it's important to do an audience re-read and evaluation to ensure you understand the audience (after 90 days).
Choose Success: Establish your mission and message in your company and make sure is the undercurrent it in all that your company does. For everything that doesn't serve that mission, leave it, delete it, get rid of it.
A clear system of delegation and teamwork drive the operations behind a successful marketing campaign.
Systematic Organization & Commitment
Business basics apply to the marketing department, too. You can't follow through on a plan unless there are systems and delegation set up to run it. If execution is bottlenecked by approvals, there needs to be a clear established plan on how and when approvals will take place.
Marketing plans often fail because work gets buried in approvals. Then people wonder why efforts didn't result in any real traction. Efforts have to be executed with a clear system of approvals and delegation.
One team, one system, one plan of execution. Marketing really can be that simple.
Don’t Fall into the Common Marketing Roadblocks
Start with what you want to execute, and work backwards to create a plan that will have one coherent vision, one system of operation, one team of creators and approvals, and one plan for execution. Without a clear plan to ensure proper follow-through, chances are, marketing efforts will get stalled. And stalled marketing efforts can mean creatively stunted team members, stalled traction, and ultimately, delayed revenue.
Photo Credits via pexels from top to bottom: Leeloo the First; Mart Production, Alena Darmel.