Our Digital Marketing icks!

By Aislin Ward

If you don’t know what an ‘ick’ is, then either you don’t spend much time on TikTok (and are definitely more productive than me), or you just don’t spend much time around Gen Z.

Either way, getting an ‘ick’ is defined by Urban Dictionary as:

“Something that someone does that is an instant turn-off for you, making you instantly hate the idea of being with them romantically.”

As the pack are all naturally in love with their digital marketing specialisms, we asked our team to take us through some of their digital marketing icks:

1. A fixation on just one metric

“I’ve seen it far too many times when one metric becomes the go-to control point over a long period of time e.g. ROAS or visibility. A strategy has to look wider whether for growth, profitability or behavioural change. One metric can help stabilise performance but without using it to give context to a wider picture you are going to miss out on some fantastic results and your strategy will be one dimensional and stagnate.” – Dan Pratt

2. SEO ‘Quick wins’

“It’s a phrase that use been used so much that it’s become a cliché. SEO shouldn’t be quick, if you want to build out a strategy that will actually have a lasting impact then it will take time for you to see results. There will often be issues with a site that can be resolved quickly by fixing them, but ultimately that will get you a site that isn’t broken anymore rather than a true SEO strategy. We need to stop being so fixated on the ‘quick’ and start caring more about the wider strategy and ultimate goal of the SEO work.” – Sav Szymura

3. ‘Make it go viral’

“Obviously everyone wants to be the next viral moment, but we all know that social media can be really unpredictable and it’s not easy to make a post go viral. Why do people always ask for this? It’s always harder to explain if you’ve already had one post ‘go viral’ already as well. Managing expectations can be tough.” – Eve Lowdon

4. Asking to see coverage from a press release before it’s been published

“I had a client once ask this and I’m still not sure if they just wanted to check over the release again or if they honestly didn’t understand how Digital PR works.” – Rachel Watkins

5. The overuse of acronyms and buzzwords

“It’s gotten to the point with acronyms and buzzwords that you could make something up on the spot and I probably wouldn’t blink. There are just so many in digital marketing that are completely unnecessary and every time I hear one it sounds like Bob Mortimer’s ‘Train Guy’ to me (if you’ve not discovered this comedy genius yet, do yourself a favour and watch some now!)” – Chris Harvey