Fear of failure within marketing

Success in marketing is all about taking action. The more you take the initiative and experiment, the more likely it is that you will succeed, although you may encounter failure along the way.

I have been involved in sales and marketing for over 30 years.

During this time, I have witnessed great successes and great failures.

The successful clients that I have worked with know that failure is a feedback mechanism.

“That approach didn’t work out. Let’s try another way of doing this,” they respond.

If you are an digital marketer, you will know about failure. High bounce rates, poor responses to campaigns, SEO results which keep on changing, the list is endless.

Some things work, some things don’t (or at least, not initially). The important thing is to keep learning.

Test different marketing approaches

If you are a full time marketer, you will know that testing different approaches is a good idea.

During my Mailchimp training workshops, for example, I show the delegates how to run A/B split tests for email campaigns. There are so many options within the software, that this feature may be missed.

Testing can provide valuable information, before you commit significant resources.

Small business marketing

“I lost all of my clients during a recession,” a business owner told me. “I knew that it wasn’t my fault. So I picked myself up, dusted myself off and took your advice. I kept adding to my list of contacts and I kept in touch with them. I chose the ones I really wanted to work with. I kept asking them questions and I suggested helpful ways that they could improve their business. Two of them have now signed me up for on-going work. As you keep telling me Nigel: never give up.”

Referrals

We all welcome referrals. The question to ask yourself is whether the fear of rejection is stopping you asking for referrals?

It is not what happens to you that counts, it’s how you handle what happens to you that makes the difference between success and failure.

Thomas J Watson Senior, the founder of IBM said that the formula to success is easy: simply double your rate of failure. Don’t fear failure: learn from it.

I wish you great success with your marketing.