Pivot marketing by warning of impending doom
Why do companies often need to hit rock bottom before they pivot their marketing strategy?
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It's not uncommon for organizations to cling to outdated or ineffective marketing approaches until they are teetering on the brink of failure, and only then do they alter course. Understanding this phenomenon will help avoid the pain from hitting bottom by forcing a pivot before it happens.
The comfort of familiarity
One primary reason companies resist change is the comfort of familiarity. Regardless of effectiveness, established marketing strategies provide a sense of security. Teams become accustomed to specific processes, metrics, and expectations. This familiarity can breed complacency, making it difficult for companies to recognize the need for change until it's too late.
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This familiarity can come from a past job or a particular training a leader has received. Marketing leaders tend to bring their roster of freelancers and agencies to every new job they take, which means that the same tactics are coming with them, too.
As an aside, this is one reason I have witnessed surprisingly slow adoption of AI utilization at work: It requires a new way of doing things, and a lot of organizational inertia works against change.
The illusion of past success
Past successes can create a dangerous illusion that what worked before will continue to work indefinitely. Companies may cling to marketing strategies that brought them success in the past, failing to recognize that market conditions, consumer preferences, and competitive landscapes are constantly evolving. This backward-looking approach can blind organizations to the need for innovation and adaptation.
The NIH recently declared that multivitamins do not decrease death risks, yet people will continue to take them because they believe that they work.
In this regard, people will still consider domain authority a primary KPI for SEO, no matter how often they are told it should not be.
The sunk cost fallacy
One of the most frustrating pushbacks to change I have ever heard from leadership is when they say they should continue pursuing a specific course of action because they spent a certain amount of money on that strategy.
This reluctance is often rooted in the sunk cost fallacy – the tendency to continue an action as a result of previously invested resources. Companies may feel that abandoning their current strategy would mean admitting defeat and wasting all the effort they've put in, even when continuing on the same path, is detrimental.
The easiest way to overcome this is to have someone else who is no longer employed there having spent that money because then there is someone else to blame for the waste. However, changing course can be exceedingly tricky if the decisionmaker is still there.
Resistance to change
Cultural inertia is more prevalent in large corporations where they just have a way of doing things. When pushed, they have no real explanation except to say that is how it always is.
SaaS companies love to sell to companies like this because once they are in, they are there forever. I have seen companies using outdated, deprecated SEO tools because no one wants to suggest a change.
Lack of clear metrics
Without clear, actionable metrics, companies may struggle to objectively evaluate their marketing strategies' effectiveness. Furthermore, data can be misinterpreted or cherry-picked to support existing approaches, leading to a false sense of success or a failure to recognize declining performance until it becomes impossible to ignore.
The pressure to meet quarterly targets and satisfy executive pressure is sometimes too difficult to surmount. Marketers may focus on quick wins and immediate results rather than investing in long-term efforts that will take months or even longer to show impact.
Hitting bottom
Many companies don’t change their approach until they hit a bottom that forces them to. In SEO, this could be a year-over-year decline in traffic or an algorithmic penalty.
If you work at or consult for a company headed in the wrong direction, it can be painful to watch them fall off the cliff. Understanding the logic behind their choices can help you redirect them.
Why does it often take companies to hit rock bottom before pivoting their marketing strategy? The answer lies in the catalyzing power of crisis. Crisis forces a reaction.
Urgency overcomes inertia
When a company faces potential failure, the situation's urgency can finally overcome organizational inertia. I have met multiple companies that suddenly woke up to traffic declines and were willing to do whatever it took to fix them.
While it’s hard to manufacture urgency when there is no crisis, you can try to ensure the certainty of the upcoming crisis to convince the company that there is an urgent need to fix what will be an issue.
Clear evidence of failure
Hitting a bottom provides undeniable evidence that the current strategy isn't working. When financial losses mount and search traffic plummets, it becomes impossible to ignore the need for change. This clear failure can cut through data misinterpretation and force a realistic assessment of the situation.
From my experience, the telltale signs of decline are usually evident before a “sudden” crisis. Get in the habit of highlighting problematic data, and don’t sugarcoat bad news. Many companies wait until their search traffic has declined for multiple quarters before calling for help, which means they ignored the obvious signs.
Nothing left to lose
When a company hits bottom, the risk of trying new marketing approaches diminishes. It is difficult to convince a company to remove subpar content while still driving a lot of traffic, but it’s far less of a challenge once that traffic has disappeared.
Drive home to the company that this could be a problem and will likely go to zero. Your warnings might still be ignored, but you have to try.
A crisis often leads to leadership changes or the introduction of outside consultants. These fresh perspectives can bring new ideas and approaches, unencumbered by the company's historical biases and entrenched ways of thinking.
If you are a consultant called into action today before the crisis happens, take the opportunity to sound the alarm before disaster strikes.
Rising from disaster
While hitting rock bottom is a painful experience for any organization, it can also be the seed from which a stronger, more adaptable company emerges. In my own SEO career, I have learned the most from penalties and negative traffic experiences. I try to prevent others from having the same experiences, but some will only pivot once they hit bottom.
The best I can do is convey the certainty that this bottom is coming, and if things are going in the wrong direction, that bottom will come.
While hitting rock bottom often catalyzes changes in marketing strategy, it doesn't have to be inevitable. Carry that message about the potential for pivots, and the pain of a bottom can be avoided.
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