Marketing can be all about trends, but you should always think for yourself, too. As content is shared across platforms, the message it sends out tends to amplify, especially if it gets picked up by a large audience. This is a great thing in most cases, but one downside is that false information can spread like wildfire. The “fake news” phenomenon isn’t confined to the world of international politics, it also infects the world of marketing, too. Here some of the most common marketing myths that have somehow found their way into our collective psyche.
Email Marketing Myths You Should Ignore Others
You need to brand everything, all the time.
Myth 3: Email marketing is no longer effective Building your own in-house email list and providing a focused and well executed email marketing campaign is still very effective, especially when integrated into your content marketing activities. Email marketing is dead. Google “email marketing is dead” and you’ll see how many results show up. And though the results on the first page take you to articles claiming that email marketing is not dead, the amount of search results phrase tells us that many marketers do believe that email marketing is on the verge of extinction.
Brand awareness is important and being consistent will generally do you a lot of favours, but there is such a thing as overkill. You don’t really need to have your brand logo on everything and in some cases, overdoing it can ruin the overall impression. Even if you’re logo is super stylish, plastering it over every element of your business isn’t necessary, especially when it most likely displayed on your website, email headers and other media. It’s a fine line, but when you step over it, you go from looking like a professional business, to somebody who is trying way too hard.
There’s No Such Thing As Bad Publicity
This simply isn’t true. It is definitely possible to turn negative attention in to a potential opportunity if you have the right kind of strategy but being famous for the wrong reasons will ultimately come back to bite you. Companies that are given a lot of coverage by the media for their poor quality service or for scandals they’re involved in rarely recover unless they’re already very well established. For small and medium sized businesses, poor publicity can signal the end of the road.
More Contact With Customers Automatically Equals More Sales
Quite simply, it doesn’t. In fact, for older customers and those who prefer the traditional approach of browsing products when they need them, rather than allowing potential suppliers to contact them directly, too much contact can be something of a deterrent. Bombarding people with emails and Facebook messages is irritating, plain and simple. It looks desperate, nobody really pays attention after the second or third time they’ve seen the message and eventually, your campaign just becomes background noise. Never hassle your customers, its disrespectful and it won’t drive your sales effectively.
Campaigns Need to Be Dramatic
Before you roll out your next campaign, ask yourself if you’re being driven by the brief or your own professional vanity. Marketing is there to do a job. To get people to convert. There may be room for shock tactics, innovative technology and vivid imagery, but in many industries, people like to stick with what they’re familiar with. There’s a good reason for this. It works. Office supplies companies or drainage experts probably don’t need to employ enigmatic street sculpture or living art pieces to get more customers, they’re more likely to have success by simply demonstrating they’re good at what they do. Understatement can be every bit as powerful as drama in marketing, the key is to understand the audience before you start assembling the details.
You Must Stand Out from the Crowd
This isn’t always true. It’s not especially glamorous and you probably won’t feel like a dynamic, marketing expert for doing so, but simply looking at the existing competition and creating a similar brand or product will often be far more effective than trying to be deliberately outlandish for its own sake. Some of the most successful and longest running businesses have managed to stay successful, simply because they stick to the “rules” of their industry. Familiarity and blending in with the established norms can allow you to slowly build up a reputation and a customer base over time, rather than trying to do everything all at once.
Your Industry Reputation is More Important Than What Your Customers Think of You
Some companies lose sight of their goals so badly, they end up spending more time trying to establish a reputation amongst their competitors than they do on customer care. Industry reputation does matter, but nowhere near as much as some marketing executives would have you believe. If your business is turning a profit and your customers love you, you are doing almost everything right. Don’t be tempted to change tactics just to fit in or establish a better reputation amongst the other businesses in your field. It’s great to have allies who will share your content and speak highly of you, but unless they’re willing to pay you directly, they should always come second to your customers.
Make Sign Ups and Subscriptions Mandatory
This is one of the quickest ways to lose a whole section of your potential customer base quicker than you can say “spam.” Pushy techniques like this might be becoming more common, especially online, but many customers simply shut down when they feel as if they are being forced into something. Aim to make them want to sign up to your mailing list or to accept notifications from your site, rather than trying to convince them it really is the only way forward. Giving customers a choice shows confidence, not only in the quality of your marketing copy, but also in the standard of the products or services you offer.
Connect With People Emotionally
This can work extremely well for certain types of business, but if you’re a company that works in a particularly emotionless niche such as the building trade, agricultural machinery or medical equipment, it’s probably better to try and sell your products based on their build quality and performance, rather than trying to convince your customers you’re on the same wavelength as them. Simplicity and clarity is generally more effective in these kind of areas because the customer base are very different to a wider public market. There may be room for an element of narrative driven content but sticking to the facts is often far more effective.
Marketing myths are just excuses to not market your business
As long as I have been in marketing, I’ve heard my share of excuses for why small businesses don’t invest in marketing. These marketing myths when constantly repeated, become reality.
Marketing Myths = Excuses
Small businesses have many opportunities to attract their ideal client if they put these marketing myths aside and create a practical marketing plan that will work for their business.
Myth 1: My target market is older, therefore social media won’t work
Fact: According to a late 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 52% of online boomers and 32% of online seniors are using social networking sites, the most popular being Facebook at 57% and 35% respectively. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to connect and build relationships with those who just may be waiting to find your business through social media.
Myth 2: A mobile website isn’t necessary for small businesses
Fact: If your website doesn’t support a mobile visitor, you will lose many opportunities to be seen by your ideal client. With the adoption of smartphones and tablets continuing to increase, a mobile responsive website and in general, mobile marketing is very important to small businesses, especially for businesses with a physical location. Responsive websites enable small businesses to deploy one website that responds to all devices, whether your visitor is on a browser, smartphone or tablet. This lowers your cost because you don’t need two websites and creates a better user experience for all users.
Myth 3: Email marketing is no longer effective
Fact: Building your own in-house email list and providing a focused and well executed email marketing campaign is still very effective, especially when integrated into your content marketing activities. Learn how to create and deliver quality subject lines, effective calls to action and niche specific content right to your prospects’ inbox. Email marketing can enhance your relationship with your subscribers and drive your revenue.
Myth 4: I have a logo therefore I have a brand
Fact: Logos are one component of a company brand identity, but your brand image is far more complex. Brand is the perception the world has of you. It communicates your personality and influences your prospects’ opinion of who you are and whether they want to do business with you. A brand is everything you are, the value you deliver and the total client experience. Every image you project needs to consistently reflect the personality of your business. Make sure your brand is consistently used across all of your social media sites and marketing activities.
Myth 5: My nephew can build my website
Fact: Your website is the foundation for all of your inbound marketing activities and it needs to be created as a marketing tool and not the technology project. You certainly can create a professional WordPress website by using a premium theme, adding your logo, determining your color palette and writing quality content. But understanding best practices around content organization and user experience is critical to making sure your visitors find what they are looking for. By all means, if you can technically create your own website, do so. But invest in a marketing person to critique the site layout, content organization, on-page optimization, your call to action and landing pages.
Myth 6: Great marketing works instantly
Fact: Although marketing creates visibility and some tactics can produce instant results, marketing is about sustained contact with your target audience to ensure they know who you are when they are about to buy. Content marketing is not instantaneous. In fact: “Days, weeks, or even months won’t produce results that you will be happy with. Be prepared to put in at least 1 solid year before you start seeing results from content marketing.” It takes time to create enough quality content your target needs to begin producing results. Marketing is an investment and like all good investments, they take time to achieve the greatest gains.
Myth 7: Messages need to be changed often, otherwise your marketing gets old
Fact: Consistency and repetition is marketing’s best friend. Just when you are bored to tears with your marketing message or marketing campaign is when your messages may resonate with your target audience. Changing your message, brand or marketing campaign for the sake of change is a waste.
Myth 8: Marketing is Advertising
Email Marketing Myths You Should Ignore Someone
Fact: Marketing is about educating your target market about your products and services and why they should buy from you. The medium you use to communicate these messages to your target market could include advertising, but for most small businesses, the cost of traditional advertising outweighs the value. Online advertising is more cost effective, but whether you use advertising in your marketing mix to reach your ideal client will be specific to your business.
Myth 9: Lower prices encourage more people to buy
Fact: If that were always true, no one would buy a BMW verses a Kia. Buyers have their own idea of what is valuable to them and many believe that “you get what you pay for”. That is why it is so important to target your product or service correctly so that you can provide the maximum value at the right price.
Myth 10: Inbound and social media marketing is free
Email Marketing Myths You Should Ignore Something
Fact: Although it is true that you can create your web presence for little to no money, inbound and social media marketing do require extensive resources – people and time – to be successful. Inbound marketing requires the creation of quality, relevant content and being present on the social networking sites to build relationships. Blogging, monitoring your reputation, curating and sharing content, creating and optimizing your profiles, responding to posts and comments all take time. And although inbound marketing is time consuming, it is worth every minute you put into it.
Email Marketing Myths You Should Ignore People
Summary
Marketing is about creating visibility for your business by educating your prospects and customers about you, your products and services, and how you can help them solve a problem. Everything you do to accomplish this for your company is a marketing activity. Marketing is truly an investment in time, creativity, resources and energy. The more you can invest the greater business success you will have.
What marketing myths have you heard that should be added to this list?