BY BROOKE NIEMIEC – CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Awhile back, I wrote about the importance of well-structured and frequent testing in order to improve marketing ROI. As a starting point, establishing a working test-and-learn program is definitely a win. However, simply setting up a testing structure isn’t enough. I’ve seen a number of organizations where testing happens, but it isn’t doing what it should to push the business. In many cases, tests are only selected after they are deemed to be “safe bets” that will result in a positive outcome and a round of high fives.
In my world of testing, however, I believe in failure. Not the “we risked everything on a single hand and lost the house” type of failure, but the type of failure that comes from calculated risks designed to help us learn along the way. Marketing strategy is responsible for constantly looking for opportunities to improve the effectiveness of customer communications by increasing relevancy and personalization, and the best way to discover what works is to simply try something and see if it works. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t, and people generally don’t enjoy it when their idea fails.
Much has been written on the subject of failures leading to successes, so I won’t repeat it here. In general, though, if you bring up the topic you’ll hear nothing but support for the idea. The challenge with the concept of failure, then, is not necessarily conceptual. Rather, it’s the fact that nobody really wants to be associated with failing, or even worse, be personally considered a failure. How many performance objectives have you seen that sound something like: “Try three new things that completely fall flat?” Not many. Humans, and particularly employees, are conditioned to avoid failing. It takes a change in perspective to seek it out.
If someone overcomes their personal resistance to failure, they may still face the challenge of getting approval. In many organizations, campaigns are subject to a sizing exercise (or even a formal business case analysis), and estimates are extremely difficult to generate for activities that have never been done before. Things defined as “unknowns” often get placed on the backburner, despite the fact that these unknowns often contain the breakthrough ideas that can really influence campaign effectiveness. Organizational acceptance of failure is also required to help testing succeed.
The solution, then, lies in setting up a testing environment where failure is both permitted and encouraged – motivating teams to try their big ideas and making it possible for those ideas to pass through the approval process. There are a number of ways this can be accomplished:
MAKE FAILURE A GOAL
Assign a “failure champion” whose job it is to ensure that testing is achieving what it is supposed to do, and to track the wins and losses. When you reach your failure goal, you actually succeed!
ESTABLISH A “FAILURE FUND”
Allocate a portion of the overall testing budget to the ideas that are hard to estimate or model for to allow for some of the more provocative ideas to see the light of day.
CELEBRATE THE LOSSES
Every result, whether positive or negative, is a chance to learn. Bring donuts to a post-test review meeting, talk about what you learned, and celebrate the fact that you’ll never need to try that again.
Although the purpose of testing is to ultimately find the successes that will improve business results, stretching – and failing – is a vital part of growth. The ability to fail safely and to learn from those failures will encourage your team to think creatively and take the calculated risks that may uncover the next big idea. So, fail away!
Planning to Fail
BY BROOKE NIEMIEC – CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Awhile back, I wrote about the importance of well-structured and frequent testing in order to improve marketing ROI. As a starting point, establishing a working test-and-learn program is definitely a win. However, simply setting up a testing structure isn’t enough. I’ve seen a number of organizations where testing happens, but it isn’t doing what it should to push the business. In many cases, tests are only selected after they are deemed to be “safe bets” that will result in a positive outcome and a round of high fives.
In my world of testing, however, I believe in failure. Not the “we risked everything on a single hand and lost the house” type of failure, but the type of failure that comes from calculated risks designed to help us learn along the way. Marketing strategy is responsible for constantly looking for opportunities to improve the effectiveness of customer communications by increasing relevancy and personalization, and the best way to discover what works is to simply try something and see if it works. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn’t, and people generally don’t enjoy it when their idea fails.
Much has been written on the subject of failures leading to successes, so I won’t repeat it here. In general, though, if you bring up the topic you’ll hear nothing but support for the idea. The challenge with the concept of failure, then, is not necessarily conceptual. Rather, it’s the fact that nobody really wants to be associated with failing, or even worse, be personally considered a failure. How many performance objectives have you seen that sound something like: “Try three new things that completely fall flat?” Not many. Humans, and particularly employees, are conditioned to avoid failing. It takes a change in perspective to seek it out.
If someone overcomes their personal resistance to failure, they may still face the challenge of getting approval. In many organizations, campaigns are subject to a sizing exercise (or even a formal business case analysis), and estimates are extremely difficult to generate for activities that have never been done before. Things defined as “unknowns” often get placed on the backburner, despite the fact that these unknowns often contain the breakthrough ideas that can really influence campaign effectiveness. Organizational acceptance of failure is also required to help testing succeed.
The solution, then, lies in setting up a testing environment where failure is both permitted and encouraged – motivating teams to try their big ideas and making it possible for those ideas to pass through the approval process. There are a number of ways this can be accomplished:
MAKE FAILURE A GOAL
Assign a “failure champion” whose job it is to ensure that testing is achieving what it is supposed to do, and to track the wins and losses. When you reach your failure goal, you actually succeed!
ESTABLISH A “FAILURE FUND”
Allocate a portion of the overall testing budget to the ideas that are hard to estimate or model for to allow for some of the more provocative ideas to see the light of day.
CELEBRATE THE LOSSES
Every result, whether positive or negative, is a chance to learn. Bring donuts to a post-test review meeting, talk about what you learned, and celebrate the fact that you’ll never need to try that again.
Although the purpose of testing is to ultimately find the successes that will improve business results, stretching – and failing – is a vital part of growth. The ability to fail safely and to learn from those failures will encourage your team to think creatively and take the calculated risks that may uncover the next big idea. So, fail away!
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