5 Reasons Why Most Campaigns Fail To Achieve Targets (Or Do Anything!)

John is a talented designer, based out of NYC, that wants to break out on his own and focus on creative that has purpose. He’s determined to create creative that marvels the original Volkswagon Beetle ads.

Last month, he leased out a desk at a co-working space to motivate him to accomplish his goal. That quick decision has John concerned about his future as an entrepreneur… he doesn’t have any customers! His previous jobs were behind the scenes as a creative and didn’t have any relationships with customers other than the odd email back & forth.

John decides it’s time to build a campaign.

He starts asking his friends what he should do, spends a few hours researching on google and even picks up the top 3 marketing books from the public library. Instagram, that’s what he’ll focus on becauses he’s running a visual business. John wants to make over $100,000 a year so he sets a target of $50,000 in revenue over the next 6 months. The next day, he launches his new campaign with his powerful visuals (that he spent all night creating) to lead the way!

Hashtag after hashtag, John loads up his comments to make sure he’s gaining the right exposure. 10-20 posts a day fill his profile with an endless array of advertisements. Frustration fills John’s thoughts after 2 weeks of endless work and he still doesn’t have a single lead. Instead, all he’s getting is endless spam messages to promote consultants services or sell him some random products that he’ll never have a use for.

But on the 5th week it all changes! John finally receives his very first lead. He can’t help but dance around the entire office… proud! He sits back down and realizes he has no idea what to send back to this person. He’s at his day job so he can’t send a proposal… he’ll just wait until later.

3 days pass before John can find the right words. This presentation is a perfectly color coded and designed 101 page slideshow that explains how John’s creative can help this person take on the world. He sends his response in a simple email.

Nothing! He doesn’t get a single reply after 24 hours! John doesn’t want to see all his time go to waste and sends another email to just follow up. The response makes him scream…

“Hey John, I waited to hear back from you but received several responses from other designers within 24 hours and decided to work with someone else. Good luck.”

Devastated by the response, John goes on Instagram and starts DMing people with his pitch. About 50 or 60 a day should get him where he wants to go… posting only got him 1 lead in 5 weeks!!!

Barely 6 weeks in… John quits. Nobody will respond to him, the people that do are rude (and some even swear!) and he’s nowhere near his goal with his 2nd coworking payment going out in a couple weeks.

Where did John go wrong?

5 Reasons Why Most Campaigns Fail To Achieve Targets (Or Do Anything!)

Only half the campaign is planned

This is by far the most common issue that stops businesses from running successful campaigns. They quickly build a simple plan and launch in the excitement. Later, the realize how many pieces they missed but only after spending 1000’s. This is a simplified process I follow:

• Define goals
• Establish your budget & resources
• Define your target audience (The one that NEEDS you the most!)
• Determine what mediums you’ll be using for each step
• Define messaging for each medium
• Establish KPI’s to determine health of campaign
• Set your messaging rhythms
• Define the process for refining based on feedback

There are no KPI’s to track progress

The Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) have to be specifically picked based on the goals of the campaign. They are critical to determining if the campaign is on track and helps to identify elements that needed to be refined! Here are a few to consider:

• Sales Revenue
• Cost Per Lead
• Customer Lifetime Value
• Website Traffic
• Conversion Rates
• Social Media Engagement

They don’t reassess and refine based on feedback

Each campaign is based on assumptions. You have to prove those assumptions to be true or false quickly so that you can refine your campaign and achieve your goals. Lots of campaigns follow the set it and forget it mentality. They automate the posting and never change the messaging on any of the mediums. This is a recipe for disaster!

The team doesn’t know what’s expected of them

Most campaigns start from ownership or shareholders demanding better market share, higher profits or more customers. Management either goes to the marketing or sales department and lets them know what they need to do. It’s rarely a cross-functional conversation which leaves the majority of people in the dark. Without collaboration, people look foolish and get lost. Customer service needs to know a campaigns running to direct calls to the right people or offer the right prices. Sales needs to use the same wording and offer the same packages. It all comes together!

Campaign targets aren’t well defined for the goal time frame (SMART goals)

All too often campaigns have overly ambitious goals that lead to frustration and can cause HR issues (people tend to get fired when they don’t hit targets!) It’s essential to pick small bite sized campaigns that leverage your available resources. You can always expand on success, reinvest profits and drive forward but if you miss targets… it can kill the entire campaign! A simple acronym to use is SMART goals:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Actionable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

If you scroll back up to John’s story you’ll quickly realize one of the biggest reasons why John failed is that he failed to prepare himself for the journey ahead! It’s an easy trap to fall into… I hate to admit I’ve done it more than once when I was young and excited to ‘make things happen’. If you’re getting ready to design and launch your next campaign, don’t rush. That extra time is actually a multiplier for the campaign. It will make sure you get the most out of every dollar, person and resource you have!

What do you want to accomplish in the next 6 months?

Nicholas Thickett is an entrepreneur and the founder of GROE Business Development, a full-service small business consultancy helping small businesses take on GIANTS – One Strategy, Campaign and Workshop at a time.