Online Marketing Gone Wrong

As a copywriter and editor, I can’t help but cringe when things go wrong on the online marketing side of things. Over-zealous SEO copy, off-the-mark viral adverts and pushy social networking are just some of the things that make me wonder what on earth people are trying to say with their web marketing campaigns.

Avoid These Online Marketing Mistakes

* The Butchered Word 

Now that the ‘content is king’ idea has caught on, many companies are realising the value of web copywriting. Sadly, by letting the PA handle content, or worse, producing mass content, this content is riddled with typos – effectively creating websites that are sloppy and unprofessional at best.

* SEO Overdose 

I’ve mentioned this before – proper SEO is not about keyword stuffing, it’s about optimising your content properly and cleverly. If ‘pink poodles Alaska’ cannot be made into a legible sentence then find keyphrases that CAN be used. Otherwise, keep the tricky ones for headers, not content.

* Anti-Social Networking

Twitter has opening up a whole new swarm of aggressive marketers who frantically target users for any remotely related topics. Mention your hip pain, and you’ll suddenly be followed by 10 arthritis cure twitterers in the next few hours. Who will then DM you, until you block them. Not cool!

* In Your Face Advertising 

For some reason, travel websites seem to be the worst culprits when it comes to OTT advertising. Pop-ups, pop-unders, floating ads and just about any other form of annoying and intrusive advertising make it hard to read the content you wanted in the first place, and are often totally untargeted too – making it all the more annoying.

* Over-Conceptualising

Tip: if your target audience has to think to figure out what chocolate has to do with a gorilla playing drums, you’re probably doing the conceptual thing a bit wrong. It shouldn’t be rocket science, and you can still entertain your audience without confusing them.

* Sponsor Shmonsor 

Sponsored advertising is a perfect chance to promote your product and ride on the coat-tails of a popular show. Use this chance and make it work, otherwise it’s just another advert in a whole segment of adverts. Brands who’ve gotten this right include a headache pill for The Amazing Race, diet breakfast cereal for America’s Next Top Model and pool cleaners for Survivor.

At the end of the day, customers are pretty easy to please. They want to be presented with a product in such a way that they can easily see if it’s of value to them. Keep it simple and effective, and they are almost guaranteed to take a closer look.

Sometimes, with digital marketing, it really is as simple as that. 🙂