Five Extremely Bad and Common Online and Offline Marketing Disasters

This is a guest post by Sachin about 5 Extremely Bad and Common Online and Offline Marketing Disasters. While there has been a boom in online marketing, facebook marketing, Twitter marketing, and other social media marketing, we continually see ridiculous offers that we don’t believe. The same has been the case with offline marketing for many years. Bad marketing strategies are everywhere, and they are a cheap grab at getting attention that normally leads to a company losing business. They can damage your brand for many years to come. Bad marketing has become so common, it seems that many business owners have forgotten what it is like to be a customer. Here is a look at some of those common and disastrous marketing strategies that definitely don’t do anyone any good.

• Website exchange programs. If you don’t know anything about SEO (search engine optimisation), it is about time you learnt a little. Google will not help out your site just because you have exchanged a high number of links. Linking with sites that have nothing to do with your site will only clutter your own website, and make it harder for Internet users to find you through the search engines.
• Spamming and overkill. Have you ever joined a website and tried to get off that list only to find you are receiving those annoying emails? The same goes with letterbox drops. There is a limit to what you can do, and a limit to what you should do. You should always include an opt-out option with your emails, and limit your flyers to a reasonable limit – you might appear extremely eco-unfriendly.
• Poor quality novelty and other gifts. Online printing services can produce a lot more than your printing needs. They can print on just about anything. Some printing suppliers will ask you to supply your novelties, and others will have their own in stock. If you are giving novelties or other gifts, make sure they are of extremely high quality. If your gifts are low quality, your business will appear low quality too.
• The offer with the asterisk. There is nothing more uninteresting to any potential client than the offer with the asterisk at the end. That signals to them the offer does not exist. If you are going to make a loud and promiscuous claim, do it with something you can deliver. Making conditional claims, only means you are claiming something you cannot really do. You will only annoy potential clients, and they will probably ignore you in the future.
• The no offer, offer. How many times have you read marketing material that actually just sounds like a narcissistic blurb? There is no point telling people how great you are at doing something without a call to action. Actions speak louder than words. Assistance through content and a demonstration of your knowledge and abilities will work much better than just telling everyone how great you are.

It does not matter what medium you are using to get your message across, the same rules of good and bad marketing apply. Are you treating your viewers and target market with the same intelligence you would like to be treated with?