Digital Market Trends You Should Never Employ in 2016

By Denny Averill and Romax.co.uk

Today’s marketing trends are targeting the most pioneering ideas. Marketers must hone their skills and change old-fashioned tactics if they want their company and brand to stand out. With the rise of the internet and social media, the digital market landscape has changed. Whereas some ideas haven’t been affected by advanced technology, other conventional concepts used ten years ago are long dead and should be ignored. Otherwise you’ll be left behind and you won’t be able to compete with advanced digital marketers that are currently taking the lead.

Creative content creation, memorable branding and target audience are still ruling the marketing scenario. The conversion principles and strategies of direct mail marketing are still well worth polishing and expanding. In terms of new social marketing techniques, digital automation and new media are concepts that businesses must learn and understand to succeed.

It hurts giving up tactics that were once shaping the marketing world; but it’s important to adapt and be updated with the latest trends in order to overcome the competition.

The following digital marketing concepts are a no-no, and shouldn’t be employed anymore because they can destroy your business.

Being comfortable in your comfort zone

Staying comfortably in your comfort zone and not promoting your business in the online environment is the recipe for disaster. If you want people to know about you and your brand, you have to put yourself out there. Marketers should never stop reinventing themselves and their ideas.

We’re at “war” with the world’s top online enterprises, and avoiding the competition is sure not the best way of succeeding.

Who would have thought that a simple mobile app like Uber could wipe out the taxi industry? Or that a tech company like Apple could cause so many disruptions in the music industry?  The average marketer should be dedicated and agile to a lifetime of innovation and learning. Let the past in the past, and start focusing on the future.

The average marketer should be dedicated and agile to a lifetime of innovation and learning. Let the past in the past, and start focusing on the future.

Master the “how” not the “what” in digital marketing

As soon as you’ve stepped into the digital marketing world, you’ll stumble upon all kinds of unknown terms such as inbound link, long tail, SEO, optimization, link building, retargeting, conversion and many more. There’s no reason to panic though. There are competent online marketers out there who can help you understand what they mean and how they can be used to keep your business on the floating line.

Don’t get too caught up on the “what” and focus your attention on the “how” to know more about newest online marketing techniques.

Stop focusing solely on ROI (return on investment)

When social media turned into a business tool, and was no longer used for playing games, marketers began using more and more often. They soon realized that social media was the best free marketing tool for business because it was drive by a global online crowd. Facebook “likes” were fundamental for online success, and for the last seven years social media has been a vanity metric tool that depended on the common sense of the people.

However, if you’re still using Facebook to market your business you should stop. It’s becoming too mainstream!

Expert marketers have gotten to the conclusion that Facebook is just another digital channel. It’s great for boosting traffic, customer engagement and brand awareness but as we get closer and closer to sales funnel, it is vital that businesses start focusing on other digital marketing tools. You can no longer depend on Facebook to offer you free traffic; soon enough it will become just another paid marketing channel.

A lot of people are giving away the great potential of direct mail marketing in favor of social media. Businesses have started to wrongfully believe that Facebook is the best way to boost brand awareness and win over customer.

They’re wrong!

Direct mail marketing is not dead, and should be used smart to market your company and make it thrive. Unlike social media, direct mail marketing is more personal. It addresses at the customer directly, and the message sent doesn’t look like spam. How many times have you responded to an unsolicited private message on Facebook? Or to an ad placed onto your Facebook wall?