Marketing Like A Scammer?

Marketing Like A Scammer?Most Small Businesses Make These Four Critical Errors!

Are you Marketing Like A Scammer? So here’s the scenario: you ever get a text or email that feels a little… unclean?

I got one the other day:

“Free American History DVD set! Limited Quantities! Click this shady link! STOP to END.”

No brand. No author. Also, no “presented by” or any context. Just some random offer with a sketchy short-link and no other info.

But here’s the kicker: I might actually be their ideal customer.

I care about true American history. I care about the Constitution. So I was even vaguely curious.

But when I couldn’t figure out who it was from, why I got it, or any proof of who was behind it? Nope. Hard pass. The method by which the message was delivered killed the sale before I even thought about clicking.

That’s what this article is about: how good people with good offers end up Marketing Like A Scammer… and how to fix it.

Attention Is Currency (And You’re Wasting It)

Every day, your customers wake up with a tiny budget of attention.

They’ve got:

• Work to do.
• Family to provide for.
• Kids to chase.
• Bills to pay.
• Traffic to deal with.
• And a phone full of notifications.

Your email, text, or ad has to fight through all that mess just to get one second of focus. So you’d better show up as legit and something worth their time. But if you show up looking like another scammer?

You’re not just ignored. You’re spending their attention with zero return. Worse yet, you’re also building a reputation as a spammer. Let’s call it spam debt.

>> Reality Check <<

So the next time they see your name or number, it’s more expensive to get a click. Because you have to shout louder, longer, and more often just to beg your way back to neutral.

Good businesses don’t shrivel up and die because their offer sucks. But it doesn’t help if your offer is trash, too. They die because they’re broke when it comes to attention currency. Also, they die because their attention credit is maxed out, with nothing left in their trust account.

For a deeper look at how small marketing errors quietly strangle your revenue, read Low Sales Gut-Check.

So now let’s look at how that happens.

Case Study:
The Free DVD That Lost A Perfect Lead

Back to that history DVD text.

On paper, the sender probably told themselves a nice story:

• “We’re doing good in the world.”
• “We’re defending truth.”
• “We’re the good guys.”

Cool story. But here’s what the actual text did wrong.

#1: No clear brand

There was no:

• Organization name
• Person’s name
• Logo or brand cue

Just a stone-cold pitch and a sketchy short-link. So if I don’t know who’s talking to me, I’m blocking them and reporting it as spam. But then, so is everyone else.

#2: The sketchy link that didn’t match the sender

It was some random link-shortening domain I had never heard of before. Also, it was just a standard short-link code, nothing obvious to connect the ad with the group behind the message. So in 2025, that screams:

• Phishing
• Malware
• Data grab
• Scam

Because if the URL looks like a ransom note, people treat it like one.

#3: No reminder of how they got my number

Did I opt into this? Did I donate somewhere? Or did they buy a list with my info, scrape my info, etc.?

Your guess is as good as mine. Because they didn’t even attempt an explanation.

No context = no consent in the reader’s mind. And that means no sale.

#4: No clear benefit beyond “free stuff.”

“Free DVD” is not enough anymore. Because everyone knows that “free” isn’t really free and usually means:

• Welcome to “we’ll spam the hell out of you now!”
• Also, welcome to telemarketer hell.
• Or, welcome to advertising hell, everywhere you go on the internet.
• Possibly all of the above.

So in one short message, they managed to look:

• Unclear
• Untrustworthy
• And lazy (or amateurish)

Then they lost a perfect-fit lead who wanted to believe in what they had to say.

That is Marketing Like A Scammer.

I talk more about fixing the trust gap in Relationships Build Your Brand. Because consistency and character beat gimmicks and lies every time.

If you want a positive example of using a story to build your attention currency, check out Holiday Stories Grab Attention.

3 Ways You’re Probably
Marketing Like A Scammer

Before you laugh too hard at me cutting on Hillsdale College’s mistakes, check your own stuff. Here are three common ways good businesses (like Hillsdale) look shady without realizing it.

For more examples of self-inflicted damage, Toxic Turkeys Kill Sales walks through how one poisonous individual can quietly (or loudly) destroy your business.

#1 Unbranded Email Blasts

You send:

• “Special Offer Inside!!!”
• From noreply123@randommailer.com
• With no logo, no address, no sign-off.

To your customers, that feels like:

• “Some rando nitwit yelling in my inbox.”
• Also, delete, block, junk, and report.

For proven emails that get opened, that get opened and read, swipe the proven templates in Email Templates That Convert.

#2 Ugly, Confusing Links

You post a great story on social and then drop a mess like:

https://bit.ly/39wasd969fy-utm_campaign=Q4PROMO&utm_medium=email&utm=MoreRandomStuff

It looks like a tracking trap. But not a trusted resource.

You can track clicks and have a link that looks like you. It’s called using your own domain name or at least a branded short-link like a grown-up.

In Marketing ROI Basics, I break down how to measure the real results of your campaigns.

#3 Random DMs and Cold Texts

You slide into DMs or SMS like an unwanted creeper in the ladies’ restroom with:

• No intro
• No context
• Straight to “Do you have a minute to hop on a call?”

That’s what catfish, crypto crooks, and “coaching” scammers do.

But if your behavior matches their bad behavior, people lump you in with them. So it doesn’t matter how pure your heart is.

The Three Quick Question Fix

So, as you may have guessed, there is a way to fix this problem. Also, it’s not that complicated to do. Just run every outreach message through this filter before you send it:

#1 Is My Name On It?

Brand, personal, or both.

• Email: From [Business Name] with a real reply address.
• Text: “Hey, it’s [Business]…” in line one.
• DM: “Hey, I’m [Name] from [Business]…”

If they can’t tell who it’s from at first glance, you’re doing it wrong.

#2 Is The Link Obviously Yours?

Your domain should look like you, not some random code.

• Use your own domain name or a branded short-link.
• Keep it simple enough that a human can read and remember it.
• If you must shorten it, do it in a way that still shows your name.

If the link feels shady, it IS shady to your audience. So they won’t click it.

#3 Do They Know Why You’re In Their Messages?

One sentence should answer:

• “How did you get my contact info?”
• “Why are you talking to me now?”

Here are some great examples:

• “You downloaded our Speed-to-Lead Playbook last week…”
• “You booked a demo but didn’t schedule a time…”
• “You asked us for pricing to replace your old oil furnace…”

So if you can’t explain why you are contacting them in one clear line, you’re not following up. You’re cold-spamming.

If you’re going to spend time doing outreach, spend it on people who already know who you are. Warm outreach to people who opted in, clicked, called, or visited your stuff is almost always 5-10x more effective than hammering total strangers. Cold outreach stacked on top of shady-looking tactics doesn’t just look like a scam–it performs like one.

And you all know how I feel about spammers and telemarketers.

Marketing Like A Scammer:
How To Fix It Across Your Channels

Let’s make this crystal clear and as simple as possible.

Email

• Use a real from-name, not “DoNotReply.”
• Add your logo, business name, phone, and physical address in the footer.
• First line: remind them what they did that led to this email.

SMS/Text

• Open with: “It’s [Business Name], you [action they took].”
• Use a clean, branded link.
• Keep it simple: one idea, one action, one link.

Want to see a smart, automated text campaign that helps customers instead of annoying them? Check out Missed-Call Text-Back.

Ads

• Make the ad and the landing page match. So same promise, same look.
• Don’t scream “FREE!!” if the page feels like a trap.
• Also, don’t bait and switch. EVER.

DMs

• Start with the connection: group, post, referral, or event.
• Be human. Comment on something real they said or did.
• Finally, ask permission before you pitch.

None of this is fancy. But it is respect, in digital form.

Additionally, remember that people see right through style over substance.

For a deeper dive into turning interest into revenue without acting like a spammer, read Turn Clicks Into Customers.

You Don’t Need Louder Marketing

But you do need to stop Marketing Like A Scammer.

• Get consent.
• Put your name on everything.
• Use links that look like you.
• Remind people why you’re there.

Do that, and you’ll be ahead of 90% of the noise out there.

Why Cold Outreach Is Almost Always A Bad Idea For Small Businesses

Why cold outreach fails most small businesses:

• The Math Sucks
  Two appointments out of 200 phone calls is a 1% success rate. If your time is even “only” worth $50/hour and you grind all week to get one paying customer, that’s a terrible return.
• It Burns You Out
  Rejection, hang-ups, angry people asking, “How did you get this number?” None of your marketing is sharper or more creative. But it just makes you dread all marketing.
• It Burns Them Out
  Cold calls and cold texts train people to ignore unknown numbers and report messages as spam. You’re not just hurting yourself; you’re poisoning the well for the future, better outreach.
• It Ignores The Obvious: Warm Converts 5-10x Better
  People who already know your name, have visited your site, or requested something from you will always convert at a much higher rate than total strangers. Why spend a week pounding on locked doors when you’ve got people who already jiggled the handle?

Cold outreach is what you do when you don’t have a system. It’s what you do when you listen to someone with a college degree and no common sense. However, warm outreach is what you do when you respect your time and your customers’ attention.

If you want to see a successful system that warms up your leads for you, the ROI Ninjas Demo Library shows real examples of how ROI Ninjas CRM handles follow-up, nurturing, and booking for you.

Marketing Like A Scammer: FAQs

Want to see how tracking and follow-up come together inside the CRM? Check out ROI Tracking With CRM to see how we actually measure what’s working and what isn’t.

Are You Ready To Stop Marketing Like A Scammer For Good?

You don’t fix shady-looking marketing by “trying harder.” You fix it by running a real system that:

If you’re serious about stopping the scammy-looking nonsense and building a grown-up marketing system, start your ROI Ninjas CRM Plan now and put this article to work!