Just like everything in life, marketing has some basic rules that you’re supposed to follow. However, in some cases, your marketing benefits from breaking these rules. While you don’t want to break all of the rules all of the time, remember that these are not set in stone.
1. Keep Your Focus Unwaveringly
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Rule: It’s said in the marketing world that you should keep your focus. What should you be focusing on, exactly? The rule is that you should focus on your marketing strategy and conversions. Without conversions, you’re not going to make any money. So, you need to do anything and everything necessary to increase the people coming to your landing page, which will in turn help you sell more.
How to Break It: Let’s be honest – making money is most likely the reason you have a landing page in the first place. You want people buying your product or service. However, the best way to do this is not to constantly focus on getting people in the door. If you do this, you’re going to end up getting the wrong people. Instead, focus on your customers. Figure out your target market and use it. In addition to this, you’ll want to split your focus between a few things. Customers, marketing strategy, and your landing page layout all need to be on your mind.
2. Keep a Consistent Schedule
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Rule: As a rule, you should be updating your social media accounts three to five times a week. You need to update each social media account this many times. So, if you have a Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest account, you should be doing nine to fifteen updates each week.
How to Break It: Social media should be updated regularly. However, the exact number of times you update is up to you. If you try to update each account with new information five times a week, you may quickly run out. On the other hand, if your company has a lot going on, you may find that one week you post ten times, while another week only once. This is fine, as long as you’re keeping up with your customers and the information is relevant.
3. Don’t Stray When it Comes to Marketing
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Rule: You’ve created a marketing plan, and you need to stick to it. You’ll spend a specific amount of money on pay-per-click ads, spend numerous hours writing blog posts, and respond to every single customer who even says “hi” on social media.
How to Break it: Your marketing plan is important. However, you need to understand that it’s ok to stray once in a while. Sometimes, there are things outside of your control that will change your plan. For example, if you’re spending a certain amount of money on ad campaigns, and the price goes up, you’ll need to readjust. While you should stick to your marketing plan as closely as possible, be willing and able to reevaluate it once in a while.
4. Always Promote Your Products
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Rule: On social media, in your blog, and everywhere else you have a presence, always promote your product. If you post on forums, make sure there’s a link back to your landing page in your signature. Never post anything other than information on your product to social media.
How to Break It: People are going to get bored quickly if all they ever see from you is a request to buy what you’re selling. Instead, offer them interesting information once in a while. Even though a cat meme probably won’t help you sell your laundry detergent, it will keep your customers interested. Stats, facts, and information are great, and should be posted regularly. In addition, give your readers something fun.
5. Always Use Keywords
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Rule: Even though keywords have less importance today than they once did, they’re still crucial. Make sure that every blog post you write has at least a few keywords in it. This will help bring more people to your landing page, and increase sales.
How to Break It: If you can get keywords in your copy, great. Remember, keywords are what bring people in from the search engines. However, don’t fill your copy with keywords. Make sure that the phrases and words you use works with what you write. You need to write for readers, not for search engines. If your copy is stilted or awkward because you tried to use your keywords, go over it again, and get rid of what doesn’t sound right.
6. Don’t be Controversial
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Rule: If you’re going to make someone uncomfortable with your post or update, don’t hit send. You need to be as neutral as possible, to entice the most people to your landing page. You never, ever want to make people upset or angry.
How to Break It: Emotional topics are great. They get people reading and interested. While you shouldn’t push away a large segment of your customers with constantly updating controversial topics, every once in a while it’s good, and even beneficial to get some emotions stirring. Make sure you are kind to your customers if they disagree with you, however. You don’t want to get a negative reputation as a jerk.
7. Use Perfect Grammar
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Rule: If you want people to take you seriously, you need to constantly use perfect grammar. Make sure you’re not falling into common grammar traps.
How to Break It: In some cases, it’s ok to let your grammar rules slide a little. You don’t want to look like an idiot, but writing in a conversational tone is perfectly fine. You don’t have to go by the book at all times, let a little bit of yourself come through in your copy, updates, and more.
There are a lot of rules when it comes to marketing. Just like with anything, if you know the rules and you know how to break them, you can be even more effective than if you simply follow them blindly. What are your favorite rules to break?
