6 Marketing Tactics to Trash in 2020

The new year is upon us, we’ve (arguably) entered a new decade, and we’ve all been inundated with lists about the best of times, the worst of times (in both annum and decade editions), predictions for the next ten years, and probably even some lists borne out of frustration or desperate calls for change like the one you’re about to read. And here I am adding to the pile.

The idea for this blog came from a particularly long day of sorting through emails in my personal inbox. I manage five different email inboxes, and my personal inbox often gets left behind when it comes to routine maintenance: I had close to 1,000 new emails that I just needed to be done. with. I hate having a cluttered inbox and yet, it continues to build. So I finally threw my hands in the air and said, “I’M UNSUBSCRIBING FROM EVERYTHING.” And I began.

Much to my dismay, plenty of other marketers worldwide had no desire to keep this simple for me. As I slogged through hundreds of emails, sometimes having to dig for an “unsubscribe” button (bad CAN-SPAM, bad), I had a thought: Why aren’t we (meaning marketers) better at this already?

I think I’ve got some ideas. So here are six things you need to examine closely and then leave behind in the old decade. (Seriously. No place for this shit anymore.)

1. Making users jump through hoops to unsubscribe from communications.

When you really, truly think about it, only a very small percentage of people ever go through the process of unsubscribing to email. Their potential reasons are endless: They think your content sucks, they wanted a free coupon code and now you bore or annoy them, they aren’t in a field where this is beneficial anymore, they don’t like your product or service anymore, they do like your product or service but holy HELL do they hate getting so much email, they don’t have money to give you, and on and on and on.

It’s always helpful to know their reasons, but you can’t exactly force someone to tell you why they’re breaking up with you. They just are, Todd. It’s not working anymore, and frankly, if you had been paying attention to your metrics and open rates, you should have seen this coming. Either way, they want out of the relationship.

SO WHY AREN’T YOU JUST LETTING THEM GO.

Truly, these multi-step processes to unsubscribe from emails feels like a company clinging for dear life to my ankle, sobbing, begging me not to leave, vacillating between, “Are you sure?” and “But I can’t live without you!” and “YOU’RE GOING TO REGRET THIS ONE DAY, MARK MY WORDS, ONE DAY YOU’LL BE LIVING LONELY IN YOUR INBOX AND THIS NEWSLETTER WILL HAVE MOVED ON, THIS E-BOOK WON’T BE AROUND TO KEEP YOU WARM IN THE COLD, DARK NIGHT.”

It’s a little much.

If people want to go, let them go. I’m even of the opinion that you should make it easy for them to do, such as a one-click process, and then it’s all done. You aren’t getting much by keeping them around, having their address on a list, when they never open your emails, they never click through, and they just want to stop hearing from you. Be bigger and better than CAN-SPAM regulations; let people leave you.

One of the best cases I’ve read for letting subscribers leave was this one from Hubspot back in 2015. It’s an oldie, but it’s a still-relevant-ie. Keeping people around who don’t want to be there, or trying to talk or trick them into staying when their heart just isn’t in it only keeps your list volume high while simultaneously killing your metrics. Remember: quality over quantity. If Hubspot can do it, so can you.

2. Marketing to people who haven’t opted in to communications

And while we’re on the subject of unsubscribe, can we please talk about some brands and how they make it a multi-day process? If I can unsubscribe from one company and have it processed within 24 hours, a time frame which I can understand, how the hell does it take some businesses 3–5 business days to process my unsubscribe request? (Looking at you, Bed, Bath & Beyond, from whom I have received more emails in the three days since unsubscribing than in the past month before that.)

They aren’t changing their mind, Janet. Let. them. go.

But not just unsubs. Let’s talk about the ultra-shady practice of ending up on email lists that, gee, I super don’t remember signing up for. How did you get my information again? Oh, you saw my email address on LinkedIn? INTERESTING.

Yes, I put my email address out there. No, it is not for marketers. No, I will not do business with people who think that because my email address exists on a semi-public site or because you have it from your sales recon efforts, that it must be okay to put me on their email list. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should, Todd.

GDPR should have changed us (I’m going to ignore for the moment how many of us didn’t have our shit together even after the two year deadline they gave us) and I’m seeing that it didn’t. Every time I’ve spoken on a panel or given a presentation on GDPR or data privacy and integrity in marketing, my answer is the same: This isn’t going away. Get your shit fixed now and engage in these same GDPR-like practices for everyone, worldwide.

It’s already happening in California. And the rules are clear with GDPR: It’s not just whether or not you do business in the EU, it’s whether or not someone who has citizenship in the EU could potentially stumble upon your content and are you following the laws of their country? While I don’t expect the US to be responsible enough to enact a nationwide data privacy act that stringent, I do believe that several states will. Right now, it’s California. But it’s not going to stop there.

Stop talking to people who haven’t asked you to talk to them. Stop talking to people in their email inbox just because they responded to your LinkedIn message. I get it: Marketing is hard. It’s really hard. You have to stand out in a big way. But you’re not succeeding in that by bothering people who didn’t want to be bothered by you anyway. Get your opt-in shit together and cultivate real relationships with people who actually want to be courted. There are tactics outside of email for the rest; employ more brand awareness across the digital spectrum and build your list the old-fashioned way, with greater data integrity.

3. Using mostly photos of white men in your ads or on your website

There are so, so many people in the world. Men, women, non-binary folks, LGBTQIA+ folks, people who are black or white or brown, people who are disabled, people who are fat, people who are thin, and so, so many more. So this persistent trend of only showing ad imagery or website imagery of white dudes is like, WAY past its prime.

White dudes, I’m not coming for you. This is not the place for it. But if you are a white dude marketer, and you only use photos of people who look like you, remember that you are not the only person with buying power. Unless you are specifically a company that caters exclusively to white men, like, I don’t know, Dudes Against Melanin, then fine. Do you.

But chances are you’re not. (Because I looked it up after I had that thought and that company does not — and should not — exist.)

According to the University of Georgia in early 2019, minority markets have nearly $4 TRILLION in buying power. People want to buy from brands who care about them, who consider them, who believe that they are a part of the brand’s market segment family. Representation does matter, but if you just like, REALLY hate social justice causes, then don’t even do it for that. Do it because it’s revenue you are leaving. on. the. table. if you don’t.

Now that some brands have gotten their shit together and display much more diversity in their imagery (I have a Fortune 100 client who loses their minds if we have only white men in photos, and they should) it means that those of us who are not white men see ourselves in some of these ads. And where we see ourselves, we will naturally be drawn to. I look for and appreciate diversity in imagery, both as a consumer and as a strategic marketer. I am much more likely to both laud a brand online for diversity and to buy from them or recommend them to friends and family.

It’s like buying shapewear. If I am going to buy a tight elastic holster to shove my body into so that I get smoother lines in my cocktail dress, I am going to buy from a company that shows images and videos of bodies that look like mine, which is to say, does yoga but not really flexible and likes carbs a lot. If I go to a website and they only feature thin women in shapewear, my first thought is: Well yeah I mean she can fit into it, but she probably also does Pilates and like, where the hell is my ass gonna go?

Representation leads to conversions. In the new decade, don’t just think about who you think is buying your products. Open up your options and get in on the rest of our buying power.

4. Marketers calling ourselves “gurus,” “mavens,” “ninjas,” et al.

Okay so honestly, this should have gone away like many years ago, but it’s 2020 and here we are. So I’m here to tell you:

You are not a maven. You are not a guru. You are not a ninja. This is not fun. It does not set you apart. It does not make you sound or look professional.

Before jumping into the icy pool called “marketing consulting,” I was a recruiter for marketers in my former life. And I cringed whenever I saw someone use these terms to describe themselves, largely because hiring managers cringed when they saw these terms. It’s a meaningless descriptor. It really tells us nothing about you.

One thing I also learned in recruiting: Marketing folks are often last to be hired, first to be fired whenever there are serious layoffs. Why? I mean, I don’t know for certain, but my best guess is that executive leadership isn’t always totally sure about what we do and what our value is, and they think our roles could much more easily be consolidated.

This reputation gets worse when they see titles like “Gilly the Demand Gen Guru.”

I’ve not seen a CPA refer to themselves as a “ninja.” I’ve never seen a lawyer call themselves a “legal maven.” I’m sure they’re out there, but with nowhere near the volume of marketing professionals using these descriptors. It’s time to take ourselves seriously. It’s time to get rid of these weird, funsy titles and command the respect we deserve since we are arguably the field that MOST has to engage in ongoing education since marketing tactics, rules, demands change every. single. month. We work our asses off to stay up to date and to bring in revenue opportunities. Don’t call yourself a ninja. You’re a goddamn professional, so act like it.

And if you insist on using a funsy title, at least do something interesting and not so tired: SEO Sage, PPC Pedagogue, Marketing MacGyver, Web Wolverine, etc. etc.

5. The ol’ LinkedIn bait and switch

It has happened more and more in the last couple of years, and it makes me crazy: Someone looks at my LinkedIn profile. They send me a message saying that they “read my content” or “perused my experience” and that they really “love my insights” and “think we could learn from each other,” or something similarly pseudo-flattering. Since I also use LinkedIn to find new clients, I typically accept when they send me a connection request. I have found several clients just from people reading my content and reaching out, so I continue to work within this framework.

Except something peculiar happens a lot more often now…they don’t actually care about my content or my experience at all! In fact, they simply weaseled their way in so that they could *large, long gasp* SELL ME SOMETHING. And well over 50% of the time, they have *larger, longer gasp* absolutely NO IDEA who I am, what my business is, or “I actually left that position at that company several months ago, as indicated on my profile”!

Don’t. do. this. thing. It’s so shitty. It is a bad tactic and you should feel bad for employing it. I don’t want to start being a more restrictive gatekeeper when it comes to my LinkedIn connections, and other people get really tired of the spam, too. I want my LinkedIn network to be a place where my connections and I can share ideas, debate the finer points of marketing tactics, amplify job seekers and hiring managers to connect one another, and send messages that help each other…not a network of people who try to sell me on shit I don’t need and didn’t ask for. Quite simply put: When you do this, you are lying. You never had any honest intention of connecting with a person over their insights, over their experience, or anything of the like. You lied to get a foothold and then put the onus on us to get rid of your lying liar self from our feeds.

People don’t like it when people lie to them. People especially hate it when brands lie to them. As an ambassador of your brand, people will associate your brand with your bad tactics. So don’t do this.

Fun story: When I originally complained about this very thing on LinkedIn, I had a junior sales rep reach out to me and tell me that he genuinely wanted to know how I preferred to be reached out to by salespeople. I shared my response with him, he thanked me for it and later sent me a private message to let me know that he’s seen an increase in his qualified appointments. Additionally, he got a very qualified appointment with me and a major corporation that I represented.

Sales, like marketing, is hard work. “Spray and pray” is bullshit and always has been. Put in the time and the effort to sell honestly by building relationships that are built for the long haul and not a short game that ends in ghosting; your career will thank you for it.

6. Broetry

You may not know it by this name, but you’ve seen it. It’s this style of writing that looks like it’s in some kind of verse since it’s like, one line at a time. But T.S. Eliot it is not. Instead, it is some kind of…blog? social post? diary entry? designed to make you go, “Hmm,” and “Wow, I never thought about it like that before,” and “As a matter of fact, I do want to buy his e-book on how to make six figures in a day without any professional training whatsoever!” Whether it accomplishes that, I don’t know. But I do thank Buzzfeed for coining the term.

Anyway, we’re adults. We are capable of reading paragraphs. I know that somewhere along the way, content creators were told to write at a 9th grade reading level — not because people are stupid, but because people are busy and a lower reading level would capitalize on quick scannability — but as this article from Contently says: Just because you’re writing at that level doesn’t mean your content is any good. Or that it works. Or that it’s not annoying as hell.

Quit trying to game the system or jump on trends you heard worked for someone somewhere at some point in time. Focus less on the format of your content and more on saying something useful or important or educational or authoritative. There is such a large cache of content out there that it can feel like screaming into the void. But rather than rattle off a few lines in iambic pentameter, focus on solving your core audience’s real problem in ways that don’t read like an old-school infomercial designed to sell me The Carpenters’ Greatest Hits (which I admittedly did buy off of an infomercial, but also I was like, 14 and couldn’t get myself to a Sam Goody to spend that hard-earned babysitting cash.)

Make 2020 less gimmicky

My general crusade is about giving marketing tactics increased quality, even when it’s hard. Even when it seems like it’s more time and effort spent for less. Even when it takes longer than you want it to. Why? Because yes, quality takes time, but it’s also going to bring you a higher conversion rate overall. And quality is your foundation…once you have that, the rest becomes a little bit easier to work through. Make your new year about increasing your quality and not about just generating all the crap leads you can. The time you spend culling the bullshit out of your opportunity lists could be better spent devoted to higher quality content and strategies and tactics. Shift your focus this year and reap the benefits.

Do you have things to add to this list? Did you love it? Do you want to tell me to pound sand? Do that in the comments! I love diplomatic disagreement, so let’s keep it civil and really further the conversation for the betterment of marketing overall.