While it’s easy to get discouraged by negative results, the best way to approach a long situation is to look at the positives.
You can learn just as much about your customers by looking at the people who don’t follow your links as you learn from people who want to learn more about your company. It’s simply a matter of examining the problem from a different lens.
In fact, once you get comfortable with digging into your failures, you might get even more out of this analysis than you get from reviewing your successes.
Narrow it Down
We’d all love to hit a home run every time we distribute marketing materials. Unfortunately, this just isn’t practical. That said, every customer interaction is an opportunity to learn, both about your company and your customers. And a failed interaction is just as valuable as a successful one.
When customers treat your links and calls to action with ambivalence, it’s a perfect time to review what you’ve presented to customers. A lack of response doesn’t always mean you’re doing something wrong, but why not take the time to see what you could have done better?
The more you know about what doesn’t work for your customers, the easier it is to stumble onto the right approach.
What Went Wrong?
Again, you didn’t necessarily make any mistakes when you sent out materials that were largely ignored. But maybe there’s the potential for success in your initial effort. Go over your promotional materials with a fine-toothed comb. Don’t overthink it! Instead, simply take a step back and look at the material from a different angle.
Depending on the situation, you could have a lot of work to do. But odds are good that you just slightly missed the mark. It’s often the little things — items as simple as a “Submit” button or a personalized greeting — that influence customers. As you lick your wounds, take a close look at anything you see that might be off-putting to the naked eye.
You may find that you’re on the cusp of something special, and with a few tweaks, you could be ready to knock your next effort out of the park.
Back to Basics
Some companies get so freaked out when they don’t get their desired response rate that they forget what got them to the dance. Don’t let this happen to you. After all, every company has to have a unique style and voice, and you don’t get a unique style and voice by changing your approach with every pitch.
Rather than reinventing the wheel, go back to your core values and make sure they’re represented in all of your marketing. Go over your copy and fill it with actionable words that convince people to take the next step. Look at your calls to action and make sure you’re making it worth the reader’s while to click through.
The more you analyze what went wrong, you move that much closer to getting things right. But it’s up to you to look at non-followed links and determine exactly why they weren’t followed. If you do, you’ll find a much higher success rate in subsequent campaigns.