What’s Not Working Marketing Diagnostic

Client:

This is an example of a “What’s Not Working” Marketing Diagnostic to demonstrate Smart Dog Copy’s strategic marketing diagnostic process.

Symptom:

The company is investing in paid social advertising and generating clicks to a dog supplement product page, but those visitors aren’t converting into customers.

Rather than assuming the ads, website copy, or product page needs to be rewritten, the first step is determining where the customer journey may be breaking down.

What I Inspected and Discovered:

1. Ad-to-page message continuity
The ad leads with [X], but once the visitor clicks through, the product page shifts immediately to [Y]. The original reason for clicking gets lost, creating friction at exactly the point where interest should be building.

2. Product positioning and differentiation
The page explains what the product contains, but the strongest reason to choose it over competing products is buried. A shopper comparing options has to work too hard to understand why this one is different.

3. Above-the-fold messaging
The first screen prioritizes product information before establishing the primary customer benefit. The visitor gets details before getting a compelling reason to keep reading.

4. Trust and proof
Strong credibility elements are present, but they’re appearing too late in the journey to help overcome hesitation at the point they’re most needed.

5. Call to action and purchase path
The CTA itself isn’t necessarily the problem. The messaging leading into it hasn’t done enough to resolve the customer’s likely questions and objections before asking for the sale.