How to Avoid Bad Marketing
Marketing sometimes gets a bad rap.
We’ve all experienced it: an ad or email that made us turn up our noses and click away with a little more conviction than usual.
With so many messages constantly competing for our attention, it can be easy for brands to over-prioritize things like clicks and other surface-level forms of engagement. Although, over time, this can wind up doing more harm than good.
So let’s take a look at some of the qualities of “bad marketing” and what we can do to avoid them.
What Is Bad Marketing?
Bad marketing often feels like a trick someone’s trying to pull on us. It can leave us feeling betrayed and resentful.
There are a lot of ways this can happen, but here are a few of the more common ones:
Overselling the Lead - We’re all familiar with clickbait. That is, when brands make a promise—often with an ad or subject line—that the content fails to live up to. Some of us have experienced this disappointment often enough that we see it lurking in every “hook” and headline. Anytime marketing feels like marketing, we’re automatically on the defensive.
Capitalizing on the Moment - This is a kind of clickbait that draws us in by appealing to something that’s already on our minds: a news event, a viral meme, etc. When it works, it can be spectacular, but if the connection is too weak, or if it’s exploiting something that is ultimately more important than whatever it is we’re offering, it can feel flat or inappropriate.
Making False Claims - A claim doesn't need to be demonstrably false to fall into this trap. Overstatements can count. You can often flag these by their use of superlatives like “best,” “amazing,” “world-famous,” etc. As audiences, we know when something sounds too good to be true, it often is.
Inconsistent Presentation - When a brand’s visual presentation or messaging is wildly inconsistent, it can feel like they’re trying to pull one over on us—like someone who knocks once, then goes and puts on a disguise before knocking again. The intent isn’t always that manipulative—sometimes they just don’t have brand guidelines!—but it can still compromise trust with audiences.
Overcommunicating - There’s a sweet spot between regularly engaging with an audience and spamming them. Some people may want to hear from a brand daily or even more than that. But many do not. Brands that don’t respect our time and attention often earn our resentment.
Self-Serving Content - Nobody expects marketing to be wholly altruistic. We all recognize that it’s an investment organizations make with specific objectives in mind. Nevertheless, the brands that are best at it seek to provide value to their audiences, not just themselves. When brand communications are constantly touting themselves or trying to get us to buy or donate, it can turn us off.
The Long View
Most of us have probably seen these mistakes before. And perhaps we’ve even made one or two of them. They are, after all, easy to make.
Objectives are a vital part of every successful marketing program, but when we focus too much on the short-term ones—for example, clicks and traffic—it can quickly turn marketing into a numbers game where the ends justify any means.
That’s why it’s so important to take a long view with our brand objectives and to ask the right questions. Why are clicks and conversions important to us? How do we want audiences to perceive and engage with our brands?
Because at the end of the day, the most successful brands aren’t just looking for numbers; they’re focused on connecting with the people who are in the best position to recognize and appreciate their unique value.
And that requires a combination of strategy and authenticity.
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