#1 "Subscribe to Our Newsletter!"
If you hear “Online Marketing”, you think nowadays directly of Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn. The popularity and the sheer endless possibilities of social networks often make us forget that email marketing is still one of the best ways to reach your target group and build a long-term customer relationship.
While marketing managers see newsletters as a cost-effective and efficient form of communication, (potential) customers often find them extremely annoying and undesirable. What is the reason for this? Newsletters without added value, irrelevant content, missing call-to-actions and unloving layouts are some of the reasons.
The most common and most serious faux pas in newsletter marketing, however, usually takes place before the lead generation. It is the moment when potential subscribers are asked to sign up for the newsletter. However, an excessive use of penetrating pop-ups, which remind the customer of the newsletter in minute intervals on all possible pages and imaginable places on the website, counteracts the acquisition of interested parties.
Our tip: Pop-ups should open after a certain period of time or even only when the visitor wants to leave the website. This gives them enough time to absorb relevant information and makes them more open to subscribing to the newsletter in order to receive further content and offers. In addition, a tag manager can be used to conveniently integrate the newsletter offer on the company website and prevent it from being displayed to existing subscribers. If you would like to use this system for yourself as well, we would be happy to advise you on the implementation and conceptual design.
#2 "Exclusive Discounts for Everbody!"
Discounts act on our brain like a drug. This is not a metaphor, because neuroscientists assume that the human brain is powerless against special offers and bargain advertising. Discounts activate the reward center, whereupon the body releases the messenger substance dopamine, which triggers feelings of happiness in the consumer.
Anyone who wants to maximize their sales naturally takes great advantage of this phenomenon. Companies try to increase the buying interest of potential customers through exclusive discounts. One would think that this exclusivity is only available to a certain group of people. But in practice this often looks different! In many cases companies grant an “exclusive discount” to ALL interested parties. Special offers are sent by e-mail campaign or even advertised on the website. A faux pas, which obviously neglects loyal and special customers.
Our tip: In order for certain customer groups to feel sufficiently privileged and valued, discounts and special offers should be personalized. You can tailor special offers to different groups of people and individual phases of the customer journey and thus not only achieve a better uplift, but also give your customers a feeling of ‘real’ exclusivity.
#3 "We Are Available for You 24 Hours a Day!"
Nowadays, anyone who wants to make customer communication more efficient uses modern communication possibilities such as chatbots and 24h live chats. More and more companies are focusing on identifying individual customer needs as quickly as possible, even outside business hours, and reacting accordingly. After all, customer service and customer friendliness are of paramount importance. A live chat and a programmed system that conducts automated dialogues with customers seems to be the ideal solution for this – or is it?
In practice, however, the implementation of Customer Service 3.0 is not quite as advantageous as it seems. Because even in digital and automated communication, one can make some mistakes: an unstructured process, potential uncertainties and prejudices in the employee environment, lack of expertise in automated communication and inactive helpers in live chat. Often these stumbling blocks result in a loss of authenticity for the company.
Our tip: Better no chatbot than a stupid chatbot. And better no 24h live chat than annoyed chat participants on the other side of the Internet line. If you want to jump on the bandwagon of these digital communication possibilities, you first have to ask yourself what added value this offers. The introduction of automated helpers only makes sense if they are intelligently programmed/designed bots. They can not only answer repetitive questions or provide predefined answer options, but also recognize connections from the context and establish contact with a real person if the situation is more complex.
#4 "Follow Us on All Our Social Media Channels!"
A post on Facebook here, a post on LinkedIn there, a photo on Instagram there. Nearly all of us are on social media and spend more than an hour a day on various social networks. This is the reason why web presence is becoming more and more important for companies. They need to be where their customers are: online. But which social media platforms should one use to reach suitable prospects?
Companies are indeed spoilt for choice when it comes to selecting suitable social media channels. It is not uncommon for start-ups and large corporations to follow the motto “Best to be present everywhere! Marketing managers feel exposed to the pressure of digitalization and are afraid that they will lose potential business if they ignore a platform. Far from it! A weak presence can be even more damaging to the brand than no presence at all. After all, maintaining a social media channel is no walk in the park, and those who rely on the excessive use of social networks run the risk of losing track of what is going on. The result: half-hearted profiles on which no contributions have been published for months, the same content on all social media channels and a low level of commitment on the part of the target group.
Our tip: Every social media platform has its strengths and weaknesses, as well as specific main target groups and individual possibilities for online marketing. The presence should of course be established where your own potential customers are. Furthermore, one should ask oneself “Which channel suits me and my company?” and “What do I want to achieve with my social media presence? If I want to put the branding in the foreground, I use Instagram. For publishing professional articles and press releases, I choose platforms like LinkedIn and Xing. I share more personal insights into the company on Facebook. If I have significant video material, I consider YouTube.
The second part of the series “Marketing Gone Wrong: 8 Faux Pas That You Should Avoid at All Costs” deals with four more stumbling blocks that unfortunately occur far too often.
