Crackhead Marketing

In a post in the Hubspot blog, Julie Devaney mentioned that "Black hat [search engine marketing] tactics are like drugs - just say no." Her point was that there's a lot of pressure to try them, everyone seems to be dabbling, and you end up getting "busted" by search engines. It was a good post, and got me thinking in the broader context.

I was charmed by the apt metaphor: the allure of a quick buzz (from increased first-time visitors tricked into visiting your site) without any real benefits ("tricked" visitors don't become buyers), and the potential for long-term damage (your brand reputation is marred for having been deceitful).

But more importantly, it spoke to a notion that's been troubling me for some time: that marketing in any medium is often reduced to "tricks" to get people to pay attention - and that the metrics for success are focused on the short-term assessment of how many people were attracted (or tricked into paying attention). And in the end, they do more harm than good to the company that uses such tactics.

That's not to say getting attention isn't of value - it's the first "A" in the "AIDA" model of marketing, and entirely valid to assert that people won't buy from you if they don't know you exist. So getting attention is, important - though it's pointless and even damaging if you get the attention of the wrong people (those unlikely to buy) in the wrong way (deceptive tactics).

My sense is that a marketer who focuses on the long run - getting real customers, with a preference for repeat buyers and even regular customers - should be very leery of the "quick buzz" offered by crackhead marketing. But I fear that many fail to look beyond the present campaign, the present quarter, and the present fiscal year to the long-term customer relationship - as evidenced by the continued interest in the kind of tactics Devaney feels it worthwhile to warn her colleagues about.