With the progression of technology, the digital age, and social media, marketing simultaneously continues to grow and adapt. With these changes, old marketing tactics that have been used for generations are no longer effective in fostering results. Not only are these tactics ineffective, they can actually harm your growth, or affect your audience in a negative way. If your business is not fostering growth or reaching your ideal client, you may be using old marketing tactics that are unintentionally harming your growth. Here are a few of these tactics to be aware of, and avoid, if possible:
Cold-Calling (or instant messaging)
In the mid-to-late 1900s, cold-calling was an effective way of selling services. Without social media to sell a business, owners relied on word of mouth to advertise their product. Nowadays, cold-calling, or sending salesy DMs without prior relationship or engagement, can be a major turnoff for your audience. This type of advertising may seem intrusive to your audience, and offensive if your only priority is to pitch your product. Nowadays, it is vital to build rapport before attempting to sell your product to someone. If you don’t establish credibility or a relationship with someone, they are highly unlikely to “bite” and purchase your product. It has been reported that cold calls have a success rate of less than 2%. No one loves receiving sales calls, so do not attempt to sell your business this way.
Knocking on Doors
Door-to-door sales have been a popular tactic for selling in recent years. In fact, you may have opened your front door to find an adorable girl scout selling cookies, or a neighborhood schoolkid offering coupon books. This may be a working tactic for children to use for school needs, but it is NOT recommended for adults offering goods or services. Knocking on a stranger’s door may seem rude, intrusive, or even dangerous, given the climate we currently live in. Not only are people highly unlikely to open the door for a stranger, they are even less likely to listen to your message if they happen to answer the door in the first place. Similar to cold-calling, door-to-door sales have a fairly low conversion rate of 2-3%. There are other ways of converting clients that are far more successful and less intrusive than door-to-door sales.
Clickbait
With the rise of social media, and the continually shorter attention spans of the younger generations, clickbait has become a common way to grab people’s attention. We’ve all fallen prey to it and are typically annoyed when we realize the flashy tagline or image was a “trap”. If you utilize flashy or misleading headlines to get clicks, you are actually harming your business. Once someone visits your site and realizes they’ve fallen for a clickbait tactic, they will quickly leave your site. The more visitors quickly click away from your site, the lower your Google ranking begins to fall. This means your site will no longer be near the top of Google searches. Avoid clickbait by offering clear and concise descriptions of your services, so that you customer knows exactly what to expect. This will build trust with your client and lead to MORE clicks, not less.
Purchasing Emails
Nobody loves receiving spammy emails from companies that we have never heard of or signed up for. When you use a site to purchase email addresses to spam, you are harming your brand. There is no way to guarantee that the individuals you are emailing are your ideal client or have any interest in the product or service that you offer. Email marketing is most effective when clients willingly join your email list because they are interested in your product. These individuals are interested in what you have to offer and WANT to receive your communications. Utilizing this type of email marketing guarantees the highest ROI in marketing.
The dos and don’ts of marketing can be overwhelming in the ever-changing digital age we currently live in. Luckily, you don’t have to be an expert on everything. With over 10 years of digital marketing experience, I have the resources you need to make sure your business flourishes. Call or email me today for a free consultation! I would love to partner with you!