With summer officially upon us, we now realize we missed our opportunity to write the classic "Spring Cleaning" blog post. We apologize for that. However, in this fast-pace age of digital marketing, the logic remains timeless: marketing departments should do a thorough assessment of their toolkit and throw out that stuff that doesn't work.
The challenge, of course, is determine what, precisely, to toss to the curb. Fortunately, this Hubspot slide deck provides some helpful guidance, listing 10 things to cut from your modern marketing strategy. Take a look:
1. The On-Page SEO Fixation — Optimizing your own Web content for SEO is a lot of work, and the payoff isn't so good. Furthermore, trying to outsmart Google's new algorithm is a battle no marketing department can win. Dial back SEO and instead focus on keywords, links, user experience, and conversions.
2. The Firehose Blast of Blog Content — Blogging remains an important part of any modern marketing strategy, but quantity for quantity's sake is a waste of time. Quality counts and most firms can get by posting only once a day. Test your posting frequency and track visitor behavior to find your sweet spot.
3. Your Go-To Marketing Offer — We all have our favorite fall-back marketing offer that seems to work every time. However, if you use it too much, you'll quickly see a point of diminishing returns. Get out of your comfort zone and create new offers that will intrigue prospects.
4. Those Millions of Microsites — The idea seemed smart in theory: create and control smaller sites that link to your main site and generate high-quality inbound links. In practice? Not so much. It takes time to manage those microsites and those inbound links aren't "high-quality." Instead, work to attract good, old-fashioned organic inbound links.
5. All That Over-Reporting — Performance metrics and reports are, of course, useful. But don't over-do it. Ditch the 25 reports and focus on a small set of metrics that best communicate value and performance.
6. Pretty Much All of Your Press Releases — Excessively churning out press releases won't lead to high-quality inbound links. If you're going to roll one out, be selective and make sure the news is truly newsworthy. Then spend that extra free time writing other types of content like blog posts to attract quality links.
7. Your Untargeted Paid Media Spend — When it comes to any kind of advertising, customization is key. If you're spending advertising dollars by simply "throwing it on the wall and seeing if it sticks," you're wasting money. Target your ads to the people you want to reach and educate yourself on the targeting options available to you, especially on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
8. That Mobile App You're Developing — Sure, your brand's mobile app could be cool, but will it deliver value? Consider that twenty-five percent of apps are downloaded only once and never used again. Instead make sure your entire Web presence is optimized for the mobile experience.
9. Your Unneeded Website Redesign — Website redesigns start off simply, but soon fall prey to the dreaded "scope creep," sucking up valuable time and resources. Be practical about your redesign plans. Start small, be focused, and conduct A/B testing to determine which components need tweaking.
10. Those Social Networks No One Uses — You should be measuring the value of your brand's social media presence. If any networks aren't making the grade, abandon them or significantly curtail your presence.
What components of your modern marketing strategy are you eliminating from your toolkit? Why?
