I’m always up for a good Lewis Black-style rant. So pretend that I’m practically shouting this to you in his inimitable I’m-about-to-have-a-stroke way.

Digital marketing, and its current volume-based practices, are just about the worst things you can do for your business—from startups to mature brands, from C2C to B2B. And yet, so many seasoned executives and young entrepreneurs are continuing time-wasting, mindshare-sucking practices that provide little RoI.

I’ll admit that I was provoked into this diatribe by a recent conversation with a digital marketing peer of mine at another startup. She laid out her strategic vision for 2015, and everything to me seemed to be about raising “awareness” and other digital marketing pablum of the day. In short, doomed to fail in terms of helping her company’s bottomline.