With annual revenues exceeding $100bn and a virtual monopoly on search, as well as significant holdings in a plethora of future facing technical innovations, Google can afford to make the occasional mistake. As a case in point, an email we received this morning from this behemoth of internet technology contained a broken link. Just to emphasise the irony here, a company that has risen from humble beginnings in a garage to worldwide domination based on its understanding of how the internet works, has failed to implement correctly the most basic element of html.
Will this error stop us subscribing to Google's regular newsletters? No, it will not. We find marketing insights and technical updates from Google to be extremely helpful, enabling us to stay at the forefront of internet marketing.
With our brand loyalty assured, Google can make a mistake or two and we will overlook it.
Does that mean that you can rely on your audience to do the same? Absolutely not. There are two types of audience when it comes to the way mistakes in marketing are viewed: devoted fans who will forgive any blunder, and everyone else.
In the world of B2B marketing, you can safely assume that your audience fits into the 'everyone else' category. If you send an email with spelling mistakes or broken links; if you have a website that is slow to load or fails to render correctly on mobiles, this will damage the perception of your brand.
No matter how good the service you provide, or how reliable the product you make, a glaring error in any of your marketing material will indicate to your audience that attention to detail is not a priority for your firm. They will inevitably draw the conclusion (perhaps harshly) that if you did not spot a typo in an email, you probably will not spot a manufacturing flaw in your product.
However, we all know that mistakes do happen. As the Japanese say, even monkeys sometimes fall from trees.
So how can you ensure perfection in your marketing? And how can you make sure the fear of this gold standard doesn't leave you like a rabbit in the headlights, too scared to move?
The answer is: TEAMWORK
Some people are great at coming up with ideas - these are the blue-sky-thinking, helicopter-view-taking, envelope-pushing strategists and captains of industry. They are not held back by the fear of a misplaced apostrophe.
Some have tactical nous and are able to turn the big ideas into workable marketing plans, with actionable steps and defined requirements.
Others have specialist skills which allow them to take concepts and turn them into elegant prose and exciting visuals.
Lastly, there are the quality controllers - the proof-readers, fact-checkers, testers and those with an exceptional eye for detail.
If a marketing team contains these members, the chance of a mistake escaping notice is lessened considerably. On the other hand, if any of these talents is missing, the likelihood of brand damaging, erroneous presentation is increased.
Our experience has taught us the value of having all these skills in-house, and we are very proud of the teamwork that goes in to everything we do for our clients.
If you realise the importance of accuracy but you do not want the fear of making a mistake to hold you back, talk to us. We can take your marketing concepts and transform them into perfectly executed campaigns.