There are many misconceptions about Digital Marketing

Digital marketing utilizes new media such as social media, websites, mobile apps, and multimedia. These media platforms generally reach a more targeted audience, which helps marketers spend less to reach the right consumers.

With so much information about the do’s and don’ts of digital marketing, it can be difficult to know what is true or false. We compiled a list of 19 digital marketing myths that we hear all too often.

1) I Need an Expert Internal Team

Many businesses assume that they need an expert internal team to have a successful digital marketing strategy. A digital agency, or a fractional marketing team, can help you formulate a strategy, develop your brand, and attract valuable leads. There is no need to invest huge amounts in recruiting and training an internal team of digital marketing experts when you could get the same expertise for less.

2) Digital Marketing is Only for Big Businesses

Contrary to what many small businesses owners may believe, digital marketing isn’t just for large businesses with large marketing teams and budgets. Digital Marketing helps small businesses communicate and engage with customers, sell to customers directly on a global scale, and get insights and analytical data of targeted customers buying preferences.

3) Digital Marketing is Useless for B2B

This is simply not true. Many B2B consumers have and online presence and can be affected by your B2B digital marketing. How you manage digital marketing efforts can affect how potential clients of any size perceive your credibility, your capabilities, and how good of a match you both are.

4) Digital Marketing Can’t be Linked Directly to Sales

While the main goal of digital marketing is generating leads, rather than sales, this does not mean that these leads do not convert to sales. Digital marketing data helps you understand your leads in such a way that you can easily lead them down the sales funnel. You can use techniques such as call tracking to measure enquiries or implement an active website to monitor lead sources, interaction and progress through the sales process.

5) Digital Marketing is Impersonal

Digital marketing takes the face-to-face interaction out of marketing, but it can be personalized in other ways. With an active website, you can also segment and personalize communication based on the interests and concerns of your prospects. This ensures that your communication is always relevant and valuable to your target market.

6) If My Competitors Aren’t Using Digital Marketing, I Don’t Need To

  1. The truth is, most of your competitors are probably using digital marketing. According to the Social Media Examiner, 96% of Small Businesses use social media and digital marketing in their marketing strategy. Even if your competitors are not using digital marketing, it is important to get ahead of the curve and stand out against competitors. Digital marketing gives companies a competitive advantage. If you do not utilize it properly, your company get left behind.

7) You Can Expect Results Right Away

Digital marketing requires patience, and results might not happen right away, but it is still worth it. Most of the time, digital marketing yields good results in the long run that may not happen right away. Digital marketing can be easily tracked, so even if you aren’t seeing results yet, you can predict how effective a campaign might be based on its current progress. Be patient, results will come!

8) Email Marketing is Just Spam

Like other digital marketing tools, email marketing can be very effective, when used correctly. It is a great channel with high ROI. It is important to not spam your email lists with too many useless emails. Make sure your content, and email database is well vetted before sending out emails.

9) SEO is Dead

Despite what many people may think, SEO is not dead. It has evolved. SEO plays a major role in ranking higher in search engine result pages and brings your businesses closer to targeted customers.

10) SEO is “Set It and Forget It”

We hear this far too often. Many companies allocate a certain budget for SEO, set their parameters, and let it run. Like any other channel, it requires more than just maintenance. SEO requires a cycle of testing and re-strategizing that can produce results that give reasons to increase (or decrease) resources. SEO should be maintained and updated often.

11) Posting Content Isn’t Important

It may seem like creating a website and social media channels to create an online presence is enough Digital Marketing work to maintain your business. However, in order to attract new customers and keep current customers engaged, you need to interact with them by updating new and relevant content. 70% of consumers learn about a company through a blog rather than ads, and 47% of B2B buyers read 3-5 blog posts or content pieces prior to talking with a sales person. Engaging people with updated content is vital to your digital marketing strategy. Read more here

12) Building a Website is Enough

You built a beautiful website. Wonderful. Now what? You can’t sit back and expect visitors to appear just because you have a great website. You need to figure out how to attract visitors through your website through content creation, paid social, or SEO. There is more to digital marketing than just having a static website. Digital marketing engages customers in a variety of ways; it is important to explore them all.

13) You Should Constantly Redesign Your Website

No. You should test constantly, but only redesign when you have the results to back up the decision. Your website should be redesigned every 2-3 years, so if it has been longer than that, it is definitely time for a redesign. Click here to understand if it is time to re-design your website.

14) Social Can Only Work For a Few Industries

Social Media is an efficient channel for any industry, but some channels may be more effective than others for your businesses. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn may be more effective for B2B companies with technical serves while Pinterest and Instagram may be more effective for a B2C fashion company. All social media is not created equal, so make sure your company is using the correct social channels for your business. Use this guide to find out which social media platform is best for your business

15) There Are Too Many Social Platforms to Keep Up With

Social media is a great tool, allowing businesses to directly interact with consumers and make lasting customer relationships. However, with so many different social media sites to choose from, it can be difficult to manage all of your content. Social Media Management Software, like Hootsuite and Hubspot can help you manage your accounts seamlessly. Here is a list of social media management software we love.

16) I Need to Have Followers to Be Successful

There are many goals and metrics to establish in social media and digital marketing. While followers, likes, comments, and page views are important, they are not enough to understand the full picture of the success of your digital marketing efforts. It is also important to check the bounce rate, CTR, Conversion Rate, and more. Analyzing all of these metrics together will help you better understand how your customers are interacting with your business or brand online.

17) Negative Comments on Social Are Bad for Business

  1. While a negative comment on social media can be disappointing, it isn’t bad for your business. If addressed properly and in a timely manner, negative social comments offer an opportunity to form personal relationships with clients, attract new customers, and improve your brand image. Read more here.

18) Mobile Users Are Useless for Conversion

This may be true if your mobile site is poorly designed, but is not correct on a properly designed mobile site. If your site is responsive, has a fast site speed, and has intuitive navigation, mobile users should be able to convert just as easily as they could on a desktop. In order to facilitate in mobile conversions, t is helpful to eliminate unnecessary steps, make buttons and form fields large and easy to read, and tailoring the site to make it an easy experience for mobile users.

19) Digital Marketing Has Replaced Traditional Marketing

False. This is one of the biggest misconceptions of digital marketing. Many companies replace traditional media in favor or digital marketing, but it is not always the right move. Digital marketing and traditional marketing work hand in hand. To rely on just one or the other instead of using them together, is often a mistake. Traditional marketing may have taken a back seat to digital marketing, however, there are still many people reading magazines, watching television, and listening to radio ads. Digital and Traditional Marketing are most useful when used together.

Key Takeaways

Digital marketing is an incredibly important tool for attracting and engaging the modern buyer. In a changing B2B world, having a digital strategy can help your business evolve and continue to attract leads.

Digital Marketing helps you

  • Become a leader in your market
  • Track your ROI
  • Reach a targeted audience
  • Personalize your communication to your target market
  • Narrow your target market into a specific niche
  • Reach new worldwide audiences you might not be able to reach with traditional marketing
  • Implement new sales methods

Marketing Influence creates digital marketing programs that are customized to your goals and budget. Connect with us now to learn more about how we can help you customize your digital marketing plan.