I love digging into the different facets of marketing to learn more about how and why they work. I believe modern digital marketing tools like social media and websites should be an extension of how we interact with each other in person.

Right now, I want to talk about some annoying marketing trends I can’t wait to see go away:

Too many emails

Sure, you want to stay in touch with your audience, but does that really need to be daily?

Emails with no value or just links back to their site

If you are taking up space in someone’s inbox, you owe them the courtesy of providing something of value. A fluff-filled email wastes your reader’s time.

"Six figure” anything

Money is awesome! I love money! But the “six figure” crap needs to go away first.

Trying to make me feel bad for not signing up for "the thing"

Don’t guilt people into doing things. That’s rude.

Downplaying the importance of hard work

Owning a business is hard work. Marketing your business is hard work. Balancing life and work and everything else is REALLY hard work. Some things will come easy to you, and you’ll struggle with others. That’s normal.

“Passive income” (especially when coupled with photos of the beach or a hammock)

This is the big daddy of “look how easy it is”. Just create a thing, sit back, and watch the money roll in. And, by the way, if you pay me thousands of dollars, I’ll show you how to do it. Yuck.

The idea that each email has to have a yucky (I mean "effective") subject lines

Last chance, You'll be sorry, Oops, we made a mistake, You'll never believe this, You MUST do this today – do any of these make you feel good? Are you sick of seeing them in your own in box?

Awful freebies (either no value or poorly put together)

Is there anything worse than signing up for a freebie that sounds interesting, only to have it be worthless or riddled with typos? And now you are on someone’s mailing list.

Any video or music that auto plays.

No. Don’t do this.

Webinars that are a waste of time

Someone is giving up time to watch your thing, you owe it to them to be good, helpful, and useful.