Avoid These 8 Common Spamming Mistakes
Marketers tend to have a hard time playing it cool. They tend to think their product or service is the best thing known to man and they want to tell anyone and everyone why they should to buy it. However, I tend to think this is the wrong approach.
Marketing shouldn't be about shouting messages anywhere and everywhere you can at everyone. Have you noticed whenever any new social media platform comes out, it's only a matter of time before people are advertising on it? There's a reason marketers get such a bad rap.
That being said, as a marketer, I find it very exciting to connect with someone and tell them about a product or service and have it entirely change their lives. Maybe that's an extreme and doesn't apply to all products and services out there, but the key is that you have to connect. You have to dig deeper. You have to genuinely get them interested.
There's no surer way to annoy someone by spamming the heck out of them. So try to avoid these all-to-common spamming mistakes:
Content overload. Whether it's a ton of emails or Facebook posts, try not to overkill on distributing content. No one wants to see their Timeline filled with 7 posts from a company, I don't care how cool your company is. Same goes for messages in their inbox. So chill. Remember, quality over quantity.
Uninteresting/non-related content. We all love to hop on the trending topics and make people laugh, but if there isn't a relation to your business don't send it. Additionally, don't feel the need to send something just for the sake of sending something.
Targeting everyone. Not everyone will love your product. Sorry but it's true. Don't believe me? Take a look at Apple, a company with one of the most loyal followings by the millions. Even THEY have people who don't like their product. Find the people that do want/need your product and work on connecting with them how they prefer to be communicated with, otherwise your company will get a bad rap for obnoxiously over promoting.
Not segmenting your email marketing lists. The more specific and closely related content you create that relates to your audience the better. This greatly applies when emailing your followers.
Promoting entirely sales-ey messages all the time. You've GOT to work on your messaging. 'Buy my product because of x, y, z' isn't a good message. At all. No one's going to buy your product. What can you give your target audience? Entertainment? Helpful tips? Try giving before asking for something.
Over-advertising to your followers on Facebook. There's an option where you can advertise exclusively to your Facebook followers. This can be a helpful tool when you're trying to offer an exclusive update to your Facebook followers, but make sure you keep the timing to a minimum. Keep an eye on the frequency metric. You don't want your followers seeing the same ad over and over again.
Keep the desperation of asking for likes, followers, etc. on social media down. You should already be sharing content that your followers engage with. You shouldn't have to ask for likes.
Sending automatic, irrelevant messages. There's definitely a time and a place for sending some auto messages out, for example, when someone signs up for your newsletter. It's a good idea to welcome them and double check to make sure they want to receive email messages from your company. On the flip side, auto direct messages on Twitter asking for them to sign up on your newsletter, not such a good idea. Again, remember, try not to ASK for something before you give them something. And if you are going to have an auto message go out, make sure it has a point.
These are definitely some no-no's when it comes to telling people about your product or service. As a good rule of thumb, know your target audience and ask yourself, one, will they get something from this content? and, two, is this necessary?
If you answer yes to both of those questions, chances are you're good to go!
