Since its inception, marketing has been one of the most controversial fields, and the reasons why make a lot of sense. Some (large) companies are known for using questionable marketing tactics in order to get their desired results. Sometimes they will push things too far by taking advantage of unfortunate situations (see the COVID-19 crisis as an example). These questionable tactics cause a lot of digital marketing myths that give the industry a bad name, even though the parts of the industry that utilize these tactics are minuscule.
Even though it is a constantly evolving field, marketing is one that a lot of people are skeptical about. Practices are often changing and becoming more transparent and easier to understand, allowing a look inside. Some believe that the whole industry is a negative place that only wants to take advantage of people, leading to many common myths. Luckily, many of these myths are easily debunked as they simply are not correct. Marketing is a large field that encompasses a lot of smaller practices, so it may be a lot to get into. Here are some of the most common digital marketing myths, the reasoning behind them, and why they are not accurate.
Digital Marketing myths
#1: Content marketing should be your only worry
If you’ve worked in marketing for a while, you’re probably already familiar with content marketing. But if you aren’t familiar with it, here’s a little explanation. Content marketing is the process of creating high-quality, relevant, and relatable content in order to grow your desired userbase and ultimately your profits. It is one of the most common marketing practices, and for good reason. Content marketing is known to work so that’s why it is used so often. But even though this practice is very good and mostly effective, it shouldn’t be your only focus.
While content marketing is effective, you should focus on other digital marketing aspects in order to grow your company. If you just push out more and more content without any additional marketing behind it, it will most likely fall flat and be ignored by your potential customers. For example, if you constantly write blog posts but just publish them on your site and don’t promote them, you won’t get very far. You have the content out there, but you need to worry about effectively marketing it for the intended audience. Don’t just focus on content marketing, think about other ways you can make an impact.
#2: Cross-platform marketing isn’t essential
During the current age of social media, there are an insane number of platforms that you can take advantage of for marketing. So, this raises the question: why would you only stick to one platform? Common reasons for only using one platform may be unwillingness to learn a new platform, misinformation about a new platform, skepticism about a new platform, and more. But if you really want to conduct effective digital marketing, cross-platform marketing is essential.
It is a fact that without social media outreach, blog posts, etc., potential customers will have a hard time finding your company and what it is all about. If you write a blog and then post it on all your social media accounts rather than just on your website, it is more likely than not going to reach more people. And with the analytical tools that some social media platforms provide, you can check if this is really working for you. Give yourself the best chance for success by utilizing the many free (and paid) resources out there.
#3: You need to post on social media multiple times per day
At the beginning of your business’s social media journey, you may be tempted to post many times a day. You will quickly learn about quality over quantity and that you should carefully craft your social media messaging. Some brands thrive solely from social media and can get away with posting multiple times (sometimes 10 or more), but that is very rare. It should be your goal to create posts that attract more engagement from fans rather than simply views. Experimenting with your posting schedule can also be effective in finding when your audience interacts the most. As they say, slow and steady wins the race and that is very true when starting on social media.
#4: Retargeting is an invasive practice
For those that are newer to the marketing industry, retargeting may be a confusing concept. Retargeting is a tactic that is used to keep your brand in front of a potential customer even after they leave your website. This method uses cookies and Javascript code to put your content in front of your audience on the web in the form of advertisements. The process may seem creepy at first, but this perception can change if you follow a few tips.
First off, make sure that there is an opt-out feature for your ads. If a customer has seen it many times and does nothing, they clearly don’t want to buy. You can also make your site more user-friendly. If your site is easy to use, the need for retargeting won’t be as big and you can gain customers from your original site.
#5: SEO is dead so I shouldn’t use it
Over the last decade, SEO has gone through a lot of changes. It is completely different than it was in 2010, but that isn’t necessarily bad. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of gaining traffic to your site by cultivating organic search results. Many believe that SEO is dead due to the presence and popularity of social media, but that is far from the truth. Even with social media, manual web searches are still huge and important to marketers. Search is still popular because it is still much harder to find the answers to specific questions on social media rather than using a search engine for them. Continue utilizing SEO for the best results.
Myths debunked
While those aren’t all the myths that surround marketing, they are some very important ones. Marketing may be a complex industry with many moving parts, but it is not one that is untrustworthy. Practices continue to get more transparent as we move to the future. Things are bound to keep changing so it’s only a matter of time before more digital marketing myths pop up.