The old Southern adage, “If you don’t like the weather, wait five
minutes,” could certainly apply to the task of keeping pace in the world
of digital marketing. Changes in trends and tactics shift quickly with
the wind and, as digital marketers, the only way we can keep up is
through innovation and information.
Here
are five things that have always seemed to work for digital marketers
but just don’t get the job done anymore. Let's count them down.
5. Twitter.
The
decline of Twitter as a tool for digital marketing hasn’t happened just
yet. It’s still a fine resource for promoting your business and linking
up with like-minded people, without being as distant or cold as
LinkedIn or as informal and casual as Facebook. In fact, the way a
digital marketer uses Twitter might be more the problem than the medium
itself. Boring tweets, low engagement with followers and over-selling
(or
only selling) products can all lead to poor Twitter returns.
Related: 4 Marketing Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From April the Giraffe
Twitter
has gained further notoriety following the media frenzy regarding the
personal account of President Donald Trump, which became his stump from
which he communicated throughout his campaign. Twitter saw a dip in users
going into 2016 but a quick spike during the campaign. Whether this
spike can be directly attributed to Trump is unknown but it is certainly
of interest to digital marketers knowing that more people than ever
before are turning to Twitter for their information and, perhaps, future
quotes from the president.
4. SEO technical tricks.
Anyone
who has long worked in digital marketing fondly recalls the Wild West
days of SEO. This may have only been six or so years ago, but it was a
messy free-for-all of keyword stuffing, barrages of links and content
with no images, videos or style. After the long awaited Panda Update, which augmented Google’s algorithms to tease out and penalize subpar or spammy content, and then the latest iteration of Penguin, which provides a similar service only more specific, things began to change for us in the industry.
Yes,
it made it more difficult to get to the top of the search page, but
only for companies that produced bad content. In fact, going forward,
updates like Panda and Penguin will only help companies that are doing
great creative work and working hard for their clients.
3. Coupon sites.
Initially,
coupon sites were a great approach for many businesses struggling to
get people through their digital doors. They often resulted in quick
influxes of cash, especially during “shopping holidays,” and attracted
many first time buyers or those shoppers who may have otherwise
abandoned their carts. In fact, a 2010 study by Rice University suggested that Groupon codes were profitable for an astounding 66 percent of businesses!
Unfortunately,
that same study also found that often times Groupon sales were
cannibalized by existing customers instead of incentivizing new
customers. Furthermore, many of the deals offered were tilted heavily in
favor of the consumer, which can lead to profitability issues for the
business in the long run.
Related: 3 of the Top Opportunities and Challenges for Digital Marketing in 2017
2. Fake Instagram followers.
Unlike
the other items on this list, fake Instagram followers probably should
have never worked in the first place. For one, it’s a bit dishonest but,
more importantly, it provides no service to anyone but the person with
the fake followers. Digital marketing companies are taken for a ride by a
personality who they believe has a niche following that they can
capitalize on. The consumer also suffers, as the product, which they may
need or want, doesn’t effectively reach their feeds.
A couple of years ago, Instagram cleaned house and did a mass purge of all their fake accounts, and I’m sure they’re continuing to monitor the situation as best they can. Unfortunately, studies still find that 8 percent of accounts on Instagram are fake.
What can digital marketers do? Seek help spotting fake accounts, and find the right people to partner with for marketing purposes.
1. Batch and blast email campaigns.
Not
long after the dawn of the internet era, batch-and-blast emails were
some of the first marketing tactics to emerge from the primordial soup.
It was fast and easy to dial up a boilerplate email, send it off to all
of the subscribers on your listserv, sit back and watch the profits roll
in.
These days, things are a little different.
For one, millennials can’t stand them. Yes, email is overwhelmingly the preferred method of communication for those vexing 20-somethings but they want to be catered to and decidedly not browbeaten by a deluge of marketing emails.
Looking
forward, Pinterest, one of the fastest growing social media sites,
shows what the future could hold for email marketing. Pinterest replaced
batch-and-blast with emails that are completely tailored to the user.
Using the myriads of data they are given, Pinterest is trying to
customize the customer experience and, furthermore, create an emotional
relationship with their users.
Related: Social Video Throwdown: Pinterest Enters the Ring With Facebook and Twitter
Conclusion.
All
digital marketing approaches will one day go the way of the buffalo --
that is to say, they will approach the brink of extinction and then make
an improbable comeback. Often times, it’s not so much the medium but
how digital marketing companies use it that’s the problem. So before you
go abandoning all your old approaches, make sure you’re doing
everything you can to maximize your current potential.
Source:
5 Things That Have Always Worked For Digital Marketers, Until Now