Kiss these outdated marketing tactics goodbye (along with 2017)!

Marketing is easy. You need a website, some social media accounts and can advertise on radio, television or printed publications like newspapers and magazines or even the odd billboard. Plus, you need budget and lots of it, because marketing is expensive right?? Well, actually no – it really isn’t. But there is some merit in saying marketing is easy – that is, if you have a clear and concise strategy, know your customers and have done the research to know which platforms to use to reach them.

You still need a website and yes, if you have the budget, feel free to advertise on any platform that brings you the desired outcomes for your campaign. Today, business owners have more options available to them than ever before to get their message across to their desired audience, but the following tactics may be kissed goodbye.

• Email and SMS Marketing with a dash of Cold Calling

All three of these tactics can be scrapped. Today’s consumer is tech savvy and your cold calls will be ambushed by apps like “Truecaller”. Sms and email marketing attempts will be perceived as spam, unless you have their name, surname and are up to date with their personal preferences and buying habits.

Your marketing should be personal, have warmth and speak to the consumer’s needs. Nobody likes being marketed to – but if a relevant conversation is started on the correct medium you will reap the benefits. 

• No more Banner-Ads or Pop-Up Ads

If you’re advertising on a website or portal, your package deal will always include one or more banner ads. Don’t accept them. Consumers are NOT looking at banner ads, in fact the average CTR (Click Through Rate) on banner ads is 0.07%. That’s not a good return on investment at all. Pop-Up ads are faring even worse. Up to 70% of consumers find them annoying and will close them as soon as they appear – that is if they are not making use of pop-up blockers already.

Rather focus on creating multimedia content for your social media profiles and obtaining subscribers for your newsletter. In focusing your efforts to areas where consumers opt-in and actively follow you, your content will reach the right audience and deliver the desired results. 

• All Social Media Platforms were not created equal

A lot of companies or businesses send the same marketing messages and updates across Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, Instagram etc. not realising that this comes across as fake and the result can be disastrous. Each social platform has its own set of rules and caters to a specific crowd, as such the perfect LinkedIn article will fall on deaf ears on a platform like Instagram and vice versa.

Companies and businesses needs to understand how each platform works, what would work for their specific marketing strategy and tailor their creatives and content to be platform specific. 

• SEO and SMM are not stand-alone strategies anymore

Investing in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is still a good thing, but if your blog posts and other content is not being shared on social media your landing pages will never rank high on Google. In the same way, Social Media Marketing (SMM) alone is not enough. Your online profiles need high quality content, regular updates and should address all the points of your overall marketing strategy.

Your SEO and SMM have to work together to achieve your marketing goals. The more shares you receive on social media, the more your overall SEO improves. Look at ways to add social media tools to your website and blog and ensure that social media integrations form part of your SEO efforts. 

• Not adding Video to your Content Arsenal

Images and creative copy/content will never stop driving engagement, but social video is taking over. According to recent statistics, 43% of consumers expect more video from marketers, whether it’s product explainers or introductory clips. Yes you read that correctly, expect. Video is expected to make up 69% of consumer internet traffic by 2018.

If you’re taking the bold step to create videos, be sure to keep them under 60 seconds and try to personalise them. Videos between 30 and 60 seconds have a 53% retention rate and 37% of consumers will watch the video to the end.

Remember, people have an inherent need to connect, engage, share, complain, love, learn and expect that interaction from businesses.