While many people think of sales as the backbone of any organization, the truth is that your sales will suffer if your marketing is not up to par. Creating and launching a successful marketing campaign can be one of the most exciting activities for any business. It has the major advantage of generating leads that can then be sent through the sales funnel. But letҳ not overlook the fact that not all marketing campaigns will be successful. The main reason for most marketing failures is some common and understandable mistakes. While businesses make many mistakes during their marketing campaigns, these are the major four that can make or break your lead generation goals. Letҳ discover. Not linking your marketing to a product category WeҶe all come across advertisements that do a terrific job at mentioning the business name and the brand but do not mention the product categories they are advertising. Remember that customers can see a product but will not be sure how it will help solve their problems. It doesnҴ matter how good your advertisement is if customers cannot understand the product category. They may recall your business name but will not think about your products when they have a problem that they need to solve. To ensure that while creating your marketing campaigns, you let customers know several times during your campaign which category the product(s) fall into. DonҴ forget this! Forgetting to use vanity metrics How many likes did your last post on Instagram get? How many reposts did your last Facebook ad get? How many retweets did your last Twitter post garner? You should have these numbers off the top of your head. They are called vanity metrics. But why should you know all these? Well, you can mention them in your marketing campaigns to show how fantastic your business is and how well it is performing in the social space ֠There is nothing better for your business than social proof. However, one thing to always note is that you should not focus your marketing resources on improving your vanity metrics, as this is a sure-fire way to expend your limited resources on an activity that will not have a huge influence on your overall marketing campaign. Failing to Do A/B Testing Many businesses, even after setting up their marketing campaigns, fail to do A/B testing. But if you want to take your marketing to the next level, you will need to find out what works and what doesnҴ work. You can achieve this through a process called A/B testing. While the process might sound complicated, it is pretty simple. For instance, your campaign may have two main subject lines which would be tailored to different sections of the market. One of the subject lines, letҳ call it A, had a 70% open rate, and the other B had a 30% open rate. Then it would make sense to go with subject line A and forego B. With A/B testing, also called ѳplit testingҬ you can determine what works better and focus on that! Choosing the wrong audience This is one mistake that affects plenty of businesses. It doesnҴ pay in the long run to send your marketing to everyone. You will only spend a considerable amount of your resources in marketing for a low rate of return. You must understand where your customers are and narrow them down to those who find your type of products useful. Having identified this audience, you can then direct your marketing campaigns to them. Final Word While there are many mistakes that marketers tend to make, these four are the most common and most significant ones. By understanding your target audience, performing A/B testing, and linking your brand to your product category, you can create an effective and efficient marketing campaign that will help generate leads for your business. And soŠAre you ready to scale your business to the next level??