In a technologically advanced society with consumers having more power than ever before, there are some ‘old school’ marketing techniques that are dated and offer little or no opportunity for success. When developing a marketing strategy, bear in mind that your target audience has more choices than at any other point in history.
You must also understand that people are exposed to thousands of ads a day and if yours fails to meet the grade, your brand will effectively be seen as poison. Below we look at outdated marketing techniques and if you still persist with any of these, you are way behind the times and should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself.
Telemarketing
I can’t believe some companies still use telemarketing as a marketing ‘technique’ but I have received a few of these calls in the last 12 months or so. Telemarketing conjures up images of 1950s style advertising which is hilariously poor by today’s standards.
Most people have caller ID and will simply block your call while others will take great pleasure in telling you where to stuff your special offer. Worst of all, some angry consumers will report your activities online so everyone can laugh at your crappy company. It is also a fact that telemarketing companies operate from really grim looking buildings.
Fake Testimonials
This is another turgid excuse of a marketing technique which is still practised by fools everywhere. Fake testimonials are normally associated with shady pyramid schemes or lottery scams where ‘you may already have won’. Most fake testimonials are easy to spot and as always, your deception will be uncovered and reported online. Then you can kiss goodbye to your credibility and customer base.
Keyword Stuffing
Reading content that contains the same keyword 43 times in a 500 word post makes my eyes bleed and causes customers to run as far away from your website as possible. It worked once upon a time but now Google and other search engines punish this garbage and send it plummeting down the rankings where it belongs. It should be officially deemed a crime with perpetrators sentenced to 20 years in the Gulags!
Direct Mailing
‘Mr Lynch, we have an offer for you today regarding 2 for 1 discounts.’ I can just as easily read this online. Oh you don’t have a website, this is the 21st century you know! Direct mail marketing is slow, has an appalling success rate and is very expensive. Email marketing is a thousand times better for a variety of reasons; not least because it is faster, has a better success rate and costs peanuts in comparison.
Intuitive Marketing
Statistics and data are useful for a reason nimrod! You can rely on your ‘gut instinct’ all you want but this normally only works in formulaic and poorly-acted 1980s cop shows. If you don’t test your marketing techniques regularly, you WILL fail, it’s as simple as that.
Don’t sink your business, avoid all of the marketing techniques mentioned above like they are tickets to a Justin Beiber concert. They are outdated, ineffective and far too costly and time consuming for the poor results you receive from them.