Ten Proven Ways to Screw Up Your Digital Marketing in 2020

As a busy business in the digital marketing field, we see weird things happen in the companies we work with. Sometimes, we think we’ve truly seen it all. But I’m sure there is more yet to come. For all the wonderful things we get to experience, there are also negatives that we see from time to time. Thankfully, the good FAR outweighs the bad.

We say that business owners need to earn badges – like Eagle Scouts – for the experiences we have had and survived. Here are a few example badges I, and some of our clients (these can’t ALL be my own stories), would have sewn on my little vest if this was a real thing:

Badge Worthy

Sued someone
Been sued
Victim of non-clients making false reviews about business online (people you haven’t even met?!)
Fired employees on the spot
Get yelled at by an employee (who was then fired)
Ripped off by a customer
Ripped off by an employee
Someone broke into the office
Hot tub got stuck in a drive-through
Trailer stolen with a swim spa on it
Employee defend against an office break-in by taking the shotgun out of their truck and walking around in the dark office with no shirt looking for the culprit. (Brave or stupid – you be the judge – but why no shirt?)
Found an alligator in the pool while cleaning it
Discovered a bear (or bears) in the hot tub (more than one client has reported this)
Employee threaten to kill you or your family
Had an employee who had previously been fired try to re-apply to a showroom under a different name – but with the same face…
Above ground pool fail when an actual elephant escaped from the local zoo and stepped on the side while rampaging through the back yard.

Ok, I made that last one up… But still – business owners experience some weird stuff. We learn from each weird experience we have and it makes us better at business.

So – that is why it is SOOOOO weird to us here in the marketing industry, when we see clients who are smart, logical people make terrible, illogical business decisions about their marketing and sales.

Results are In

We took a poll at The Get Smart Group and came up with our staff’s top 10 Tried and True ways to screw up your digital marketing plan in 2020.

Hire your geeky nephew to build your website – after all – he’s in college, he’ll be cheap AND he’s sure to be incredibly reliable and available in the future for any small changes you may need. Make sure you don’t get the passwords and that you don’t know where it’s hosted. He has always been so artistic…
Have your teenage staff set up and run your social media. After all, you hired your geek nephew for the website. They are so hip and they already know more than you do, right? And they always will. Have them sign up your business page under their personal Facebook account.
Before you hire your nephew – make sure to belittle the digital marketing and content done by the people you had working for you in the past – criticize the writing they did point by point – then once his new website is up, beg them for all their writing work back so you can have him put it on the new site – turns out you will still need good content after all.
If and When a Facebook review crisis hits your company – ask your digital marketing agency for advice in how to address and respond to the problem – then do the exact opposite of what they say and make sure to publicly badmouth the customers who gave you the bad review so their 10,000 Facebook friends can also hate you online immediately. After all, you can always delete your business Facebook page and start #Fresh.
Take a year to make a decision about what to do with your marketing this year. I mean, next year.
Demand better results, but refuse to spend any money.
Set amazing goals and give your team no new tools, training or leads to work with. After all – bonuses are incredibly motivating!
Make sure your sales managers are incredibly lazy, controlling, unorganized and manipulative (or have any single one of these attributes), then put them in charge of all decisions in your business relating to the requirements of your salespeople to call or follow up with leads.
Make sure you overpay for your leads. Or if that doesn’t work for you – make sure you don’t know what your leads are costing you at all. Ignorance is bliss.
Make an important choice to go with a trusted and reputable marketing company – invest $10,000 or more in customized systems and infrastructure, invest your time to build it out with them – then change your mind 6 months later because your sales manager doesn’t think phone calls or emails are an effective followup solution for leads. And also – all Facebook and Google leads suck. Always. The only good leads are walk-ins.
Bonus! Tell your team you are making a big investment in their ability to sell by doing #10 above. After they have been trained and are making progress and seeing more leads and sales-pull the rug out from underneath them and cancel the plan. Then expect them to be excited about and invested in your next big business decision.

The moral of the story is – learn from the mistakes of others and be conscious to make logical decisions for your business that are driven by data, not emotions. Then you’ll be able to avoid some of the potential pitfalls that await you on your business journey.

Ali Crook

"People matter more than money." I like a good challenge. So maybe sales is a natural fit, especially when I represent a product or company I am passionate about and am willing to personally vouch for. If we work together, I believe in you. I consider myself part of your team and I'll be loyal and hardworking to make sure you are getting everything you need to succeed in your business. I have been working 20 or more hours a week since I was 16 years old. My husband jokes that I have had more jobs than I haven't had. My strengths finder top 5 strengths are (in top down order): Achiever, Learner, Individualization, Context and Relator. These traits drive me to constantly push myself to keep learning, use organized lists and benchmarks to meet goals, ask questions to seek out people's unique desires and understand the psychology behind the purchase decisions being considered by a variety of distinctly unique individuals daily. I want to know you. I want to know your business. I want to make you successful. I am a skeptic, a questioner of methods, a worst-case scenario "under promise and over deliver" girl. I get my hands dirty and do the hard work in order to accomplish unprecedented results. Being a business owner is hard work - no one knows that better than we do. Traditionally, I've been a lone ranger, working in sales from a private office. But in the last 5 years, I've learned the joys and benefits of being a leader and a team player. This has opened doors for our company and given me the opportunity to nurture and mentor other sales teams and individuals in a variety of industries, and that is the best reward I could ask for. It comes back to what really matters to me at the end of the day "People Matter." I have worked in the Advertising Sales industry for magazines, the Swim Spa and Hot Tub sales industry for Master Spas, in non-profit organizations, in customer service and in sales for online international Tech startups. Every position, every day, every client and every challenge is an opportunity to learn. My college degrees include a BA in vocal jazz performance, a BA in Marketing & Advertising and a Minor in International Studies from the University of Washington. I have two cute pugs at home named Bacon and Sofia. I am a pianist, a published songwriter and am learning to play the cello. We are sponsors of the Naz Children's Centre in Jamaica and of the local theatre company in our cute hometown of Murphys, Ca. Murphys Creek Theatre. Our goal is simple: do good.