Mother always knows best, right? We’re taking an age-old principle and applying it to your marketing strategy: if your mom would frown upon it, then you probably shouldn’t do it. Seems like a simple enough rule of thumb.

10) Going door to door to sell your product, circa 1979 encyclopedia or vacuum cleaner style.

Do you like being interrupted in the middle of your favorite TV show or household task to find a salesman at your door, ready to chat for a whole 30-minutes out of the blue? Yeah, we don’t either.

9) Dressing up in a chicken suit and twirling a banner with your business name on it (it’s cool for about 5 seconds, after that, it’s kind of depressing).

8) Unnecessarily stalking prospects by phone, email or social media several times a day.

One attempt at contacting a prospect, on one medium is enough for one day. Any more or often, and you’re pushing them away.

7) Distributing a press release about the latest interior upgrades to your brick-and-mortar location…that have absolutely no benefits to your customers.

Don’t distribute a news release if it isn’t newsworthy. You’re wasting your time, and creating a negative impression of your biz to your audience. Think of it as “the boy who cried wolf” – publish enough irrelevant news, and when you honestly have something great to announce, it’ll end up being ignored.

6) Letting an intern do your social media (nothing against interns, but you want your brand tone and message to be consistent and evergreen. Interns aren’t around forever.).

5) Completely ignoring your target audience and marketing to the “cool-kid crowd” in the hopes that they’ll spread the word about your biz.

Yeah, the cool kids are trendy and wear swanky pants, but will they actually benefit your biz? There’s something to be said for genuine influencer relationships – but introducing a product to them that’s irrelevant to their niche will get you nowhere. Focus on the people that will actually find value in your biz.

4) Forgetting to answer the question “why” when consumers are comparing your brand to others. What’s your differentiation factor?

No differentiation factor, no sales – point blank.

3) Writing incredibly intense gobbeldy-gook run-on sentences in your copy that not a soul can understand because you decided to use the thesaurus to find marketing jargon to make your words seem smarter (case-in-point).

Keep it short, clear and concise. Attention spans are dwindling (last time we checked, studies said you only had 6 seconds to make an impression on someone before they left your webpage or tuned you out).

2) Sending auto-DMs to your new followers on Twitter with a hokey marketing message. What is this, 2008?

1) Engaging in social spamming and irrelevant promotion online. There’s no faster way to be considered the evil spawn of the internet.

Do you have any marketing don’ts to add to this list? Share them with us in the comments section below!

(Photo Credit – Flickr Creative Commons: juggernautco)

Filed under: Strategy by Stacey Acevero