The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself. - Oscar Wilde
HubSpot asked marketing professionals for the worst advice they'd ever gotten, and believe me, there are some doosies out there! Here's a roundup of the best of the worst. It makes me want to close my ears to all advice!
What I "must do" or "should do"
"I came up with the concept of Barbie's Ferrari and those on the team said it would flop because girls don't know Ferrari. It was a huge success."
~ Fred Held, Former Mattel Executive
"I once had someone ask me if we could stop using 'free' in our direct mail."
~ Donald Seckler, President at Peak Inbound Marketing
"Any advice that begins with 'you must' is suspect. I love taking suggestions under advisement, but no outside adviser knows my business as well as I do, so must is only must when I say it's must."
"The worst marketing advice I get is any blanket advice like 'you must' or 'every company should...' or 'you've got to...' And I really dislike gross generalizations like 'X is dead!' where X = advertising, blogging, branding, content marketing, email, PR, trade shows, or any other tactic."
~ Gordon Graham, Owner, That White Paper Guy
"The worst advice that I received was 'it's my way, or the highway' kind of thinking and closed mindset."
~ Beverly Boston, Systematic & Integrated Marketing Firm
Social Media is a waste of time
"The worst advice I've ever heard is that social media marketing is not worth the time. Social media marketing requires a lot of work and strategy, but if the effort is put in we find that it is extremely valuable and effective, especially for small businesses."
~ Trevor Murphy, Vice President / Business Development at Friendemic
"Bad advice: I've been told to outsource or intern our social media efforts. Good advice: Since social media is a direct link to clients, partnerships, and potential business, it's best to have social media ambassadors who are invested in the company, and support it consciously."
~ Michelle Martin, Client service and marketing coordinator
"Traditional marketing is dead, we need to go with social media marketing from now on."
~ Richard Hatheway, Senior B2B Technology Marketer
Branding? Just get your name out there!
"You just got to get your name out there."
~ Randy Aimone, Content & Inbound Marketing Specialist
"Good or bad, what matters is (they) talk of your brand! "
~ Miguel Soares, CEO, Partteam & OEMKiosks
"Let others do it."
~ Allan Colman, Law firm marketing
"What worked in the past will work in the future."
~ Steve Turley, Director of Technology Consulting at Bulldog Solutions
Forget marketing... Sales is what's important!
"We don't need Marketing, this will sell itself!"
~ Lashondra Graves, VP of Marketing and Social Media Strategy at Strategic Decision Education Foundation