Every small business wants to make a big splash. When you’re new or not well known it can be tempting to throw a lot of money at marketing. Sometimes this works, but often times it does not, especially if the efforts aren’t well targeted or not done strategically. This holds especially true in the world of online marketing where the average small business owner may not have a good grip on what kind of ROI they can expect from the nearly infinite marketing opportunities available to them. As an organization that has done a lot of advertising for our popular estimate app, we’re pretty well versed in some of the more effective ways to market online, as well as some of the least. In our experience, here are some of the least effective ways to spend advertising dollars. Take heed.
- Bad paid search campaigns. We discussed this previously in a post, but it bears repeating. Ask any professional paid search company about the horrific nightmares they’ve had after reviewing a novice’s attempt to run a DIY AdWords campaign. You’ll hear stories of campaigns costing tens of thousands of dollars that were set up and forgotten. You’ll hear stories of people advertising local services across the country rather than in their own region…also to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. If you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t start throwing money at an AdWords campaign in a hopeless attempt to drive business to your site. It won’t work and it gets expensive fast. Take the time needed to truly educate yourself on the subject or research and hire a professional who provides you detailed reporting on their activities and how they spend your money.
- Pointless online advertising packages. You don’t advertise in the Yellow Pages anymore because you know nobody uses it. Amazingly, a lot of people still fall into the trap of pushy emails and phone calls from online publishers touting made up stats and statistics about how much visibility they have and how much business they’ll drive you. Take for example YP.com – the online Yellow Pages. Yes, you know the name, but do you know anyone who uses it? Use a little common sense and do some Google searches on the subject and try to find some reviews of people who may have purchased online advertising packages from the site that’s pushing you. If you can’t find a clear answer and they’re promising something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
- Low-no value directories and directory networks. Years ago directories were a really good way to get your website found by users and improve your rankings on search engines. Like all good things on the internet, however, too many people jumped on board and ruined it. Google and the other search engines sniffed out that most directories were just quick scams to make a buck. As more and more of them popped up (that no one used) these directories became useless for driving clicks to your site and Google stopped giving you credit for getting links from generic, useless directories. Check out the awesome deal on the directories below…do you think any human beings use these sites? If people don’t use them, Google probably doesn’t care that you’re listed on it…so why pay for it?
- Paying too much for social media management. Look, social media isn’t worthless, but for many small businesses it’s not always a great fit. If your customers don’t do much (or any) of their research on social media when looking for a contractor or service provider, spending a lot of time and money on someone running your social media properties isn’t a good idea. Plus, one of the other difficulties of having an outsider run your social media can be that your output can lack the personal details and inside knowledge of the business that really helps people connect with your business. If you’re paying for someone to manage your social media, make sure you communicate regularly with them and have specific goals for what you’re trying to accomplish. If not, you’ll likely find yourself with a pretty sad looking ROI once you add up the dollars and cents.
Do you have any online marketing horror stories? If so, feel free to share them in the comments below.
