All marketers must continuously make adjustments to improve the reach and impact of their messages. So what separates the successes from the failures? Well, the best marketers know what not to do. They understand which changes to pursue and which ones to avoid. Here are five things you should never do if you want to keep your marketing on track:
In marketing, it’s critical to take advantage of new channels and craft messaging that appeals to your audience in the moment. But smart marketers avoid going all-in on an untested tool or tactic, always balancing their desire to test new ideas with the need to maintain successful strategies. Stay agile by spreading resources across digital channels and building multiple points of connection with your audience, so that if one falls out of favor, you still have a strong foundation on which to build.
We’ve often written about the importance of data analysts and using tools to help discern patterns in data, and this is why. If you don’t take into account the statistical significance of marketing data, you risk making changes based on outliers. If you don’t run campaigns or marketing tests for a meaningful length of time, you risk making marketing decisions based on coincidences, freak spikes or drops in traffic.
Remember learning to isolate variables in algebra? It’s just as critical in marketing as it is in math. If you change too many things about a campaign at once, your team will have no way of tracing what made an impact on the campaign’s success or failure. Instead, make incremental marketing changes one at a time, and carefully record and analyze the data you collect before deciding which changes to make permanent.
In today’s digital marketing landscape, data should drive all of your marketing decisions. Whether you’re in the middle of a campaign or developing a new one, it’s essential to review your data, gather new information and act according to the most up-to-date analysis.
Data-driven marketing doesn’t mean emotionless marketing. Some marketers forget the importance of emotion in the B2B purchasing process, and think that, because marketers analyze data to better reach prospects, prospects are following the same process to find professional service providers and suppliers. Yes, their buyer’s journey may be guided by logic, but it’s not governed by it. As such, marketing campaigns that focus solely on logic and ignore emotion fail to make an impact.
Successful marketing is an ongoing process of adjustment and change. Creating a meaningful marketing impact is all about choosing the changes that will be successful and adjusting course when necessary.
If your B2B marketing team could use advice on keeping up with the fast pace of marketing changes today, download our white paper, Return on acceleration. 
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