Debunking Digital Marketing Myths: The Root Cause of All Your Business Problems
We should not judge a book by its cover. Neither should we believe in myths.
But even with its evident success all around the world, there remain some who are still skeptical about the effectiveness of these “digital marketing strategies,” and the underlying cause of their wariness is largely due to being duped after trusting the wrong ‘experts’ and misinformation which have only managed to give more voice to these myths.
This brings us to,
The Post-Pandemic Struggle: Our main catalyst
Although digital marketing had its fair share of popularity among the business crowd in the pre-pandemic years, the number of businesses that crossed over to the digital world after the pandemic is still significantly huge in comparison.
As a result, digital marketing has now become a crucial marketing tool for most businesses as they struggle to find their footing in the virtual world. And with the myriad of challenges, whether it's finding the right mix of paid and organic strategies or navigating social networks and e-commerce platforms, it has become an open market for fake claims and false promises to make easy money.
Add being new to digital marketing with click-bait headlines, fake news, and endless SEO claims, and it's bound to be hard for one to know what’s true and what’s not with all the information overload.
Hence, many startups and business owners often end up misled by these myths set by the ‘self-proclaimed’ experts with a laptop and internet connection having a multitude of personal opinions on any topic, mostly negative and largely incorrect at that.
So It’s no wonder that it has become a cause for confusion for newbies as well as seasoned marketers, making it hard to figure out what will work for your business leading to inefficient efforts and wasted resources.
That’s why, as your newly appointed candle, today we're going to help you navigate the complexities of modern marketing. So get ready as we demystify some of the most popular digital marketing myths so that you can make better, smarter, and wiser decisions for your business based on facts, not myths.
Demystifying Some of the Most Popular Digital Marketing Myths
1. I’ll get instant results
Getting instant results from your marketing efforts is as much of an unrealistic expectation as expecting Maggi to be cooked within its promised advertised time of ‘2-minutes’.
But our human nature loves instant gratification due to which this myth is one of the most popular among the rest for hindering the growth of many businesses. Because when we don’t see instant results, we often get discouraged and tend to stop.
So whether you’re a marketer or a business owner, you need to understand that digital marketing isn’t an easy side shortcut that you take for fast growth & instant results; instead, it’s a complete spectrum of unlimited amazing opportunities for your business growth which would take time to reflect results once implemented.
So, instead of putting all of your focus and energy on getting instantaneous results, make sure that all your strategies are backed by thorough research, are well thought out and planned, and have been put in the right place, whether it’s your social, email, content, or any other digital marketing strategy. And once you do that, you’ll gradually be able to grow and will see the desired results as well.
2. Social media is not meant for B2B marketers
There are certain myths that hold back the growth of B2B marketing. One such myth is based on the belief that social media marketing only works for consumer brands but not for B2B companies.
Due to the lack of awareness and misleading information, B2B marketers feel hesitant to use social media because they have been led to believe that the only way to reach B2B customers is with traditional websites and investing efforts in social media is just a waste of time, money and resources. That social media platforms are places for bored individuals who care less about your business than they do about their dinner plans.
But, in reality, social media is a powerful marketing tool for B2B businesses. Nowadays, social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have become increasingly popular among B2B marketers as they offer you a platform to promote, engage and connect about your business with like-minded people (niche audience).
As a result, It helps you to establish yourself as a trusted brand, boosts your brand awareness and recognition among your potential customers, and gives your business a personal touch for people to connect better with your brand. Ultimately leading to better reach and growth.
So, contrary to popular belief, you are not supposed to just randomly post anything. Instead, just like any other marketing tool, to get the results that matter, you need to put the time and effort into finding out what platforms are frequented by your target audience, and what type of content they prefer to consume, and then you need to work on a robust social media marketing strategy that meets the needs of your brand.
3. You don’t need a content strategy
If there was an award for the most unbelievable myth surrounding digital marketing, It would be this.
Under the compulsion of this myth, many businesses think that having a content marketing strategy is just not worth making an investment in. Many don’t even have proper clarity about what content marketing is and what it entails.?
What they don’t understand is that consumers don’t just rely on advertisements and pricing anymore; nowadays they prefer to do online research and find as much information as they can get about the products or services and the brands before making a purchase.
That’s why brands that consistently share good quality content and helpful information with their audience are the ones that are being preferred by consumers.
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So, make sure that you have a well-planned content strategy in place because, in reality, content marketing is a great and affordable way to promote your business, improve your sales and engagement, educate your audience, attract leads, and increase your visibility across both search engines as well as social media. All of which help you build lasting relationships with your customers.
4. Paid marketing doesn’t have the same impact as organic
We get it. Money is the most important and valuable resource for any business, and to part with it without being one hundred percent sure that it won’t tank is not a risk anyone would want to take.
So, there is a lot of misconception attached when it comes to investing in paid marketing. This is mainly because many self-proclaimed experts out there having no real experience or knowledge have duped a lot of businesses and have made them incur losses without good results.
And that has led to business owners with little to no expertise in this field feeling more cautious than ever. But the reality is that paid marketing is a tool that, if leveraged right, can bring outstanding results no matter the scale of your business. As paid marketing lets you reach the right target audiences without geographical limitations or the need for physical presence.
Therefore, even though organic marketing has its own share of benefits, when it comes to getting better and faster results in terms of lead generation and sales conversions, nothing works better than a solid paid marketing campaign.
5. If your product/service is great, it will sell itself?
It won’t if no one knows about it.
Nowadays, just having a perfect product or service isn’t enough. To make it sell, you have to inform your customers and communicate its value to them, and in today’s time, you cannot accomplish that without opting for digital marketing services.
As we all know, this is the digital era; where everyone is online; whether it's your audience or your competitors, everyone has an online presence. Therefore to make a dent in the market, you have to be on their turf and talk in the terms they understand, using platforms they frequently use.
Because nowadays, people make decisions after thoroughly consuming all the online information regarding your brand, its products/services, your brand mission, and values, etc. Everything contributes to your customer's final decision before they go for your brand.
Therefore, even if you have a great product or service, you need to invest time and effort into creating proper marketing and sales strategies not just to keep yourself ahead of the competition but also to let your audience know what exceptional value you can provide through your product or service to help them make better-informed decisions.
6. Marketing and advertising are the same things?
Let’s start with the main point. It’s not.?
In reality, marketing and advertising are quite different from each other, but they keep getting used as interchangeable terms by people who lack clarity and expertise, which has been the origin of this rather unfortunate myth that has been the culprit behind the lack of growth for a lot of companies.
This, in turn, has limited the potential of many businesses. Due to this myth, these two terms keep getting coined together, leading to bad decision-making and missing opportunities that can help them become successful brands.
We need to understand that marketing and advertising are two separate fields where one is an all-encompassing field that includes various aspects, platforms, and types of marketing that helps businesses to understand their customers, analyze their preferences and provide value, resulting in better sales, customer reach, and lasting relationships.
Whereas the other is just an extended branch or a type of marketing in which companies promote their products or services via paid channels. So, before making the decision to not invest at all, make sure that you do thorough research about the benefits of all the services and go for the ones that your business needs the most.
7. Digital marketing is only for big companies
Contrary to this myth, digital marketing is more beneficial for small businesses than it is for big companies. Because not only digital marketing is budget-friendly and doesn’t require a large number of resources to be successful but also it can help you keep up with the competition by applying the same strategies that are being implemented by the big brands.
Talking further about the pros of digital marketing, there’s a long list; such as a strong brand reputation, a consistent brand identity, better awareness of your products and services, nurturing customer relationships, and brand loyalty, all of which that you need to grow as a successful business and can get with a right digital marketing strategy.
In fact, you can even outrank your competition in online searches if you plan and implement a robust strategy and follow it consistently. Because digital marketing is a blessing in disguise for small businesses as it lets you drive traffic, helps you sell better, gets you recognition in the market, and at the same time allows you to stand out from your competitors.
Conclusion:
Now that we’ve debunked some of the most popular digital marketing myths of all time, we hope you feel more confident and aware of the various aspects of digital marketing and will be able to make better-informed decisions for your business moving forward.
Because overall, there are no black-and-white facts regarding the intricacies of digital marketing and its various applications. And with the overwhelming quantity of information available nowadays on every matter concerning all things digital marketing, it can be hard to find the truth in all of it.
So, It’s easy to get sucked in by all these digital marketing myths. Because so many false claims and misconceptions have built quite a reputation for themselves, making it is extremely challenging to keep up.
But despite all of this, there are always some reliable sources and experts out there that can help you succeed. While looking for a partner, you just need to ensure that you’re with an agency that cares about your business and goals and is willing to listen and collaborate with you to take your business to the heights you have envisioned.
Happy Reading!?
Marketing Automation Manager | HubSpot Certified Trainer | HubSpot CRM Consultant | Sales & Marketing Operations | Marketing Manager | Certified Digital Marketing Expert | Growth Hacker
2 年This is a very good attempt at content curation and repurposing.