Every business is unique and so is every customer, this means that the marketing strategies applied to entice customers will need to be diversified and readjusted to enhance the likelihood of enticing people from different types of social demographics and target audiences.
Although leveraging popular or “tried-and-true” marketing methods may save time or resources when it comes to upfront planning, in the long run, your business may not see the return on investment that you were hoping to accomplish. If you are planning to take your marketing seriously, you should probably consider avoiding these common marketing strategies.
A/B Testing
A/B testing is not the best marketing strategy for a business if they don’t have a lot of data or much time to test their marketing. It would be much wiser for a small business to focus on using SEO tools and understanding its audience well. By doing this, it can create products and content its users really need and get it right from the start.
SMS Marketing
It is becoming more and more evident that SMS as a marketing strategy is becoming more and more ineffective as time passes and even more off putting if it is unsolicited. Businesses have access to plenty of better options in today’s digital media landscape, like push alerts and social media marketing. If you apply these strategies to reach your target audience you will have a much better chance at turning visitors into new customers.
Magazine Ads
Magazine ads are another perfect example of a form of marketing that is not as effective as it was in previous generations as businesses these days are much better off promoting their products online. Magazine ads also in most cases appeal to a very specific audience, so placing your ads there only reaches a certain small percentage of your customers who read that specific magazine. Focusing on social media and pay-per-click ads is guaranteed to get you more revenue and drive more traffic to your site.
Cold Calling
This marketing tactic is often universally recognised as the most ineffective marketing tactic. You might sometimes find success, but it will be it’ll be far and few between because you aren’t targeting your audience. You waste time that way. It’s easier to personalize your campaigns and content when you know who you’re speaking to.
Direct Emailing
Direct emailing as a marketing strategy has overtime become mostly ineffective, this is mostly because a lot of unsolicited emails often go straight to a person’s junk fold or are just simply ignored by the receiver of the email. Instead a business should focus on email marketing and building an email list. The fact that you own these email addresses and can build lasting relationships with your audience makes it one of the most powerful marketing strategies.
Sending Emails That Aren’t Personalised
Results from a survey show that 80 percent of consumers expect to receive personalised marketing offers. When taking this into consideration it might be a great idea to come up with a way you can make the emails you send to customers as individualised as possible and unique to their life experiences, daily life and expectations.
Newspapers, Radio and Other Forms of Traditional Marketing
In most cases it has become obvious that traditional forms of marketing such as; newspaper and radio ads are not as impactful as what they used to be. If you spend most of your dollars on digital advertising, it is best to focus on Google and Facebook. Furthermore, radio and print media simply do not offer the data that social media marketing can provide you, nor the brand awareness opportunities.
Insincere Community Support
In a lot of cases most businesses that show support for important issues in the community only to gain attention don’t realize that they’re creating a poor impression in the long run. People do take notice when your everyday actions and seasonal marketing diverge. Instead, it would be a good idea to focus on values that make sense for your business and are relevant all the time. Building your brand on such values which in term will create the best impression.