Even the top marketing gurus can implement bad marketing strategies if they don’t pay attention to the nitty-gritty, unspoken rules. While they may look good on paper, even the smallest mishap can completely derail favorable results.
The following mistakes are some of the easiest – yet most detrimental – ones you and/or your team can commit.
Pay attention to these errors so you can best educate your teams and adapt your strategies to avoid dicey marketing situations. Although you might think you’ve heard it all when it comes to managing marketers, it always pays to look for the weak spots in your goals and plans.
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
1. Your strategies cross the line between informing and spamming
Although we hope that most marketing professionals have moved past “spamming” their followers with sketchy emails; the timing and quantity of messages can still border on unprofessional, even if your team understands that spam is a huge no-no
What’s interesting is that the marketing trend that places emphasis on avoiding spam has caused some marketers to overcorrect in an ineffective way. There is such a thing as sending too few messages or failing to market at all for fear of treading into “spam” territory.
What many marketing teams have failed to realize in recent years is that most email readers don’t actually hate getting ads. They hate getting bad ads – roughly 77% say that they wish they could use an ad filterinstead of blocking ads completely. Email ads aren’t bad as long as they’re used carefully and intelligently with plenty of consideration for the reader.
Your marketing team must decide where to draw the line between spamming potential customers and failing to give them enough information to pique their interest in the products or services.
Tips to avoid creating borderline “spammy” emails without giving up on advertising
- Keep the layout neat and clean, not cluttered.
- Maintain a professional ratio of text to image.
- Double-check all links to ensure they are reliable.
- Include easy-to-reach contact addresses and numbers so that readers can reach out.
If you were to receive your email as a consumer, would you be able to find valuable information and a clear call-to-action? Or would you view it as a glaring promotion with little to no value?
A great example of an advertorial email that is engaging yet simple is this message from Warby Parker.
The brand is known for including stories and explanations in their original content, so it’s on-brand for them to entice readers to learn more (and buy more) with an email like this one. It’s clearly an ad on behalf of Warby Parker, and yet most readers wouldn’t be annoyed because it’s as informative as it is promotional.
2. You are targeting keywords for traffic rather than customers
As a marketer, you know that a high number of visitors doesn’t necessarily spell money signs. Instead, you look at that number of visitors and understand that it’s your job to convert them into true customers.
That’s where more focused, long-tail keywords need to play a role in understanding user intent. You’ve heard about the growing trend of using long-tail keywords, but do you understand why more marketers are turning to them in their content?
Let’s start diving into this topic by discussing different kinds of keywords altogether. When researching keywords for your messages, you must understand the difference between informational keywords, navigational keywords, and transactional keywords.
There is large importance on informational keywords to show people you’re an expert, but you also need navigational and transactional keywords that draw in traffic to convert.
Informational vs navigational/transactional keywords
Informational keywords that could educate readers (without pulling conversions) might include:
“Web design tips”
“Guide to e-commerce web design”
“Web developing strategies”
On the other hand, navigational and transactional keywords that draw conversions might include:
“Web design services San Diego”
“E-commerce design agencies in San Diego”
“Web design pricing”
While all these types of keywords will work to draw in traffic, there needs to be a perfect balance between educating readers and drawing in potential customers.
3. Your campaigns are over-promising and under-delivering
Too many brands market incredible results they can’t guarantee. Although you don’t want to short-sell your product or downplay the benefits of your service, it’s better to surprise customers with fantastic results than to let them down with unmet expectations.
If you’re not alarmed to hear that roughly 32% of customers stop doing business with a brand after only one bad experience, then you’re probably not focusing enough on impressing your customers with results. If you can’t make good on the promises your marketing messages give, you might not get a second chance, and that spells disaster for your business as a whole.
Think about Geico, arguably the most well-known and popular insurance company in America. Their famous slogan is: “15 minutes or less could save you 15% or more on car insurance.” With that slogan, they’re promising two things: efficiency and savings with tangible numbers.
When Forbes looked at eight different states, they found that Geico rates were almost 20% cheaper than the state median. However, you don’t see the brand bragging about saving people 20% – they keep their promise reasonable so they can exceed expectations.
You want your company to be perceived as a doer, not a talker. That attitude begins with your digital marketing management and goals, both domestically and internationally.
