How to fail fast in marketing
“Marketing is 50% art, 50% science”
In today's world, marketing is a beautiful blend of art, science, business, psychology, behaviour, data and so much more. It is often at the intersection of business and a conduit amongst the functions, even finance. Think investor relations communication.
The joy of marketing is that it is a creative discipline, so being able to experiment and move things forward is what makes it fun. Let us explain.
Fail forward, fail Learn fast
You may have heard the phrase "fail forward, fail fast". Eric Ries, the author of The Lean Startup, is one of the notable figures promoting this concept. In his book, Ries emphasises the importance of quickly testing hypotheses, gathering feedback, and iterating based on the lessons learned from failures. However, rather than simply failing fast, it’s about learning fast.
When I was in the tech industry, we often tested experiments in software engineering to gather empirical evidence and make informed decisions about software development processes, new features, and user experience. If you recall science class at school, the process is very similar.
When we had the opportunity to try this out in marketing, it was fun! I loved that these experiments allowed us to test, learn, and keep moving. Rather than being defined by traditional waterfall methodology, they enabled us to be nimble and keep piquing our curiosities.
Before entering the tech world, I learned the PDCA continuous improvement approach at Honda, which stands for Plan, Do, Check, Act. Although it is similar and a more straightforward framework for action, how it was implemented at Honda meant much longer cycles. These made sense in a product manufacturing business. So, revisiting this in a different way in the tech world really lit me up!
Time to experiment
I now use an experimentation mindset with our clients. When building a small business or startup, time is of the essence, so waiting for perfection, adhering to a completionist approach, or following a waterfall methodology will slow you down.
Here's the experimentation framework I use with my clients to test campaign ideas, new processes and even new tech:
Define Your Objectives: Clearly define the objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with broader marketing goals. Whether it's increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or improving conversion rates, having well-defined objectives provides a focus for experimentation.
Generate Hypotheses: Formulate hypotheses based on insights from market research, customer feedback, and industry trends. These hypotheses should articulate assumptions about target audiences, messaging strategies, channel effectiveness, or product positioning that can be tested through experimentation.
Design Controlled Experiments: Develop controlled experiments to test hypotheses in a structured and systematic manner. Define experimental variables, treatment groups, and control groups to isolate the impact of specific marketing strategies, channels, or tactics.
Gather Data and Metrics: Collect relevant data to measure the performance and effectiveness of marketing experiments. This may include quantitative data such as website traffic, conversion rates, engagement metrics, and qualitative feedback from customer surveys, focus groups, or social media listening.
Analyse Results: Analyse the data collected from marketing experiments to evaluate the impact and success of different strategies and tactics on key performance indicators. As with other experiments, use statistical analysis and data visualisation techniques to identify trends, patterns, and correlations that inform decision-making.
Iterate and Refine: Iterate on marketing strategies based on insights derived from experimentation. Continuously refine hypotheses, experiment designs, and implementation tactics to optimise marketing performance and adapt to evolving market dynamics.
Embrace Failure as Learning: Embrace failure as an opportunity for learning, improvement and growth rather than a setback. Recognise that not all marketing experiments will yield positive results, but each failure provides valuable insights that contribute to refining strategies and making informed decisions in the future. Plus, you haven't wasted much time or resources in the process.
Foster a Culture of Experimentation: I cultivate a culture of experimentation with my clients and encourage curiosity, creativity, and collaboration in exploring new ideas, testing assumptions, and challenging conventional wisdom. Sometimes, the craziest ideas need a place to be tested to see if they're crazy.
Document and Share Learnings: Document the process, findings, and learnings from marketing experiments to build institutional knowledge and facilitate knowledge sharing within the organisation. Communicate successes, failures, and critical insights to stakeholders to drive informed decision-making and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
By embracing an experimenting mindset in marketing, organisations can drive innovation, optimise resource allocation, and achieve greater effectiveness in reaching and engaging target audiences in an ever-changing landscape.
I'll regularly share what we've learned from experiments with our clients or in-house, whether it's testing a new platform, process, or campaign idea.
Ready to run an experiment?
If you’re ready to go - great! Let’s book in a time 👇
If you’re thinking, “This sounds scary”. Don’t worry; I’m here to help.
Let’s grab that virtual coffee, tea or smoothie and shift that mindset. Because I’ve been there: always striving for A’s, being the best I can be, only moving when I’ve ticked off everything A-Z. That’s safe but not necessarily effective when things change so rapidly.
