6 Inbound Marketing Tactics You Should Stop Using Now!

Over the last 15 years working at our agency we have devised and implemented various inbound marketing tactics in our campaigns. Some of the techniques were a huge success because they were not only effective but very frugal to implement. However, some other tactics were found to be of no use.

There are few techniques that did work initially but over the time we realized that they are not just ineffective but also detrimental to our marketing campaign. So, we decided to stop using those tactics immediately. It is absolutely essential that a marketer keeps on evolving by adopting new techniques and at the same time discarding the old ones. So, with our experience, we are in a comfortable position to give you 6 such Inbound Marketing Tactics that you ought to stop using this year.

1. It’s Same Old Content Marketing

From my experience, most of the mistakes we do while implementing Inbound Marketing, come from Content Marketing.

I know, it is boring talking about content because many marketers believe that content marketing is not very important and the real action is somewhere else.

Well! They couldn’t be more wrong! & Stop doing the following …

a) Creating Content Without Any Strategy or Plan

By just creating a sales page on a website is not enough to convince customers to buy your products. A Sales page is just one small component in the grand scheme of things.

You need to build an entire narrative around your company and its products. You need to write a series of posts that not only explains your company & its products but also connects directly with its readers.

Content Mapping is the most important part to consider before you create content for your website. So, stop ignoring this!

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b) Bragging Your Company & Product but Nothing for the Customers

Stop bragging too much about your company and products in your blog posts. You shouldn’t push something on your customers. Great content is not where you describe your product eloquently to your customers but how well you address their concerns and needs.

So, stop creating content solely around your company and its products.

c) Too Salesy Content Vs Aggressive SEO Content

We either create content that is too salesy or aggressively geared towards SEO like keyword stuffing, unnecessary links, etc.

At our agency, we faced this challenge a lot. Marketers should need to balance this out. You can’t compromise a sales pitch because your SEO guy wants to add a few keywords here and there in the article and at the same time you can’t ignore the SEO part.

Stop being one-sided and find the right balance.

d) Generic, Monotonous Short 500 – 750 Words Blog Post

You probably already know this! But I want to reiterate by saying today Google doesn’t even like 1000 words article. They like well-written articles that are over 1500 words.

I’m not suggesting you create low-quality articles with 5000 words. What I’m saying is whatever articles you write it must be 1200+ words.

So, these were a few important things you need to stop doing with your content.

2. Buying an Email List and Marketing Without Knowing Your Target Demographics

Gone are the days when marketers bought a huge list of email addresses to send a sales letter to random people. If you are still doing this then please stop it because it is an ineffective and total waste of money.

These so-called email lists are junk containing obsolete emails. You probably have to waste a lot of time sifting through the garbage. In most cases, you are sending emails to people who are simply not interested in your product.

You can’t guess about your target audience. Instead, you must exactly know who they are. Thorough research has to be done in order to ascertain their demographics.

You need to know their age, gender, the city they live in, country, income, educational qualification, etc. for creating a successful marketing campaign.

Failure to ascertain the demographics of your customers is one of the most prime reasons why a marketing campaign fails.

So, no shortcuts!

You may like: Basics of Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.

3. Bombarding Customers with Cold Sales Emails & Other Intrusive Pop-Ups

There is no denying the fact that the email remains an essential component of an inbound marketing strategy. But you can’t bombard your customers with promotional emails containing a blatant sales pitch which is very general and not customized.

I’ve found that broadcasting a sales letter to thousands of people collected through Aweber does not convince them to buy a product. In my experience, the response from the customer was very poor hence I discontinued broadcasting them.

Instead, we created email campaigns which were much more customized, specific and targeted towards a particular individual.

Not one size fits all kind of approach.

Secondly, pop-ups are extremely effective when it comes to lead generation but readers find it very offensive. Even Google hates them. So, stop using them!

4. Futile Social Media Tactics

There is no doubt that various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. can be leveraged to further your inbound marketing campaigns.

However, if you are using it to tweet every 5 minutes on Tweeter or posting one-liner affiliate links on Facebook then it is of no use.

People are not even going to read your robotic tweets, forget about if they will be buying anything from you.

Similarly, if you are asking someone to connect on LinkedIn and then messaging them with a sales promotion, let me tell you this terrible approach isn’t going to work.

Spamming on social media is a waste of time and gives you no return and irritate potential customers as well. There are a lot of other ways to promote your business online if you’re not very good with social media promotion. You can use this precious time to invest in other modes and that should definitely give you positive returns.

Stop using Social Media to spam people, rather build a trusting relationship over a period of time.

5. A Website Without a Blog

I can tell you from my experience that a blog is not just a tool to connect with potential customers but also a great SEO strategy because Google loves a website which is regularly updated.

What will differentiate you from other marketers is others don’t update their website regularly. If you incorporate a blog into your website then you will get a lot of exposure and leads online.

Moreover, every time you publish a new blog post, your page will be indexed immediately and start showing on top of the search results in a few days.

I’ve seen many marketers failing to appreciate the power of blogs on their website.

6. Targeting Only Online, Not Going Beyond Online

Although inbound marketing is all about targeting customers online if you have to stay ahead of your competitors then you have to go beyond online to reach potential customers.

Marketers who are willing to connect with people at a more personal level have a much higher rate of success than those who refuse to do so.

For building a brand you must think out of the box and stop limiting yourself by just being online.

You may also like: 7 Tools Every Social Media Manager Should Use for Marketing Campaigns.

Last Words

Although above mentioned 6 inbound marketing tactics are no secret and marketers already know about it but they are still doing it merely out of their habit.

I hope after reading this article marketers will be forced to change their compulsive behavior and stop using these inbound marketing tactics for their own good.

This article is written by Cyndie Cole from MoneyConnexion. She is a writer by profession and it is her passion. Also, she is a voracious reader which helps her in her writing.