On the 31^st of October, The Verdi Group ignites a papier-mâché campfire, turns off all the lights, and tells the most frightening B2B marketing mistakes.

Below are true stories told by Verdi employees.

The Spine-chilling Survey

Everything appeared to be falling into place for Director of Client Services Mary Bonaccio. She had just got out of a successful meeting where she pitched the idea of an affordable loyalty program in the form of a LinkedIn user group.

Although she was confident that the program would be a success, the team decided to launch a survey to current customers before strategizing. Among the many questions asked was which platforms should and should not be used to reach customers.

To her astonishment, the results revealed that the majority of the audience was not active on LinkedIn – and worst of all, most didn’t even have an account! Due to this shocking data, the team decided that a newsletter would be the best option.

Today, Mary cringes every time she is reminded of what the now successful loyalty program could have been. Never again would she assume a customer’s communication preference. She would hear their voice first. Always.

Leads Gone Cold

Once upon a time during Bob Green’s marketing experience, there was a new client interested in helping privately owned companies create succession plans. The goal was to deliver a direct mail package targeted at top executives.

The client was pleased to receive an expensive looking folder packed with helpful information. Just before the client was ready to sign off, Bob warned them that in order to achieve their goals, a high-level person within their company would need to be willing to follow-up with the leads by phone. The client assured them their partners would handle it…

The package was mailed and received a high response rate. Several months later, Bob and his team met up with the client to ask how the campaign was coming along. To their dismay, the client said it didn’t work very well…

With horror, Bob asked what went wrong. That’s when the client said his partners refused to pick up the phones and make the calls. In the end, the result was cold leads and a wasted campaign.

From there on out, Bob and his team became adamant about follow-up calls. He still gets goosebumps knowing perfectly goods leads were left to die.

Ugly Audits

 Account Executive Rockefeller Miller was excited to send out a mass mailing for a large client. He confidently submitted the art and data files to the printer and patiently waited to receive the digital audit.

Days later, Rock was enjoying lunch in his office when he received an email from the print production supervisor. He opened the email, ready to see his flawless addresses transferred to the art files, when suddenly he realized something wasn’t right…

Nearly choking on his mother’s leftover BBQ chicken legs, he noticed that some title fields were missing, the artwork was shifted, and the rep info was incorrect! Startled, Rock compared the two files only to realize the printer corrupted the original data.

He quickly replied to the email and addressed the problems. That day, Rock learned the importance of audits and how they can help prevent errors before hitting the press. Never again would he be able to eat his mother’s BBQ chicken legs without being haunted by that frightening audit…