Are these Marketing Tactics a TRICK or a TREAT?

Lindsey Walters

Remember Trick or Treating? Skipping the houses that were giving out toothbrushes and trying to hit the houses with king size candy bars twice. You may not have known it then, but you were strategizing. Marketing your brand can be just like trick or treating, except instead of looking for candy, you are looking to grow your business.

Marketing tactics and offerings can prove to be worthwhile or overall duds. Because Halloween is around the corner, we decided to help outline some of these for you. The verdict is in; here are our results on what marketing tactics are tricks and what are treats.

Advertising: TREAT. This offering allows you to gain exposure and build brand awareness. See our blog post on how to implement a prosperous ad campaign to learn more about advertising!
Purchasing Lists of Contacts or Prospects: TRICK. Sure, buying contact lists from larger sources is easy and might get you tons of new contacts into your database. However, if those contacts are not qualified or not prepared to hear from you, odds are that you’re messaging will go in one ear and out the other – or into an inbox and straight to the trashcan. Furthermore, if you are emailing out promotions, there is a chance that your purchased prospects can report you as spam, effecting your future messaging.
Pushing the Envelope: TREATS that can develop into a TRICK. We highly encourage and approve of those who come up with new and innovative ways to get your branding or messaging out to people. A great example of something out of the box is hosting an “after party” or networking event in the after-hours of a large industry event, like a conference. This is a great way to capitalize on face-to-face time with prospects and clients that are all in town at the same time for an event. An example of pushing the envelope gone wrong is offering something racy or sexually explicit to entice people to come to your booth at a conference. You might have gotten everyone in the room talking about you, but did it bring you any business? We applaud you for thinking creatively, but cannot stress enough to keep it classy.
Looking for Data: TREAT. When marketing through another company or individual, things like conversion rates, impressions, clicks, pageviews, past averages and other statistical data can truly open your eyes. If a company’s pageviews seem too good to be true, you might want to ask some clarifying questions like are these pageviews over a lifetime, year, or month. Be smart and do your comparisons before making your marketing decisions, you might be surprised at what you discover. Decisions based off of data help you to gauge the effectiveness of your campaign up front.
Sending out eBlasts: TRICK or TREAT. Sending out eBlasts are a great way to electronically get your message straight to the inbox of clients or prospects. Whether you are sending to an internal list or you are working with someone else, making sure your message is relevant to the reader is imperative. Otherwise, they might click that dreaded unsubscribe button.
Blogging: TREAT. Corporate blogging is meant to share your expertise on a particular subject to an audience of clients and prospects. This is an excellent and effective form of content marketing that can grow your customer base or deepen your current relationships by truly providing valuable education.