Trickery Is Not a Marketing Strategy

Despite what some people may think, I was not born yesterday. But lately I feel like I've been duped by intentionally deceptive marketing practices everywhere I turn. I'm far from being a novice when reading emails (so sorry if you really were mugged while travelling in Nigeria), answering the phone (no, I don't want to invest in the new drug that cures cancer), or opening my door to strangers (based on the way you're dressed, I sincerely doubt you're collecting for the San Francisco Opera). But when legitimate companies deliberately use misleading marketing tactics to try and entice you to respond, I wonder who, exactly, thought this was a good idea? Let's start with ... Search Engine Marketing (SEM)If you've read anything at all about how the Web works, you already know that for your target audience to find your web site, it needs to be optimized for Google. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a hotly debated topic because Google changes its algorithm regularly and it's a closely guarded secret. But since Google's priority is to serve their users and their expertise is to assign relevancy to web pages, it makes perfect sense that the brain collective at Google will eventually figure out that you may be trying to "game" the system when you place words on your site (or in your meta tags) that really have nothing to do with your products or services. If you've optimized your site for Google's Web crawlers (by including words that are truly relevant to your business), then the logical next step might be an SEM effort—because if you can't get to the top of organic search results, then why not pay to ensure top billing? The problem is that many brands are so desperate to wave their arms in front of a Google searcher and "throw their hat in the ring" that they're choosing SEM words based on potential volume of searchers who will be exposed to their brand message. As a result, they are investing in order to be seen, paying to get clicks, but ultimately losing because they're getting lots of bounces when searcher discovers the company can't deliver the information/product/service they're seeking. For many business-to-business companies, the problem is not so much trickery, but a lack of alignment between a set of paid search terms and the landing page to which each SEM result is linked. I covered this problem in my recent webinar on website personalization, so you can learn more by listening on demand. Misrepresentation in EmailOur agency has a GSA contract—meaning we have been approved by the Federal Government to bid on RFPs for government work. Recently, we were required to update our contact information in the SAM (System for Award Management) database. Upon completion, (or so we thought) I received an email from an individual who appeared to work for the federal government. They noted that our update was not complete, but instead advised that we needed to fill out an attached form. The PDF, labeled "US Federal SAM Worksheet New," certainly looked official enough, and it came from someone who called themselves a "Case Manager" at US Federal Contractor Registration. But it wasn't until we had completed and returned the form, and had several additional email exchanges, that we finally figures out that we were not corresponding with an official of the US Government, but instead with an outside consulting firm who would be charging us for their "help." Needless to say, I was aghast. I've now gone back and carefully read and reread our email exchanges, trying to discover how I was so easily duped and how I allowed confidential information to be provided to this outside entity. And I can honestly tell you, it was deceptive from their first contact with us. If you're running a legitimate business, you shouldn't have to resort to either SEM or email "trickery" to attract customers. If you do, you're no better than those Nigerian email scams.

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Trickery Is Not a Marketing Strategy

Carolyn Goodman

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Carolyn Goodman