Bad Online Marketing

Although there are a million ways to market your products incorrectly, the big mistake I see is to forget that your public are humans and fail to build relationships with them.

Making 5,000 “friends” on a social network like Twitter or Facebook is a good idea. But if all you do is send them bulk advertising messages, it’s not going to work.  You’re dealing with live people who have interests and ideas and opinions. The more you find out what is needed and wanted and deliver THAT, the better off you’ll be.

When someone receives a generic “Thank’s for following” plus a link to where they can go to give their hard-earned money to that Twitter member they just decided to follow, they are rarely appreciative. This is because the human element is missing.

The first thing you always do in a successful marketing campaign is research. You find out if your proposed business is in demand and by whom. Then your marketing plan will be geared toward that public. You get to know this public via various channels they use. Yes, Twitter and Facebook are fine channels, as long as your purpose is to GET TO KNOW YOUR PUBLIC THERE.  Then as your marketing campaign rolls out, feedback from your public will help you understand what they like and don’t like, what they’re looking for, etc. This will continue to streamline your campaign messages so that they are effective.

There are research tools you can buy and get for free online, keyword research tools, search features on social networks to see what topics are of interest to people currently, and various kinds of feedback forms and surveys you can create for your public, once you’ve identified who they are. Google’s Keyword Tool is a free and valuable keyword research tool, and a good place to start.

Just remember that your public are made up entirely of individual human people. And getting to know them, their interests, their needs and wants, is the only way you will succeed in any business venture.