Most outdated sales techniques have this in common: they rely on (non-consensual) solicitation of the prospect.

These approaches, which have become ineffective because they now seem so out of step with consumer needs, are giving way to new, much less aggressive and more personalized methods.

Here are the five techniques that will likely have to disappear from your promotional and marketing arsenal in 2017. 

1 - Cold calls

Have you ever ignored a masked phone call? You're not alone!

Automatic number display makes it easy for potential customers to filter out unwanted sales calls.

The "cold calling" simply annoys, making it increasingly ineffective, even if a potential lead answers your calls.

The Inbound Marketing Solution: Rather than calling hundreds of random numbers, why not contact only the leads that are interested in you?

Promote your website, make your brand visible on social media and offer compelling content on your blog.

This way, you will establish a positive first point of contact with your prospect and greatly increase your chances of success.

2 - Buying email lists

People are (rightly) wary of emails from people they don't know. While you have carefully designed your commercial email, it may be misinterpreted by its recipient, who will put it in their spam.

Even if your email includes an attractive offer (promotion or voucher), recipients are unlikely to respond to your message, simply because they don't know anything about your business.

The Inbound Marketing Solution : Build and "nurture" your own email list of qualified leads. To achieve this, offer high-quality content in exchange for your leads' contact information.

3 - Advertising on television

Do you know how much 30 seconds of advertising costs on TF1 during the show Money Drop?

More than 40,000€. 

That's practically the budget for 3 Inbound Marketing campaigns, generating thousands of qualified contacts!

Certainly, audiovisual promotion is not without its benefits, especially when targeting a consumer market. A recent study conducted by Ekimetrics shows that €1 invested in TV returns an average of €1.20 to the brand.

However, viewers now have the ability to "zap" ad space much more easily, especially on digital delivery channels where a simple click is all that is needed. In particular, this Guardian article explains that the days of the TV commercial are numbered!

The Inbound Marketing Solution : allocate a portion of your promotional budgets towards content and conversion on your website, based on solid ROI calculations.

By treating lead acquisition as a priority as important as your brand awareness, you'll quickly see the value of developing your Inbound Marketing strategy.

Should "luck" still have a role to play in your marketing strategy?

4 - The Pay-Per-Click

Correctly configured and analyzed, SEA (or Search Engine Advertising) can give good results. One of the strong points of these ads is that they appear in a relevant way according to the chosen keyword towards a determined target. 

Conversion through paid traffic remains attractive, but user click-through rates on ads have steadily declined over the past two years. 

Another major drawback:  when you stop paying for your SEA campaign, your online presence instantly disappears and your SEO doesn't benefit from that strong exposure.

The Inbound Marketing Solution : Marketers today are looking to develop an organic presence because it is significantly more qualified. On search engines, Internet users trust an earned result more than a paid result. That is, they give more credit to results based on the relevance of the information given. Inbound marketing campaigns strengthen your online presence through natural referencing, in a sustainable way. So, unlike Paid Search, your Inbound Marketing campaigns will continue to generate leads long after they are launched!

5 - Les brochures papier

According to Wikipedia, a brochure is a "paper document intended for information, used to introduce a company, organization, product or service."

A nice definition for a nice waste of money (not to mention the cost to the environment!).

No matter how pretty a brochure is, it will always be perceived by your customers for what it is: advertising. How many prospects actually decide to buy your services or products after reading a brochure? Very few in truth. 

No matter how pretty a brochure is, it will always be perceived by your customers for what it is: advertising. How many prospects actually decide to buy your services or products after reading a brochure? Very few in truth. 

The Inbound Marketing Solution : If you want to spend money on a quality document, produce a high-value white paper that your prospects might download instead. Not only will you garner valuable information, but you'll also demonstrate your expertise in a more authentic way.

After reading this article, perhaps you now want to invest in Inbound Marketing We can help.