Lists are very popular on blogs and social media. They are easy information snacks on topics. Here is my list of nine easy steps to help you become a failure at marketing.
- Expect immediate results. I don’t understand people who think that they can buy a pound of marketing, sprinkle it over their business and poof – sales happen. Marketing doesn’t work that way. Think of planting a seed in a garden and expecting to eat a tomato that same day. Nope, not the way it works.
- Market your product for three months and stop. Marketing is an ongoing commitment. Sticking with the gardening metaphor, you have to maintain the soil, fertilize and water all year long to make sure you have the right environment for growth. Billion-dollar companies market themselves every day even though they have billions in revenue. You don’t stop your accounting activities after you complete a quarter, do you? Marketing needs to be like vitamins, a daily routine.
- Jump Right into the Tactics. Maybe you do need a fresh website and some new brochures, but jumping into tactics is a mistake. You need a strategy. You need a plan. You need to put these things together carefully, and then you need to test a range of tactics to see what works. A strategy is always first, so you have clarity of the journey and approach you will take.
- Only Listen to Insiders. If you want a fresh perspective, you need to get a viewpoint from outside of your company and often, outside of your industry. An approach that works in another field could be perfect for your brand. Insiders often become part of the “collective thinking,” especially when you have a charismatic leader. Insiders tend to follow other industry insiders, and then everyone does the same thing.
- Never Test Anything. If you aren’t testing, you aren’t learning. If you want to fail at marketing, don’t test anything and just roll the dice and place a big bet. Entrepreneurs tend to be risk-averse, so they like to test and experiment to gain confidence. If you want to fail, blow your marketing budget on a big, fat Super bowl ad or something equally dumb.
- Always Be Selling. If you want to fail at marketing, be an aggressive sales dog always biting at potential clients and customers. Who cares what a customer needs? Don’t be bothered by a customer’s reaction. Be pushy. Go ahead and act like the image of a typical used car salesman. Yeah, that’ll work.
- Don’t Listen, just Talk. Becoming a marketing failure is easy – never listen, just talk. Always tell people what you think and what you know. Don’t worry about their POV. Just keep yacking away until they succumb to your will. Failing is easy.
- Create PowerPoint that Never Ends. One of the easiest paths to marketing failure is using PowerPoint to get customers to learn every single detail, about every single feature of your product. Don’t bother with storytelling. Just bend them into submission with death by PowerPoint. Works every time and is the sign of a marketer in need of rehabilitation.
- Blend into Your Category. Be like everyone else, selling the same thing for the same price in the same package. Copy your competitors as if they have the secret sauce to marketing magic. Do what everyone else is doing and just cut and paste your marketing from others.
This list isn’t complete but should help you get started becoming a failure in marketing.
Can you suggest some additional tips to help others become a marketing failure?
If failing in marketing isn’t your goal, perhaps a phone call with a marketing advisor would help? Call me to talk. You can schedule an initial, free call here on my calendar. Or email me at jeffslater@themarketingsage.com or call me at 919 720 0995.
Photo by Buzz Andersen on Unsplash
