A Checklist of Digital Marketing’s Deadliest Sins

Digital marketing can be challenging. But your chances for success are much greater when you can avoid the (sometimes) simple pitfalls that sabotage response. So we have decided to start a checklist of “response killers”– things that can ruin your chances for productive digital marketing results.

This list is intended as a reference to help assure better performance from your Web, email, mobile, and social media efforts. We’re leading off with 25 deadly sins, in no specific order, and we’re looking for the input of our blog readers to add to the list. So read on…and contribute your own ideas for things to avoid if you want to achieve “killer response”. Read more…

Think about this when developing your marketing campaigns.

Who would you respond to? Someone who tracks you down, cajoles you, and relentlessly lurks in the shadows, or someone who makes you feel special in their presence?

For years, most marketers have been stalkers. We define and segment our target consumers, follow their every move so our marketing messages can reach them through whatever media they use, and hit them repeatedly with “act now” messages. As a result, our stalked audiences turn to media where they think they can escape marketing messages, like digital social networks and mobile channels. Of course, they can’t escape for long, because advertisers are always trying to get their messages wherever consumers’ eyeballs are. (And the media owners are usually all too happy to cooperate for the advertising revenue.) Read more…

In my previous post on this subject, I stressed the importance of making it easy for consumers to take action by clearly indicating in your advertising what it is you want them to do.  You need to lead consumers with verbal and visual cues to generate a desired response.

Experienced direct response copywriters know that a call to action is strongest when repeated.  Some espouse to a “tell ‘em what you want ‘em to do, tell ‘em to do it, and tell ‘em again” philosophy.  Experienced direct response art directors like to employ techniques like “handwritten” margin notes, highlighted copy blocks, and graphic design elements that grab attention and move the consumer’s eye towards a call to action. Read more…

A year ago I was recruited to test a digital kiosk application my agency had created for a major telecom client.  (I guess the team wanted to test usability on a lug-headed Boomer.) I went through the stages of touching elements on the screen to learn more about the client’s offerings until I came to a screen with four pictures in four quadrants.  That’s where I stopped.

“What would you do next?” asked my young host.

“I’d walk away” I replied.

“Wouldn’t you touch one of the images in the quadrants?” he inquired.

“Why should I?  I just see four pictures, and nothing is telling me what to do!” I explained. Read more…

If your Web site has stock photos of good looking young business people “at work”, do yourselves a favor and replace them with photos of the actual people.

Innumerable organizations fill out their Web page layouts with these fake images and it makes me cynical. I’ve made this egregious mistake myself in order to expedite a design solution and it’s just not an acceptable visual answer for your company’s Web site or capabilities brochure.

These insipid stock photos are widely used and easily recognized as meaningless placeholders. If you are concerned about credibility, take the time to take a photo that shows real people… or don’t bother at all. Show nice photos of trees or sailboats or puppies — but please, enough already with the stock photos of “business casual” people.