What do you do if your product marketing campaign fails to meet its goals?

You should have set goals as well as KPIs (leading and lagging) when you first step the campaign. Thus, make sure you have measurements for your KPIs as these will be the basis of defining your root cause. I suggest that you have the data available and then perform a 5 WHY analysis. This will provide a initial list of potential reasons for not meeting the targets. This data (KPIs) will also help you start a countermeasure plan to get the marketing campaign back on track.

Go back to the drawing board. There is no shame in accepting that the initial premise was incorrect/not executed correctly. Do a root cause analysis exercise, but be aware that you won't always get to the right answer immediately. Be patient & persevere. After all don't they say Edison had to try a 1000 times before finally having the proverbial & literal 'light bulb' moment!

In my experience as an advisory consultant to B2B SaaS vendor CMOs, the most common root cause of failing campaigns is product marketers focusing on product-centered benefits that don't appeal to the buyer's need to achieve a desired business outcome. Why does this happen so frequently? Most CMOs, and their line managers, don't know how to hire talent with a proven track record for creating compelling business cases for their product or service offerings that buyers crave. While it's true that a good business case is based on a financial assessment, it must also include a compelling 'value creation' narrative that appeals to senior decision-makers. The solution is to upskill the legacy product marketing team via new training and coaching.

If a product marketing campaign fails to meet its goals, start by identifying the root cause. Analyze campaign data, including audience engagement, conversion rates, and ROI. Consider market research, competitor analysis, and customer feedback to pinpoint issues. Assess if goals were realistic and if target audience needs were understood. Evaluate campaign messaging, channels, and timing for effectiveness. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify gaps in strategy or execution. Adjust tactics accordingly, learn from failures, and iterate for future success.

An important omission in the article is the buyer's journey. This is also an assumption that need to get reevaluated as part of developing an effective countermeasure plan. In my experience, a critical assumption that needs to be verified is the conversion rates between the different steps of the buyer's journey. I often start with assumptions derived from past experience and the innovations integrated into the campaign. So this is where a lot of the misalignment starts.

As part of all my product marketing campaigns I establish goals, clear targets and KPIs (leading and lagging). Based on this, I then establish a dashboard that can provide actionable insights on the performance of the campaign. It's based on this dashboard and the root cause analysis that we then perform regular (quarterly in most cases, but sometimes monthly) reviews of the data so that we can understand how we are performing, what is going according to plan, and what needs to be adjusted. And once a year (or once a semester), we also invite the stakeholders to review the overall performance of the different campaigns to have an open discussion on what is working, what is not working, and what are the priorities of improvement.

To learn from both mistakes and successes in product marketing campaigns, conduct thorough post-campaign analysis. Identify what went wrong or right by reviewing data, feedback, and outcomes. Analyze key metrics like audience engagement, conversion rates, and ROI. Understand factors contributing to success or failure, such as messaging, targeting, or timing. Document lessons learned and best practices for future reference. Encourage open discussion within the team to share insights and perspectives. Continuously iterate and refine strategies based on past experiences to drive better results.

It's important that the actual results are part of the input for defining your product marketing strategy. Thus, the process is iterative where it's important that we integrate the actual results into the future campaigns.

If the campaign is not going well, it's critical that action is taken as fast as possible to relaunch and/or adjust the campaign. It's also important that all that was learned during the 5 WHY analysis and the countermeasure plan makes into the main strategy. Lastly, it's important that all key stakeholders are informed of the changes that are being made to the campaign. It's critical to have their support in any relaunch or pivot of a campaign.

Create a "Failure Recovery" campaign! Turn the setback into a compelling narrative. Share the lessons learned and the steps being taken to improve. Honest and relatable stories have the potential to reignite interest and trust in your product. And, don't underestimate the impact of a genuine apology. Acknowledge any missteps and communicate your commitment to addressing them. Transparency and humility can go a long way in rebuilding trust and salvaging the campaign's potential. People always appreciate honesty and resilience!

Product marketing teams must learn new skills. I'm helping B2B SaaS product marketers learn how to apply Generative AI tools to help them perform campaign diagnostic assessments. These GenAI tools enable product-centered marketers to move up the value chain where senior executives make buying decisions. These GenAI tools also enable unskilled salespeople to customize their proposals to meet the information and guidance needs of all the customer buyer's committee members. While many product marketers may know how to use GenAI tools to create content, few can apply them to diagnose marketing campaign failures. It's a skill that will be increasingly valued by CMOs in the tech sector. Therefore, I help marketers learn to apply GenAI tools ASAP.