10 Ways Your Marketing Is Terrible

Today I'm going to cover 10 ways you can know that your marketing is terrible. Sorry to break it to you but you're better off hearing it from someone, and you may as well hear from me. 

If you identify with one or more of these ways that your marketing is terrible, then fear not the solutions are easy - get in touch, it's not rocket science. 

1 - No Direction

The first way that you can tell that your marketing is terrible is that it has no direction. There is no end goal apart from to make more money or get more customers. 

There is no campaign, there is no plan, there is no process. 

If your marketing has no plan, process, end goal and ultimately no direction - then your marketing is terrible. I'm sorry to break it to you. 

2 - No Owner

The second way you can tell your marketing is terrible is it has no owner. 

Who's in charge of marketing in your business? 

'Errr... I think it's X from HR does it because they've got a marketing degree 20 years ago'

'Well I think John the Senior Partner owns the marketing errr I'm not really sure'

'Isn't it the guy on reception who does it?’

‘I think someone outsourced it to someone maybe in Brazil’

‘I just don't know'

If you don't know who the owner of your marketing is, your marketing is terrible, sorry to break it to you. 

3 - No Strategy

The third way in which your marketing is terrible is that you have no strategy. You have no understanding of the best methods, channels and campaigns of the targeting, of the messaging. You've got no brand pyramid and we've talked about brand pyramids before in other blog (read more here).

If you've got no brand architecture, if you've got no targeting understanding, no messaging, no content matrix or content strategy - ultimately you've got no strategy, and your marketing is terrible, sorry. 

I feel really awful breaking it to you, but you're better off hearing it from someone and it may as well be me. 

4 - It Doesn’t Work

The fourth way you can tell that your marketing is terrible is it just doesn't work.

'We're doing loads of stuff, lots of email marketing, lots of social media and we're huge on social you know we're really really active and there's no efficacy. We don't see any return, there's nothing happening, you just can't tell what we're doing wrong, we just don't know' 

If that sounds like you your marketing is terrible. I'm sorry I do feel really bad, but you know genuinely you need to hear it from someone. 

5 - Headspace 

The fifth way that you can tell your marketing is terrible is genuinely there's no headspace in the business. 

You're spending no time thinking about marketing, you're not reading anything about marketing, you're not looking at what your competitors are doing. You're really really blind to what's happening. 

If there's no headspace for marketing in you or your business, your marketing is terrible. 

6 - Unable To Execute

Number six I think there's no ability to execute. This is a crying shame because you have a brand architecture, you have the messaging, you know exactly what you need to do, just can't get it done. Maybe there's not enough time, you can't afford to outsource it, you can't afford to do it inhouse, there's no ability to execute. 

If you have everything ready and you just can't hit the green button and go, your marketing is terrible. 

7 - Poor Implementation 

The seventh way you can tell your marketing is terrible is poor implementation. 

You've got a strategy, you've got the messaging, you've got everything ready, you've even got the ability to execute, you're a very forward-thinking proactive business when it comes to marketing, but the implementation sucks.

The implementation is not elegant, it's really really cheap and cheerful and done, but we don't feel good about it. 

It's a fish and chip shop on a Saturday night rather than a gourmet meal, and everybody wants a gourmet meal. That's not to criticise fish and chips, we love fish and chips, but there's a difference between going to the Savoy Grill in central London on the Strand versus going to my local chippy. 

Implementation matters to your customers and it should matter to you. 

So if you've got poor implementation, you've almost certainly got terrible marketing. 

8 - No ROI

Number eight there's no return on investment (ROI). 

If you don't know what the return on your marketing investment is, absolutely your marketing is terrible. You're spending all this money, you've got great strategy, you've got everything in place, you've got great implementation. 

But how do we know that it's making us any money? 

We've got customers coming in but where are they coming from? 

Maybe you don't know what's going on. 

If there's no ROI, your marketing is terrible. 

9 - No Tracking

Number nine there is no tracking. 

Again this is why you have no ROI. 

You could have done absolutely everything, but if you're not measuring and determining where people are coming from, absolutely your marketing is terrible. 

The decisions you're gonna make about what campaigns to keep going, which channels to run, what methods to use, what words to say, what targets to go after, you won't know. Any decision you make will be baseless because you've got no tracking. 

So if you've got no tracking, your marketing is terrible.

10 - Encourage The Behaviour

The final way you know your marketing is terrible (this is probably the most important one) in life one has to encourage the behavior, not the result. 

You've done everything brilliantly, awesome. 

You are the marketing leader in your business, you may have another job in the business, but you own marketing everybody knows it.

You have a direction.

You have a strategy that works.

You've got a head space to think about it.

You're constantly skilling up,  and other people in the business are skilling up too.

You've got the ability to execute.

You've got great implementation.

You know what the ROI is.

You're tracking everything.

BUT no-one in the business cares. There's no reward for your brilliance. You've got a day job, you're the senior partner in a law firm, you're doing a brilliant job of owning the marketing, and there's no reward for your brilliance. 

What's gonna happen next?

Well the behavior isn't being rewarded, the action will suffer. 

If that's the case in your organization, if you're doing it brilliantly but it's not being recognized, your marketing is terrible. Sorry to break it to you, someone's going to and it may as well be me. 

I hope that helps.