The 5 Most Common Marketing Technology Failures
When working with clients, we often inform them that we’re still in the wild west of online marketing… these are still the young days, and not everything has been attempted yet. But that doesn’t mean we still can’t learn from the mistakes of others.
With new technologies emerging almost every day, it takes an experienced and educated marketing professional to know how to harness a new technology’s marketing potential and turn it into sales success. Here, we note the top marketing fails, highlighting what went wrong and how you can avoid making the same mistake.
Lattice CDP
This is a rundown of some common failures companies make utilizing Martech:
- QR Code Failure: Placing QR codes in areas without good reception, on non-flat surfaces, or where viewers can’t reach them can lead to a QR code marketing failure. Additionally, not providing a clear and enticing call to action or linking to a non-mobile-optimized website can discourage potential customers from engaging with the content. The example of a Volkswagen dealership billboard illustrates how even well-intentioned QR code usage can result in no sales if not executed properly.
- Hashtag Failure: Failure in using hashtags for marketing can occur when there’s a lack of audience control, and when businesses use hashtags that are already popular or exploit political or sensitive human situations solely for promotional purposes. McDonald’s faced backlash when they allowed customers to share unfiltered McDonald’s stories through a promotional hashtag campaign, showing the importance of carefully managing hashtag use to avoid negative repercussions.
- Video Marketing Failure: Inadequate video marketing can alienate potential customers and harm a brand’s reputation. HTC’s video promotion, produced with Funny or Die, initially appeared humorous but insulted viewers’ intelligence. This led to HTC removing the video shortly after its launch. Video marketing failures can also result from a lack of branded content, failure to engage the audience, not providing a clear call to action, overly promotional content, and excessively long videos.
- Email Marketing Failure: Email marketing can go awry when businesses fail to target the correct audience effectively. Neglecting to authenticate emails and not optimizing them for mobile devices can result in poor engagement. Sending mass emails with generic salutations like “Dear” can make customers feel unimportant and disconnected from the brand, further highlighting the need for personalization and attention to detail in email marketing campaigns.
- Marketing Automation Failure: While marketing automation can be a valuable tool, it can fail to deliver results when not implemented correctly. Lack of alignment between sales and marketing teams, incorrect analytics, poor strategy, and subpar content marketing can all contribute to failures in marketing automation. Additionally, sharing personalized links with multiple individuals can lead to inaccurate lead tracking, undermining the technology’s potential benefits.
These marketing tech failures highlight the importance of careful planning, audience consideration, and alignment with best practices to achieve success in the ever-evolving field of marketing and online technology.