The question of why marketing fails is a very broad one. In short, there is no ONE stop answer to this question.
There are many answers to it because it is so varied. However, you know how important marketing is to the success of your business. Without marketing you get no sales.
If you are marketing your business at the moment but still can’t get more customers then there are numerous explanations why. I have listed some of the most common reasons below and what you can do today to fix them and hopefully start seeing better results.
Your Offer Is Boring
No one is going to take you up on your offer if it’s boring. Imagine going on a date with someone who is boring, who talks about utter rubbish like her makeup, shopping, that is what a boring offer is like. Your offer needs to be compelling.
What makes a compelling offer? It’s one filled with benefits. It’s one that a prospect feels compelled to respond to. Look at your current offers. Are they truly amazing? Would you respond to it if you had your prospects problem?
You Are Advertising But In The Wrong Publications
Imagine that you are selling a computer software product. You hire an amazing copywriter, a copywriter who can write sizzling copy that cuts to the heart of any prospect… But the ad is placed in your local papers classifieds section. The response rate to this is basically going to be zero and a massive waste of your advertising dollars.
The smarter thing to do would be to place the ad in a publication read by your target audience. So think of publications such as computer magazines for example.
When you are looking to place your ad, always ask yourself, “Does my ideal client read this publication?” You always want to be turning advertising into profit, that is how you become wealthy and grow your business. Always consider the publication you post your ad in first if you want to maximise your chances of getting a decent response rate.
You Don’t Use Direct Response Copywriting In Your Advertising
At least you are smart and are investing in some kind of paid advertising. Bravo! BUT your ads contain sales copy that is so boring and dry that your customers would rather poke their eyeballs out with a spanner than read your ad.
Your ad needs the following:
- A headline that grabs their attention and compels them to read more
- Compelling body copy packed full of benefits that follows on from the theme set in the headline
- A strong call to action that gets them to take your desired response whatever it could be.
Obviously there are many specifics that make writing a decent sales offer more compelling than what I have just outlined but that deserves a separate post on its own.
You Aren’t Willing To Invest Money In Your Marketing
I find it astonishing when I hear about business owners complaining they aren’t getting the amount of customers they want, but they also aren’t investing in their marketing. If you aren’t willing to invest in your marketing then you get no sales. It’s really that simple.
Taking some half assed approach to your marketing will get you nowhere. In fact, if you’re going to take that attitude you may as well pack it in now and give up because you’ll never end up creating the business that gives you the life you want. I remember a client of mine who complained how she wasn’t getting enough clients each month. Then I asked her what marketing she did.
She told me she relied purely on referrals and in the past had done brochure drops in her neighbourhood. I was like, “My God, no wonder you aren’t getting enough customers each month!”
However, you need to be investing in the right marketing strategies. My recommendation is to start off with two lead generation methods per month. Test them and see how they perform for your business and target market. Once you hit upon strategies that work well, you can continue to improve upon them and even scale them if necessary.
You Don’t Have A Sales Funnel
The most successful businesses use sales funnels. If you aren’t using sales funnels in your business then you are missing out on so much money.
A sales funnel really needs to accomplish the following:
- It needs to educate and inform the prospect
- It needs to generate leads
- It needs to make sales
That’s really it. You can have a simple or a complex sales funnel. Simple could be anything from a local plumber using a Google PPC ad that directs the prospect to a landing page and a call to action to call their business, while the next step could be a high converting phone salesperson.
Complex could be anything from a Google PPC or Facebook PPC campaign that directs the prospect through different steps of the funnel that involves landing pages, videos, and email follow up sequences. You need to be using sales funnels for all of your products and services.
Not Following Up
Want to know a sobering statistic? Around 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect. Isn’t that just insane? Are you making the same mistake when someone contacts your business?
Not following up means you miss out on so many opportunities it’s not funny. Think about it. Every time someone signs up for a lead gen magnet, every time they call your business to make an inquiry they are basically a lead. They are interested in your business but they are not ready to buy just yet. So what you need to be doing is using this time as an opportunity to build a relationship with them. Nurture them. Educate them. Indoctrinate them and show them why you are an authority in your industry.
Eventually they will buy from you… When they’re ready.
If you are conducting most of your business online then following up is so simple. All you need to do is set up email autoresponder sequences and then just let it go. It does the follow up for you. If you’re an online business, it’s the same. Send your leads a newsletter each month. Send them a promotional brochure each month. You can’t miss out on this opportunity once you generate a new lead.
Conclusion
This is by no means an exhaustive list but they are some big one’s I have noticed so far in my copywriting career that explain why so many businesses are failing with their marketing. Marketing is the lifeblood of your business. If you can’t market what you do effectively then you’ll never get enough customers each month to build the amazing business you want and live the lifestyle you want.
If you want to know more about getting customers then follow the link in my author bio below and you’ll discover 15 proven ways to start getting more customers today.
