Everybody makes mistakes. When it comes to marketing, especially social marketing, few get it perfectly right out of the gate. The trick is to make mistakes you can learn from and correct. There is a fatal variety of mistake from which there is no return. While some few companies seem to be able to bounce back from almost anything, you want to avoid the following missteps:
- Criminal activity – If you are caught embezzling, or otherwise misappropriating money, you will have a trust issue forever. Once company principals are pictured in handcuffs and found guilty, that image follows the company forever.
- Scammer behavior – Even if your behavior is not official criminal, your reputation will still suffer if people come to regard you as a scammer. An incompetent CEO can fail up into an even better job. But a scammer has nowhere to go but down.
- Social pariah – Don’t be a jerk and then act surprised when it comes back to haunt you. Even the perception of sexism is enough to make you an outcast these days. Corporate power is not a license to mistreat other people. And your business will be punished for it.
Avoid these three corporate sins at all costs. Here are 4 others you may stumble into, but are not fatal if you act wisely and quickly:
1. Poor Use of Video
Companies are fond of using video in their marketing efforts. These days, it is not all about TV. It is mainly about the web. The success of YouTube as social media has emboldened companies to try all sorts of video stunts that have been ill-advised, to put it mildly.
If you want to make an explainer video, the best strategy is to keep it simple and clean. Raw Shorts explainer video maker is one product in this new category that helps companies stick to a simple and proven formula that produces all types of corporate videos that provides the results you were looking for.
Poor use of video will have an opposite effect from the one you wanted. But this can be easily remedied by going back to basics and producing simpler, clearer, and more effective videos.
2. Poor Use of Social Marketing
It is a mistake to view LinkedIn as a glorified, online business card. If that is all you are getting from it, count that as one of the LinkedIn marketing mistakes you are making right now, and one you can easily fix.
Many of those marketing mistakes made on LinkedIn are often repeated across a companies entire social marketing strategy. No matter what platform you are on, it is still a mistake to do the following:
- Reuse old marketing content
- ignoring engagement metrics
- Making your business seem generic and undifferentiated
Social media requires a deft touch. It is worth bringing in a specialist. One of the biggest mistakes is thinking you can do it yourself if you don’t know the first thing about social media.
3. Poor Use of Email Marketing
Some might say that any use of email marketing is a poor use of email marketing. That is because the line between good email marketing and spam is scalpel thin, and requires surgical precision.
Before sending even one email, you have to know the difference between spam emails vs. email marketing. If you have been sending unsolicited, bulk email, you are officially a spammer.
While that is not the only criteria, it is the main one, and the easiest to detect. It is also easy to correct by immediately stopping the bad practice and employing email marketing best practices.
4. Poor Use of Your Corporate Website
Trying to cram everything you do into a single URL is a mistake that a lot of businesses make. The better thing to do is keep your corporate website clean and evergreen. And use microsites to test new concepts, or reach out to new markets not available to your current brand.
Everyone makes mistakes. So don’t worry. You can easily fix poor use of video, poor use of social marketing, poor use of email marketing, and poor use of your corporate website. As for the bigger mistakes, remember that there is really no such thing as a company that is too big to fail.
