2014 was an innovative year for marketing, but let’s face it: a lot of trends didn’t pan out. In the interest of cleaning our slate for 2015, it’s time we review these failed strategies and tools that will soon be irrelevant.

Mobile app usage is at an all-time high. Time is precious and competition is too fierce to maintain marketing strategies that don’t work. Here we present five trends that flopped in 2014 and won’t be making a comeback anytime soon.

1. QR codes

QR codes are going to be a meaningless time sucker in 2015 because the majority of mobile users don’t have the ability to scan these codes. In 2013, only 19.1 percent of consumers had ever scanned a QR code, and these numbers have not increased significantly. The issue is that mobile users must download a specific app just to scan these codes. It’s an unnecessary stumbling block that hinders your call to action and frustrates your audience.

The only viable solution to this problem would be preloading QR code-reading technology on smartphones. Apple and Google’s Android alone make up 93 percent of the smartphone-platform market, so unless both companies make that decision, QR codes are effectively doomed.

2. Auto-posting

We’re all guilty of this. When we’re pressed for time, auto-posting makes it quick and easy to post the same message across all of our social-media networks. However, each social network serves its own unique purpose and attracts a unique audience. The same message usually doesn’t work on four or five different networks.

To keep our content relevant, we have to tailor it specifically to the network we’re posting to.

Read the full article here.