Let me share a recent occurrence that drove me to write this post on authentic marketing.
Against my better judgment, I accepted a friend request on Facebook from someone whose personal profile had a suspiciously businessy name. I knew I shouldn’t have, but since we had a few respectable mutuals, I figured, “What the heck?”
Within minutes I received a message asking, “How are you?”
Now, I don’t know this person, and they certainly don’t know me. So, naturally, I rolled my eyes. Neither of us truly cares enough about how the other is doing to warrant this message.
But, because I believe in giving people a shot, I replied, “Great, and you?” To no one’s surprise, the next message was, “I have something for you.”
Cue the instant frustration. It’s bad enough that our Facebook feeds have been taken over by ads and spam…I do NOT want my private inbox taken over as well! Honestly, this is a terrible, transparent marketing tactic
The Marketing Tactics We’re All Tired Of
Let me share some of the all-time worst offenders when it comes to annoying marketing strategies:
❶ Cold DMs or fake check-ins: Like the story above—don’t pretend to care about how I’m doing when what you really want is to pitch me.
❷ “Hurry! You’re missing out!” marketing: Overused urgency is something pretty much everyone sees right through.
❸ Endless follow up emails: If I hav