Failure is the catalyst to learning. Or as the catch phrase goes – Failure’s are the pillars of success. Failure is perceived as ‘opportunity’ by the more learned persons. So don’t allow yourself or your team to be discouraged by it. In marketing there is never a fool-proof strategy. What works for one project will fail miserably at the next, so learning from failure is all one can do.
While the more common points are well-known by many of us, we have unearthed some gems for you here.
Address failures with confidence and experiment
First, embracing failure encourages you to experiment. When you aren’t afraid of the end results, you’re much more willing to break out of your comfort zone and try something novel that you hadn’t considered in the past. You’re also much more likely to take risks because you’re more comfortable with the worst-case scenario.
Make failure an opportunity to get more creative, and push this agenda to your team, ask them to be fearless, to open their brains, pull out the stops and think differently.
Start small and fail fast
As a marketer, you’re probably well aware that when you’re testing a new channel, you need to start with the smallest possible budget. As soon as you see results you can scale your program. If you aren’t seeing progress, you need to cut the cord immediately. Every day that you spend dwelling over a failed marketing campaign is a day you should be spending doing something else.
Share your failures with the team
As teams start to grow, failures tend to be forgotten. Mistakes will repeat themselves and very quickly become a financial drain on your company’s bottom line. When your marketing campaigns fail, make sure that your entire team knows why. Also keep a record of your learnings on an internal wiki or other team documentation. Every marketing experiment should be an investment back into your business with learning milestones as the ultimate asset.
As you can see, embracing failure not only rids of your fear that may be holding you back, but it will also help you move on to the next level. So if you want to grow, just let go!
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