Six Top Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

When done properly, your marketing should not only get people talking, but it should also provide an overflowing pipeline of prospects and loyal followers. However, many marketing campaigns cause people to either talk about their issues with it, or even worse, not get their attention in the first place. It’s amazing how often we see even seasoned marketers at large companies make these common mistakes.

1. Poor use of hashtags. As simple as the concept is, using hashtags for a campaign – or brand as a whole – requires some planning.  Check to see if the hashtag you’re thinking of using is already used. If it is, move on to another one. And don’t use your company name – it needs to be catchy and conversational.
2. No opt-out in your emails. Aside from being a pain in the ass for the recipients, it’s illegal. I can’t tell you how many emails I get in the course of a week that have no opt-out, and immediately make me feel like I’m bound for life to this email list. If you’re sending blast emails from Outlook, do the right thing and get setup with an email marketing platform like Mailchimp or iContact. They’re compliant, easy to use, offer tracking results,
3. Pointless language and/or jargon. Using terms like “the area’s premier so-and-so”, “we think outside the box” and “taking you to the next level” do nothing for your message. They’re either unfounded claims or expressions that have been overused and have no substance whatsoever. Get out of the rut of catchphrases and buzzwords, and find a solid point of difference. Every company with a future has one.
4. Lack of a clear message or call to action. There’s no point in building a nice magazine ad or website if it’s not drawing customers to do anything. With technology, brands are losing the ability to disrupt their audience. Smart brands are finding ways to attract their customers, and to do so, you need to encourage them to act.
5. Not testing their tactics. Want a quick and easy way to lose a lot of money? Launch a marketing campaign you can’t track. With web analytics free and available, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t know exactly what pages of your site are most popular, how many people went to a landing page without filling out a form, or how many people came to your site from a published article. When you test, you adapt. When you adapt, you evolve.
6. Marketing in a vacuum. Your market has a louder voice than ever in determining the success of your brand. Not communicating with the customers that have worked with you in the past is a dire mistake that I see far too many companies make. By reaching out, you get not only an opportunity for repeat business, you let customers know that you value their opinion, and you get a priceless point-of-view. If you’re not quire sure how to go about this, we put together a white paper to get you going.

What drives you batty about what you’re seeing companies do poorly? Let us know in the comments!