6 Outdated Marketing Techniques You Should Stop Right Now

Marketing is a constantly evolving field, which is why it is important to keep up to date with modern marketing techniques. The problem with marketing being such a fast-paced area of business is that what may be working for you one minute may be obsolete the next, and it is easy to fall into the trap of recycling the same old marketing tropes year after year because once upon a time it actually worked.

Often businesses will judge the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns on whether or not their customer base or site views have grown, but what they neglect to analyse is how many potential consumers have been turned off by their shoddy attempt at marketing. The everyday consumer, for the most part, is wiser than they used to be and they can see right through manipulative marketing tactics. Nowadays marketing has to be honest, personal and considerate, which is why you should stop using these six outdated marketing techniques right now.

Telemarketing

Much like door-to-door selling, telemarketing is a numbers game. Apparently if the caller does their job right and follows certain selling strategies 3 in 100 people will buy what they're selling, but far more will not answer, intentionally waste the callers time (and money) or instantly hang up. Most people do not like being interrupted at home to have someone try and sell them something and a lot will blacklist sellers who try.

Blanket Emails (Spam)

Sending out newsletters to those who sign up is a great way of letting customers who care about your business and what you're selling know what you're up to, but sending out spammy emails to 20,000 random people is not likely to get you anywhere. Anyway, chances are your message will just get sent into the recipients junk box and they'll never see it.

Fixed Response Templates

Anyone savvy enough to use a computer is savvy enough to tell an automated response when they see one. When a customer takes the time to message you they are addressing you personally and expect a personal response. No one wants to talk to a soulless machine, and most customers will trust a company more if they feel their interests are being looked after by an actual, caring person.

Phone Books

When was the last time you used a phone book? Do you even have an up to date phone book at home? Spending any amount of your marketing budget on getting pole positioning in the phone book is a waste of money. No one will see it. Chances are no one has even opened one in this century!

Unrealistic Reviews

No business is perfect, no product is perfect, and some people love to complain. The chances of every review on any one site reading “5* - THIS IS AWESOME!!!” are literally 0. Someone will have had their products delivered late, someone will feel that the product was misrepresented, and most people will simply not be blown away by a mundane everyday item. It will look like you're screening or fabricating reviews if you do not have a couple of four star and three star reviews on your site at least, so embrace them.

Poor Online Content

Digital marketing and SEO is essential for the modern business and getting your site ranking on page one of the SERP should be every marketeers' goal. Google is not stupid though, and it can tell if you are trying to trick it by using old, Black-Hat SEO tactics. Keyword stuffing and frequent, insubstantial content is more likely to get your site penalised than it is to get it ranking, so rather than being sly, simply put the time into your social media and conducting White Hat SEO on your site. It'll pay off.