Every company struggles to target the right audience and, just as important, to grab the audience’s attention long enough to drive real action. After all, consumer attention spans have now waned to a mere eight seconds—down from a whopping 12 seconds not even two decades ago.

But blaming consumers for a lack of interest in your digital marketing efforts isn’t going to solve the problem. Nor will all those tools that keep you abreast of every click, like, and share. They serve only to confirm that something isn’t working, but they do nothing to tell you how to actually improve performance.

Creative that inspires action is still key to improving response rates. Even the subtlest mistake can keep consumers from doing what you want them to do.

If your response rate is falling short of expectations, don’t rush to overhaul your marketing…