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It seems that almost everyone has “marketing hacks” which are supposed to help your small business grow at an exponential rate.
However, when you start digging a little deeper, you will find that very few – if any – of those hacks work for small business marketing.
Unless, of course, your business revolves around something like entertainment or sports. Most small businesses are “boring businesses”, and promoting them takes focused, consistent effort.
Let’s have a look at some of the things that are doing the rounds…
5 Marketing hacks to avoid:
1. Viral social media challenges.
Every now and then, a new “viral challenge” comes along. Taking part in the challenge, and uploading a video about it, is a sure-fire way to get loads and loads of views, lots of engagement, and even some new followers.
There are three flaws with this approach:
a. Who actually watches these challenge videos? How likely are they to include potential clients or customers for your business? Keep in mind that social network algorithms show your content to people who are most likely to interact with it.
b. The people who react to it will become part of your channel’s or profile history. That means they will be taken into account when the network decides who to show your next piece of content to.
c. Your new followers become some of the first people that any new piece of content is shown to in the future.
So if your audience is small, and suddenly grows a lot due to new followers, you are likely to find that new content you put out – about your actual business – is likely to get even fewer views and less engagement that before.
What to do instead:
Keep creating useful content aimed at your ideal customer or client. Instead of chasing numbers and vanity metrics, aim to get your content seen by the right people – people who will actually spend money on what you offer.
Getting your offer in front of 100 potential customers is better than reaching 10,000 people chasing entertainment.
Side note: Many so-called gurus also tell you to use “trending sounds” when creating or uploading videos to Instagram or Tiktok, and just reduce their volume. However, trending sounds are often also associated with trending topics – which yours probably isn’t.
2. Posting multiple times per day “to please the algorithms”.
Depending on the platform, posting multiple times per day can be useful – like if you do only text posts on X. However, when you look at video clips and purpose-created graphics, it doesn’t make business sense.
If you do it yourself, it is keeping you from working on or in your business. If you delegate it, someone is spending a lot of time on it, which could be spent on operational tasks.
If you outsource it, you can end up spending a lot of money to sustain the flow of content – especially when you take into account that some gurus suggest you post as many as ten times per day.
What to do instead:
Create 2 to 3 posts per week, but aim for the best quality – and usefulness of the content (tips, testimonials, etc) – that you can.
See if any of them stand out head and shoulders above the rest, and boost that specific post. Just test it for a few days with a few dollars per day, and if it works well, increase the budget. If not, try again after the following week.
3. Hashtag stuffing.
On Instagram, you can add up to 30 hashtags. Tiktok has no limit on hashtags. They do have a 4,000 character limit for the caption, but you can fit a hundred or more hashtags into that.
There are two flaws with this approach:
a. It looks spammy.
b. The most successful marketers use 3 to 5 hashtags. If adding more hashtags helped, they would have used it.
What to do instead:
a. Increase the length of your caption. Give the algorithm more content it can use to find your post.
b. Use 3 to 5 hyper-specific hashtags. For instance, if you are a plumber in Lincoln, Nebraska, add #plumberlincoln, #lincolnplumber and #plumber-plus-suburb.
4. Using automated direct messages for outreach or building relationships.
On just about every social media platform, anyone that has any audience experiences this on a daily basis. You accept a connection request, or follow someone, only to receive an instantaneous DM, often with a blatant pitch for a product or service.
There are a few flaws with this approach:
a. It is obvious that it isn’t real. The moment you hit “follow” or “connect”, the message hits your inbox. Nobody types that fast.
b. It is impersonal. Even if it is only read later on, it is easy to spot generic messages.
c. It is being done so much that it has become very ineffective. In fact, the response rate on such messages are usually terrible.
What to do instead:
After making a sale, or after getting a positive comment or re-post from someone else, send a personal thank-you note. Because anything automated is likely to go unread – or be discarded – anyway.
5. Buying fake “reviews”.
Buying fake reviews is easy. Theoretically, it is easy to populate your online presence with reviews on Google, Yelp, and other review portals.
The flaws of using this approach:
a. On any given review portal, people can see the user profile of the person leaving the review. Anyone who digs a little deeper can spot things on a user profile that don’t align with what you offer.
b. If even just ONE fake review is exposed, it will call into question ALL of your existing reviews. The potential damage to your reputation is incalculable.
What to do instead:
Once you make a sale, and the client or customer is happy, just ask politely. Send a personal email, with a link to your preferred review platform.
In conclusion:
“Hacks” are shortcuts. And in business, there are very few shortcuts that work in the long term.
Yes, there are things that you can do that multiply your efforts – but these are not hacks – they are strategic choices and partnerships.
Instead, ask yourself this question:
What can I do with the resources at my disposal, which will be most effective in not only reaching potential clients or customers, but that will lead them to do business with me?
Because THAT is the only number that matters. Likes, followers, view counts, and even comments are irrelevant. If it doesn’t translate to money in your bank account, it is meaningless.
Find what works, and just keep repeating it, while trying to improve on it as you go.