Test With Customers, not With Management

Have you ever heard of a company that measures how many customers they lose because of their marketing efforts?

Waiting for a train recently, an ad started playing on a screen in front me. My first reaction was: “Huh? What does that even mean?”

I stared at the screen. A few seconds later, a different ad for the same product took its place. I was captivated… trying to parse that one too.

This continued. New ad. New line. Eventually, I understood what they were going for, but the lingering impression? Weird. A little cringey. Mostly puzzling.

And here’s the thing: this wasn’t a low-effort campaign. It was clearly crafted by a professional agency. Smart people signed off on it. Serious money went into those transit placements.

How many potential customers are they losing because of it?

In product development, we talk about failing fast, experimenting, testing and learning. That’s perfectly applicable to marketing. And critical, too.

They could have shot a quick test version of the ad and shown it to ten people who matched their target audience. This modest investment, I’m sure, would have changed the whole trajectory of the campaign.

(What probably happened? The agency pitched polished mockups, received a bit of feedback from the marketing managers, then produced the whole thing.)

I know the promoted product, and it’s good. But that doesn’t matter if potential customers are turned off before they ever get to it.

Test your work with customers.