Three Biases That Hurt Your Online Marketing Campaign

If you’re getting ready to do online promotion, there’s much more to it than just having a list of email addresses

or social media contacts to send material to. Marketing, especially in the cut throat world of the Internet, is all

about getting people to lower their guard with the right approach. But some marketers have inherent biases or

attitudes that can hurt their promotions before they even gets sent out. Here are three attitudes that can hurt not

just you, but your marketing efforts.

Jumping On The Bandwagon

This seems incredibly obvious, but it’s also one of the hardest to resist. Humans are social creatures and want to

fit in. When we see everyone else jumping on a particular strategy or approach, especially when it spreads like

wildfire online, it’s tempting to join in and do the same. But just because everyone is saying the same thing, or

even quoting the same thing, doesn’t make it right. Use evidence and research to decide if an approach actually

works for you, instead of doing it “because everyone else is.”

Confirmation Bias

This is an especially dangerous attitude to have because of how invisibly it can colour everything. Confirmation bias is the tendency to want to support a belief by only seeking out and interacting with things that reinforce it. In

other words, if you believe the colour blue is the best, you’ll ignore any data or people that say otherwise, and only go to sources of information or other people that agree with you. Ignoring facts in favor of data or people that support what you want to believe can hurt your marketing in a big way.

Projection Bias

This is a simple —and somewhat understandable—tendency to think people are like you. But it also means

making assumptions about their attitudes, beliefs and many other aspects that can hurt your marketing. If you’re

treating everyone in a marketing campaign is if they were you, you’re missing out on potentially huge numbers of

people that feel alienated you are ignoring their view point.