How to Force 404 Errors in WordPress.

Sometimes you have to force 404 errors in WordPress, either because the 404 pages are not properly configured, or sometimes WordPress itself or caching plugins may make 404 errors impossible. I tried to create 404 pages to fix Google penalties, but even after unpublishing posts, the  site HTTP response headers still displayed a 200 OK working page.

I found that there are several ways to forcing 404 errors in WordPress…

Check 404 file exists

It is possible that WordPress is not configured properly to show a 404 page when it is required to do so. First ensure your active WordPress theme has a 404.php file in the active themes folder. If not, you can simply save a 404.php file with following text.

<?php get_header(); ?>
    <h1>Page Not Found</h1>
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Check 404 file works

Then ensure that your server can identify the location of your 404.php file. First test the exact location of the file in your browser to see it loads. Then you can add the following code on top of your WordPress folder .htaccess file to let it find the file.

ErrorDocument 404 /index.php?error=404

If your WordPress installation is in a subdirectory called ‘abcd’, you might use this code.

ErrorDocument 404 /abcd/index.php?error=404

Disable Quickcache 404 Caching

We had this another issue with 404 files that at first instance it showed a 404 error, then QuickCache cached the file to create a html file for that error page. Then if you check the site headers the page gave a 200 OK status meaning the page existed well  (this was similar to the feed caching issue). So we added this code to our 404.php template page in the first line even before the header coding was called for.  Add the following code

<?php
if (is_404()) {
    define('QUICK_CACHE_ALLOWED', false);
}
?> 

Disable WordPress Smart Redirect

WordPress is a smart blogging tool and redirects 404 errors to best possible matching urls which it seems fit based on the visited url keywords. Many of my 404 urls were being redirected to similar working urls, which might or might not be relevant but had similar keywords. So we need to add the following code to theme functions.php to prevent this WordPress redirection ability to get pure 404 errors.

remove_filter('template_redirect', 'redirect_canonical');

Test Site Response Headers

So mostly this should take care of your 404 errors and you can test them with popular site HTTP headers checking tools like Web Sniffer or HTTP Response Headers to find out if your 404 errors are actually working.

If you get this ‘404 Not Found’ error after repeatedly refreshing the result you are done.

Popular Code-Free Design Tools for Designers and Developers.

The standard way of building websites is by using codes. It still applies today but with advancements in software development, there are now the so-called code-free web design tools that designers and developers can use.

By code-free, it simply means that designers even without the help of developers can easily create attractive websites without having to bother too much with codes and getting them right. There are advantages and disadvantages to using this latest software but it won’t hurt if you try them.

Muse

Adobe’s Muse is a great tool that easily creates websites. On the other hand, the experts have observed that its automatically generated code contains lots of “div” tags. As such, it can be a challenge to update the code when needed.

This Creative Cloud app of Adobe is targeted at designers with print background as well as those with no coding experience. It has a user-friendly interface and tools that lets a user create simple and static websites.

Macaw

Macaw is a popular website builder that quickly creates quality websites that claims to be the code-savvy web design tool. This is preferred by many developers due to its fewer “div” tags and cleaner codes.

This web design app offers the same flexibility as the other image editors available today but what makes it stand out is its ability to write semantic HTML at the same time. It can create an attractive blog that can normally be created using the usual Illustrator or Photoshop.

Created by Tom Giannattasio and Adam Christ, the software was conceptualized to bridge the gap between design tools and the browser. The two creators wanted a fluid design process while at the same time helping designers and developers get the right code they need.

Webydo

Webydo is an online software that lets graphic designers create advanced websites with custom tailored designs. It allows users to design a website directly in the browser and incorporate important features such as ecommerce, blogs, social and HTML widgets among others.

The software features graphic tools similar to that of InDesign and Adobe Photoshop. It has a drag and drop functionality that lets you easily include the design elements into the canvas.

Codes are automatically generated to create a fully functional website completed with CMS and SEO management tools. The CMS allows designers to lock specific design features thereby preventing unwanted changes by clients. At the same time, though, it lets clients update their content as they find necessary.

This is most ideal for professionals and designers wanting to give their clients quality websites without having to go through complex coding.

There are many other free blogging tools designers and publishers can find online. All it takes is a little patience and resourcefulness.

Marketing Your Multi-Product (or Multi-Division) Brand.

If you’re marketing at a business with multiple products, then you may often run into issues of conflicting goals and agendas. Different product teams might be competing for resources, or could be operating separately from the other teams or divisions. The problem is that while you clearly see how these products are connected, your customers don’t.
For example, if you’re a consumer packaged goods company (CPG), the brand managers for each of your products are probably working with multiple agencies – one in charge of creative, another managing your go-to-market strategy, another for press releases (note: all of these agencies are responsible for regularly wining and dining you).
So how can you help your buyers see your company as a single, unified brand? And how can you market multiple products without diluting your message, or overwhelming your audeince?

1. Prioritize Your Products

Brands with multiple products are always in danger of confusing their audiences – if someone is interested in two products, you want to present a unified front, and you don’t want to overwhelm them with multiple messages. Marketo’s scoring capabilities actually allow you to score interest in multiple products, and by prioritizing your products, you can avoid the risk.
For example, if Product A is a higher priority than Product B, a person who is interested in both products will be primarily shown marketing related to Product A. If you’re running lead nurture campaigns, you’ll want to place that buyer exclusively in a Product A-centric nurture track. This is simply a matter of selling the most important product first – the fact that your buyer has shown interest in Product B shouldn’t be disregarded, only given less priority. You’ll still want to use this information for cross-sell opportunities and bundle deals (selling multiple products for a single price).
Note: if you’re going to prioritize your products, make sure you have buy-in from the C-suite – as a company, you’ll need to clearly define the priority of products, as well as the goals around each.

2. Base Interest on Behavior

Once you have an idea of which product is the highest priority when approaching a buyer, you’ll need ways to understand the depth of that buyer’s interest. If you have multiple brands or products, use scoring to determine that interest based on their behavior – not just who they are, demographically speaking, but what they do.
For example, if a customer is searching online for nutritional information about Pepsi products, and she clicks on a video ad for Pepsi, that customer is interested in Pepsi and should be scored accordingly – even if, according to her demographic information, she’s in the target demographic for Quaker granola bars (a product of one of the biggest multi-product consumer good companies – PepsiCo).

3. Research Personas and Lifestyle

Customers purchase brands that fit their lifestyles and their choices, which is my third tip for managing multiple product lines is to use buyer personas. Use observation and research to create personas, or fictionalized representations, of the buyers you would like to reach (or are already reaching).  How do they live their lives, and what type of products would fit into their lifestyle? For example, let’s say that you make breakfast bars, and your buyer persona for that product is highly active and works out several times per week. By creating this persona, you might realize you have an opportunity to market your energy drink as well – just make sure you’re prioritizing, as we covered in the first tip.

In summary: as you market your multi-product brand, remember that customers don’t think about SKUs, or which product is owned by which brand manager – they think about how your products fit into their lives. Prioritize your products, use behavior-based scoring, and create personas to gain a deep understanding of your customers.
Are you marketing multiple products for your business? What challenges have you faced, and what solutions have you found? Let us know in the comments below.

6 Ways to Make Guerrilla Marketing Work For You.

For marketers with big dreams and small budgets, “guerrilla marketing” has a strong appeal – it’s often seen as a low investment, high impact strategy. But while these campaigns do tend to be inexpensive, they also require a big imagination.

But before we dive in, what exactly is guerrilla marketing? The term was actually coined in 1984 by American advertising executive and writer Jay Conrad Levinson. Its meaning is relatively simple – in essence, the art of getting consumers to pay attention – but its execution is no easy feat.

The effectiveness of guerrilla marketing campaigns can be measured by the amount of attention they attract – in contemporary marketing terms, the amount of engagement they incite. Remember, consumers are inundated with as many as 2,904 media messages on any given day, and will positively recall only four. Guerrilla marketing campaigns, which typically involve some seriousthinking outside of the box, can be a smart way to grab attention.

Interested? Here are six tips (with examples!) for creating low-investment, highly innovative, epic guerrilla marketing campaigns:

1. Make it Clever

The “memory retention” approach relies on displaying your offering from a new, clever point of view. The smarter the campaign, the more memorable it will be.

Here’s a great example from Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil. They simply put what looks like their standard packaging on the top of a store-front gate, and presto! The gate now looks like a supersized aluminum foil roll. Clever, no?

2. Make it Dynamic

Another way to do guerrilla marketing is to enlist unknowing participants. Frontline covered a mall’s floor with this advertisement for flea and tick spray. As you can see from the photo, the shoppers walking across it looked like fleas to those up above. Wouldn’t you take an extra moment to stare at this?

3. Make it Endearing

People LOVE all things free, which is why some of the most engaging guerrilla campaigns are tied to free giveaways. Coca-Cola recently turned a standard vending machine into a ‘Happiness Machine.’ Consumers who used the machine were rewarded with free bottles of Coke to share with friends, beautiful flower bouquets, and even entire pizzas!

The results were incredibly positive – one person in the video can even be heard saying, “I love you, Coke.” This might be a more expensive example of guerrilla marketing, but even a small giveaway can go a long way.

4. Make it Memorable

Want to make a busy New Yorker stop and pay attention on their way to work in the morning? You’ve got to get coffee involved. Folger’s Coffee printed stickers which transformed manholes into freshly brewed cups of joe.

The steam coming from these manholes, which is a typical sight in NYC, transformed the eye-sore into a brilliant advertisement. Now every time you see a steaming man-hole, you might think of Folger’s.

5. Make it Interactive

It doesn’t get simpler than this Tyskie Beer ad. By placing decals around door handles, the door opener feels as if they are holding the handle of a beer mug. Each time an individual enters through that door, Tyskie beer is on the top of their mind.

6. Make it Subtle

Not all campaigns have to stock people in their tracks. This Mr. Clean ad uses no words, just their well-known logo. By painting the single cross-walk line with fresh white paint, the message is being unassumingly conveyed to the viewer. Mr. Clean makes surfaces cleaner!

If you’ve got a limited budget, but exponential creativity, take a cue from these six guerrilla examples. Readers, what are some of your favorite guerrilla marketing campaigns? Let us know in the comments below.

9 Email Marketing Mistakes (and how to avoid them)

We’ve all been there. It’s the day before Cyber Monday: you’ve crafted the perfect marketing email – it’s sophisticated yet straightforward, creative yet factual, and guaranteed to inspire customers to open, click, and convert in one seamless motion.
With a slightly self-satisfied smile, you hit “send” before you realize…
… that the link to your site was broken. Or one of the images is missing. And unfortunately, there is no “Undo” button for email (yet).
We’ve collected a list of common email marketing blunders and tips for avoiding them. We’ve also included a cheatsheet at the end, which you can use to verify that each email you send is truly good to go.
1) A subject line that is unrelated to the email – sometimes intentionally designed to tempt recipients to open the email (“subject line bait”).
How to avoid it: Make sure the subject line conveys the punchline of the email. If the email contains multiple messages, it’s best to have the subject line match the message in the first section of the email (the one your recipient reads first).
2) Broken links or links that don’t work as intended – including links that don’t work or send readers to the wrong place.
How to avoid it: Click every link in your email to make sure they function appropriately. Better yet, have someone else click them (in general, having someone else checking your mail is an essential part of the cheatsheet we included at the end of this post).
3) Incorrect spelllling – enough said.
How to avoid it: Some browsers and online editors offer inline tools that will show a squiggly red line to indicate a spelling mistake. Those are good as a first pass. However, for better reliability, we would recommend that you copy / paste the body of the email into a word processor and run a full spelling and grammar check.
4) Funky layout when images are not displayed - an email that is reliant on images and doesn’t render correctly when images are disabled. Some email clients and browsers don’t have images enabled by default, so a lot of people will not see the images you’ve included in your email.
How to avoid it: Test your email in image-disabled mode and make sure it displays well. Always include an alt-text for each image so some of the images’ meaning is still presented.
5) Breaking the law – according to the CAN-SPAM law, you must include your physical mailing address and a link for unsubscribing from your mailing list in each email you send.
How to avoid it: Include these two elements in your email template so you don’t need to worry about them in every email you send.
6) Poor mobile layout - not optimizing your email for mobile devices (or at least making sure they look reasonable). Considering the ever-increasing percentage of recipients engaging with email on mobile devices, this one is important.
How to avoid it: To start, check how your email looks on a few mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, android). It might be that you only need to make some cosmetic changes; it might be that you need to replace your template to a mobile-friendly or responsive template. Even after finding the right template, it’s probably a good idea to continue testing any new emails you create on a mobile device.
7) Incompatibility with certain email clients – your recipients read your emails on many different platform combinations: different hardware (Mac vs PC vs Mobile), operating systems (Windows vs Mac vs Linux), email clients (gmail vs outlook), browsers (Explorer vs Firefox vs Chrome). They all display the same email slightly differently – or very differently. You don’t want your email to look bad on any of them.
How to avoid it: It will be near-impossible to manually test your email on every platform combination. However, when starting to use a new template, it’s a good idea to test it on a few popular combinations. There are also online services that will do the testing for you.
8) Excessive or insufficient length – your email is so long that people either don’t get to the end, or – worse- feel overwhelmed and unsubscribe. Alternatively, your email is so short that you don’t make full use of the attention your readers have offered you.
How to avoid it: The best way to determine your readers’ length preference is to A/B test. Send two versions of the email – one with 10 product images, one with 20. Or one with 5 content items and one with 8, and look at differences in clickthru rates, unsubscribe rates and conversion. Optimize and continue testing.
9) No personalization or segmentation – sending the same email about the children’s socks sale you’re running this weekend to customers who only ever buy women’s lingerie, or football merchandise, or dorm room accessories.
How to avoid it: This one isn’t a quick “fix”, but there are initial steps you can take: Start thinking about segmenting your customers by their shopping behavior, demographics, site engagement or other attributes. If you need some help kickstarting your segmentation thinking, check out the Segmentation course on Custora U and the Segmentation cheatsheet with plenty of examples of ways to segment.
10) And finally, as part of our ‘read 9, get one free’ promotion, here is a bonus mistake to guard against: Being boring. For example, your email is so boring this happens:


 
How to avoid it: Personalizing your messages and ensuring your emails are timely and relevant are a good start. If all else fails, here’s a collection of funny animal videos, the funniest Amazon product reviews, and a meme generator to ensure you have all the tools you need to spruce up any email.

7 Strategies for B2B Marketing during a Recession: The Definitive Guide

Should B2B marketers change their strategies during a recession? Does a recession always mean marketers have to work even harder to find ways to do more with less? Can a recession create opportunity for smart marketers to grow and thrive? These are some of the topics I recently explored on a panel at the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle.

Are we in a recession?

First off, let me explain I do not think we’re in a recession in the US — yet. A recession requires two quarters of negative growth in GDP, and Q4 last year saw 0.6% growth while preliminary numbers for Q1 this year were 0.9% growth (Bureau of Economic Statistics).

So we may not yet be in a recession, but times are growing increasingly difficult for consumers. The subprime mess is real, exorbitant energy and food costs are cutting into discretionary spending, and the weakening dollar is importing inflation to our economy. According to How I Spent My Stimulus, the $152 billion stimulus package is going primarily to reduce consumer debt or to pay for higher gas and food costs, i.e. it is not going to stimulate incremental spending.

What this means is that we are in the worst possible non-recession. Prior downturns avoided becoming a (global) recession because of the resilient American consumer. This time, it looks like we won’t have that saving grace — meaning things may still get worse before they get better.

What does this mean for B2B marketing and advertising?

Fewer consumers means less demand; less demand means that efforts to stimulate demand (i.e. marketing) are less effective overall. Put simply, when people buy less, advertisers spend less. According to research firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson, US advertising dropped 9% in the 2001 recession while Internet advertising fell a whopping 27%.  I should point out that this slowdown applies to business-to-business marketers as well because of second- and higher-order effects, i.e. as consumer spending drops, the businesses that sell to those consumers reduce their spending as well.

However, these overall numbers hide two important facts:

• Branding and other forms of push marketing drop in a slowdown, while direct marketing tends to rise. When budgets are cut, the channels with the least ability to measure marketing ROI are cut especially hard as companies shift spending to more measurable channels. Investment bank Cowen and Company looked at the last six recessions since 1950 and found that spending on direct marketing actually grew during six recessions.
• This time is different for online marketing. In the 2001 recession, online marketing was still unproven and got caught in the downward collapse of the Internet in general. Today, the trend to shift advertising dollars to measurable online channels is proven and won’t disappear anytime soon. So online marketing won’t crater like last time, but it also isn’t immune from a slowdown. In fact, eMarketer recently reduced its 2008 estimate for US online advertising to $25.8 billion. That is a 7% reduction from their prior estimate — showing the impact of the downturn — but it’s important to note that it is still 23% higher than 2007′s total. In other words, the recession may slow down the growth of online marketing, but it’s still growing at a significant pace.

What this means is that a recession will accelerate the decline of interruption-based mass advertising that simply shouts your message to customer. In its place we will see increased growth in measurable and relationship-based strategies such as search marketing, email marketing, lead nurturing, and online communities.

A downturn can also create opportunity for the companies that are more efficient at turning marketing investments into revenue, since there will be less competition overall. In a study of U.S. recessions, McGraw-Hill Research found that business-to-business firms that maintained or increased advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession averaged significantly higher sales growth than those that eliminated or decreased advertising. In fact, by 1985 companies that were aggressive recession advertisers grew their revenue over 2.5X faster than those that reduced their advertising.

Seven strategies for B2B marketing during a slowdown

Given these macro economic trends, how should you allocate your marketing budget — and time? Here is my definitive guide to B2B marketing during a downturn:

1. Use lead management to maximize the value of each lead. In a recession, risk-adverse buyers take even longer than normal to research potential purchases. When you first identify a new prospect (regardless of whether they downloaded a whitepaper, stopped by your booth at a tradeshow, or signed up for a free trial) they are more likely than not still in the awareness or research stage and are not yet ready to engage with one of your sales reps. What this means is you need lead scoring to identify which leads are highly engaged, and lead nurturing to develop relationships with qualified prospects who are not yet ready to engage with sales. Without these capabilities, as many as 95% of qualified prospects who are not yet sales-ready never end up turning into a sales opportunity. These prospects are valuable corporate assets that you worked hard to acquire — so in a down economy you need to do everything possible to maximize value from them. Implementing even a simple automated lead nurturing program can yield a 4-fold improvement in the conversion of qualified prospects into sales opportunities over time. That’s a dramatic improvement marketing return on investment! Net-net: Companies that can do a better job of managing leads and developing early-stage prospects into sales ready leads will be in the best position to thrive in a downturn.

2. Focus on your house list. In a recession, you may have less money to spend on acquiring new customers. The solution is simple: spend more time marketing to (and building relationships with) the people you already know. Some activities that can help you get the most out of your existing relationships include lead nurturing campaigns, creating new content to offer to existing prospects, and cleaning and augmenting your marketing lead database with progressive profiling.

3. Build and optimize landing pages. When times are tough, it’s more important than ever to maximize the return on your advertising. Whether you are using Google AdWords, banners, sponsorships, or email campaigns, a dedicated landing pageis the single most effective way to turn a click into a prospect. MarketingSherpa’s Landing Page Handbook shows that relevant landing page can easily double conversions versus sending clicks to the home page, and testing your pages can increase conversions by another 48% or more. Together, these tactics alone can result in 2.5X more leads for every dollar you spend, something that’s sure to look good in tough times. However, MarketingSherpa also reports that most companies are under-using this important technique: just 44% of clicks for B2B companies are directed to the home page, not a special landing page, and of B2B companies that use landing pages, 62% have six or fewer total pages. A recession is perhaps the best time to focus on some of these basics.

4. Content for later in the buying cycle. When buying slows down, you need to focus more than ever on making sure you are finding the prospects who are actually ready to buy — or even better, make sure they are finding you. One great way to do this is to focus your offers on content that will appeal to someone who’s actually looking for a solution (as opposed to thought leadership and best practices content, which can appeal to prospects who may one day have a need but are not currently looking). Examples of this kind of content can include “Top 5 Questions to Ask a Potential Vendor” whitepapers; buyers guides and checklists; analyst evaluations; and so on.

5. Appeal to the nervous buyer. A recession can mean more risk-adverse buyers, which may lead to a tendency to go with “safe” solutions. This is fine for large established companies, but it means younger companies need to do more than ever to reassure and build trust. Tactically, this means including customer references, reviews, expert opinions, awards, and other validation as part of your marketing. Strategically, a recession means fewer risk takers and visionaries, so take a lesson from Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm and use methods that appeal to mainstream pragmatists: industry-specific marketing tactics and solutions; vertical customer references; relevant partnerships and alliances; and whole product marketing.

6. Align sales and marketing. Today’s prospects start their buying process by interacting with marketing and online channels long before they ever speak with a sales representative. This means companies must integrate marketing and sales efforts to create a single revenue pipeline. The old days of functional silos and poor communication between the two departments must end. A tougher selling environment, driven by a recession, means this is more true than ever.

7. Don’t be a cost center. Most executives today think that Sales delivers revenue and Marketing is a cost center. Marketers are partly to blame for part of this mindset, since when we use metrics such as “cost per lead” we frame the discussion in terms of costs, not in terms of impact on revenue. More subtly, using language like “marketing spending” and “marketing budget” instead of “marketing investment” perpetuates these beliefs. In a recession, marketing needs more than ever to change these perceptions. This means that marketing investments must be justified with a rigorous business case and should be amortized over the entire “useful life” of the investment. And it means marketing must increase marketing accountabilityby demonstrating the impact of each marketing activity on pipeline and revenue. Of course, this is easier said than done, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Even small steps, like reports that show the total opportunity value for each lead source or campaign, can make a big impact.

Conclusion

Even if we aren’t in a recession, we are in for some tough economic times — and an economic slowdown means a tendency to scale back marketing spending. However, research shows that a downturn creates opportunity to accelerate growth faster than your competitors. This means it may be the best time to step up your marketing — at least in quality if not quantity. The marketers that focus on getting the most out of every dollar spent and on demonstrating marketing’s impact on revenue and pipeline will be well positioned to come out of the slump looking like a star.

When Good Marketing Goes Bad: 3 Major Blunders

Planning a creative and unique marketing campaign is exciting, but you should never let excitement override common sense. On occasion, a marketing campaign that initially seemed promising and effective will turn out to be a disaster, and some of them even result in serious losses.

Here are some examples of great marketing ideas gone bad:

Casa Sanchez: Tattoo for Free Lunch

California-based Mexican restaurant Casa Sanchez offered a lifetime of free lunches to customers who would have its logo tattooed on their bodies.

When the number of inked customers reached 40, the owners of the restaurant realized that they would lose $5.8 million in revenue if all of those customers had lunch at their restaurant every day over a 50-year period.

To limit their loss, they decided to stop offering the deal after the count reached 50.

Snapple: The Giant Popsicle Meltdown

In an attempt to break the world record for the largest popsicle, Snapple created a 25-foot and 35,000-pound kiwi-strawberry popsicle.

The company planned to erect the giant popsicle at Times Square on the first day of summer – when the temperature rose to about 80 degrees. As the popsicle was being raised by a crane, it melted and flooded the street with sugary goo. Why a popsicle? And why on an 80 degree day without a proper cooling system? No one knows, but what a sight to see.

GM: Pontiac Giveaway on Oprah

During a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah gave every member of her 276-strong studio audience a brand new Pontiac G6 sedan.

According to GM, which donated the cars, the total cost of the publicity stunt amounted to about $8 million. While this wasn’t an embarrassing failure, it’s questionable whether or not GM got their money’s worth. Despite their financial backing, GM did not get the lion’s share of the publicity. In the end, the focus was on Oprah and her generosity – so she came out the biggest winner.

The Potential Cost of Marketing Gone Bad

A marketing snafu can hurt your business in all kinds of ways, but financial losses are some of the hardest (and most embarrassing!) to recover from.

The easiest way to lose money is to miscalculate the total cost and potential gain of your marketing campaign. Other expensive mistakes include campaigns that result in injuries, damage of property, or lawsuits, all of which can lead to substantial financial loss.

In the long term, a marketing snafu that jeopardizes the reputation of your company can eventually cost you customers. High-profile mistakes can undermine your credibility, causing your current customers to lose faith in you, or your current prospects to look elsewhere.

How to Deal With Marketing Blunders

When a marketing blunder threatens the reputation of your company, the best course is to act quickly. Never expect that the problem will just go away — if it doesn’t, the cost of waiting could be deadly.

After a blunder, you should immediately provide an explanation or apology to the public, which may keep unfavorable reactions under control. You may also offer benefits, such as discounts or free gifts, to win back favor. If your company has a strong social marketing base, you can use social media and press releases to respond to customer complains directly and apologetically. Handled gracefully, a marketing blunder can become an opportunity to nurture your relationships with your customers.

But the truth is, when it comes to marketing mishaps, prevention is always better than cure. As such, it is important that you’ve explored every possible outcome before you’ve launched your marketing campaign, especially how internet reputation management services can assist your efforts. All business decisions involve some form of risk, but knowing how to find the right balance between risk and caution is the key to ensuring long-term success. The bottom line? Don’t get caught up in your own hype.

To end on a positive note, check out some of our favorite marketing campaigns for inspiration. Did I miss any famous marketing blunders? Have a story of your own to share? Leave them in the comments section below.