Hacking may have gotten its start in the digital realm, but the concept of taking an ingenious short-cut to success applies well beyond the tech sphere now. You’ll hear about growth hacks, social media hacks, even life hacks – and marketers aren’t immune to the buzz.

“Hack” has an older meaning, too, one that isn’t as fashionable: doing work that barely passes muster. A hack writer churns out half a dozen novels a year and can’t recall the main characters in any of them. Hack actors mumble their lines and go through the motions. Political hacks care more about victory than ethics or meaningful change.

For marketers, understanding the difference between an innovative marketing hack and stale hack marketing is critical. With that in mind, I wanted to take a look at some of the most common marketing practices, the ones that I find in my own mailbox or see online around me.

Site Personalization

One of the most exciting things marketers can do today is customize sites to their visitors. Once they know even a little bit about you from previous visits or the search terms you used to find them, customizable sites can deliver a user experience built around your needs and preferences. Say your client is in the hospitality industry. They receive a click from a search for the term “Top Honeymoon Hot Spots”. You might lead them to a home page that features a picture of a couple having a romantic day at the resort with a button that says “View Top Honeymoon Packages”. A referral from a search for “Top 100 Greatest Golf Courses” can lead them to a home page that features a picture of a lush golf course with a button that says “Explore our Top Golf Courses”. A wedding planner might see tables and chairs decked in white tulle and ribbon to place the resort in a relevant context.

Verdict: Marketing hack

Relevant Content Marketing

Whether you sell industrial equipment or ice cream, your buyers are better educated than they ever have been, and they’re hungry for even more knowledge. Content marketing gives it to them. With content, you make your organization’s voice heard and contribute to your leads’ knowledge. Educated leads are more likely to choose companies with established authority in the industry, and content is an outstanding way to build that authority. What makes content creation even more exciting is the ability to target it more precisely. Just as you can customize a landing page, you’re able to tailor email content to different audience segments, enhancing relevance and earning your audience’s attention.

Verdict: Marketing hack

Keyword Stuffing for SEO

Search engines loom large for digital marketing efforts. With them, marketers have an opportunity to divert a steady stream of valuable organic traffic their way. It’s no wonder, then, that some companies try to find a way to make search engines work harder for them by filling content with what they presume search engines want to see: keywords. To some extent, that’s accurate; keywords are still an important element of SEO. They aren’t the only signals search engines read, though, and they haven’t been for at least a dozen years. That doesn’t stop some companies from trying to manipulate search engines with content that contains a downright unnatural number of keywords, often exceeding 5 percent.

Verdict: Hack marketing

Sometimes, the next big thing in marketing is truly revolutionary. Occasionally, it’s just the same old tactic repackaged as something new. Savvy marketers need an understanding of the industry’s past to get a handle on its future.