There are a lot of people who tell you all about starting with various marketing activities and campaigns. But no one tells you anything about when one should kill or shut down a marketing campaign.
No one wants to kill a marketing campaign; it takes a lot of effort to ideate the campaign concepts, create the assets and content for the campaign, publish or launch the campaign and finally review the campaign results.
So, it makes no sense to put in even half of that effort and finally be told it’s time to kill the campaign.
However, the environment in which we work is changing rapidly. This means marketers must constantly evaluate a campaign’s validity, potential success, and ROI.
Sometimes, you may wait to know the answer. Sometimes, you have a gut feeling that gives you visibility into what results you can expect from a particular campaign.
Let’s look at a few scenarios where it might be wise to kill a marketing campaign:
When your business focus changes:
You spent a lot of money on creating campaigns to promote a brand. Then, your company’s management decides to change the focus of the business, or “pivot,” as it is called in the business world.
All the content you prepare for your planned campaigns must align with the new focus and, maybe, the company’s new mission and vision.
Hence, it is best to kill the existing campaign, salvage as much of the content or assets as you think can be reused for the new campaign, and start working on newer campaign ideas.
When the environment changes:
Another scenario where you must consider killing a campaign is when the environment changes. The environment in which we operate our business changes daily, impacting the campaigns companies run.
Imagine you have put together some content and assets for a campaign focused on aligning with an industry event in a few weeks. Then suddenly, due to some issues, the event is cancelled entirely, or your company cannot attend.
This changes the scenario entirely, meaning you must kill the campaign immediately.
When you are not getting results for your marketing campaign:
You might have a plan for a long-term campaign, about a six-month long. But waiting six months to review the campaign’s results is a terrible idea.
Ideally, as a marketer, you should track results at least weekly. This way, when you see that the results you are generating are different from your plans, it is a bad idea to continue investing in this campaign.
It is ideal for reviewing the campaign and changing the focus or starting a new campaign.
When your targeting fails:
Every marketing campaign and activity targets a particular customer profile. Sometimes, you realise you target a specific customer profile but attract a different customer.
We had this experience where we had put together a campaign for CEOs of a particular type of business. However, when we started sending out the messaging, we noticed that the product managers were more interested in the product or service than CEOs.
We pulled the plug on the campaign focused on CEOs and rewrote the campaign to target Product Owners and Managers, resulting in better business results.
Conclusion:
Killing a marketing campaign is challenging, but it is sometimes necessary to ensure that you, as a marketer, can focus on generating better results for the business.