The Deceptive Nature of “Bad” Marketing
In the world of high-stakes plumbing marketing, it is easy to be swayed by a single negative data point. Recently, a mailer from a brand called Cozy Earth landed on the desk of Mammoth Marketing’s founder, Tyler Williams. At first glance, it appeared to be an “epic failure.” The envelope was plain, the branding was mysterious, and it offered a massive 40% discount without clearly explaining what the company actually sold.
To a single recipient, this might look like a “dud.” It might even prompt a business owner to ask, “Is this mailer a mistake?” However, at Mammoth Marketing, we look beyond the single envelope. While one person might find a marketing piece irrelevant, the business behind the campaign is often seeing a completely different story in their bank account. This article explores why plumbing business owners must stop letting individual complaints dictate their marketing trajectory and why the “math of the many” always beats the “opinion of the one.”
The Fallacy of 100% Marketing Optimization
Many newer or smaller plumbing business owners fall into the trap of trying to optimize their marketing for universal approval. They send out 5,000 postcards and expect 5,000 homeowners to be delighted. When they receive one angry phone call from a resident who “doesn’t want junk mail,” they panic and pull the plug on the entire campaign.
Mammoth Marketing views this as a critical strategic error. Marketing is, by its very nature, a filtering process. If Cozy Earth—a major player in the e-commerce space—is sending out 500,000 mailers with a 40% discount code, they aren’t worried about the people who throw the card away. They are focused on the thousands of people who will use that code.
For a plumbing company, a mailer that results in a few complaints but generates twenty high-ticket repipe jobs is an undeniable victory. If you stop a campaign because of a loud minority, you are effectively leaving thousands of dollars on the table to appease people who were never going to hire you in the first place.
Lessons from the “Skeleton” Ad: Filtering via Feedback
The same principle applies to digital advertising. Mammoth Marketing often utilizes bold, high-energy creative to grab attention in crowded social media feeds. One such ad featured a skeleton theme with the headline “Worked to the Bone.”
While the ad was highly successful in generating job applicants and leads, it also attracted its fair share of negative comments. Some users found it “unprofessional” or “dumb.”
The Mammoth Marketing philosophy is simple: The negativity is often part of the filter.
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The Hater: Someone who complains about a creative ad likely wouldn’t be a good fit for a high-energy, modern plumbing company culture anyway.
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The Applicant: The people who applied for the position understood the humor, aligned with the brand’s personality, and were the exact “avatar” the company was looking for.
If a campaign reaches 40,000 people and yields 39,998 silent observers and two loud complainers, it isn’t a failure—it’s just human nature. Negative feedback is often the only feedback people feel motivated to give, while the “silent majority” is busy clicking your links and booking your services.
Measuring Success: Math vs. Emotion
When questioning if a campaign is a mistake, Mammoth Marketing encourages owners to move away from emotional reactions and toward hard data. To determine the health of a campaign, one must ask three objective questions:
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What was the reach? (How many people actually saw the message?)
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What was the complaint-to-conversion ratio? (Did the revenue generated outweigh the social “noise”?)
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Was the offer strong enough? (Did you offer a measly 10% that everyone ignored, or a 40% “Cozy Earth style” offer that forced people to pay attention?)
In the plumbing industry, you rarely see massive discounts like 40%. Most contractors play it safe with small coupons that the market simply ignores. Mammoth Marketing advocates for “going deeper and bigger.” A bold offer might attract a few skeptics, but it will also attract the volume of leads necessary to scale a business.
The Danger of Marketing “Decay” Through Hesitation
The most dangerous behavior a business owner can adopt is making “safe” marketing their default setting. When you move all your messaging into the “safe zone” to avoid complaints, you become invisible.
You cannot make everyone happy. If you try, you end up with marketing that is ignored by everyone. The goal is to make the right people happy—the homeowners with leaky water heaters and clogged drains who need a reliable expert right now.
Consistency is the key to overcoming the “silent” nature of positive marketing. You must keep the top-of-mind awareness high through sustained spend, even when you aren’t hearing a constant stream of praise. The praise shows up in your year-end revenue reports, not in your Facebook comments section.
Conclusion: Stop Overthinking and Start Scaling
Whether it’s a direct mailer or a digital ad, the truth is that your marketing is working even when it’s silent—and sometimes even when it’s being criticized. Don’t let a single “dud” in a mailbox or a single mean comment on a post derail a strategy that is built on proven math and market psychology.
At Mammoth Marketing, we specialize in helping plumbers navigate the noise and focus on the metrics that actually move the needle. We don’t care about making everyone like your ads; we care about making the right people call your office.
If you are ready to see what your business needs to focus on to achieve true growth, schedule a consultation with the Mammoth Marketing team at https://mammothforplumbers.com/.
