11 Digital Marketing Myths better not to buy into

It won’t help your marketing success if you get started based on wrong assumptions. That would be a bit like when you start playing golf and expect to be able to play a scratch round within half a year.

That’s very optimistic and confident but quite frankly it’s bullsh*t (excuse our french).

So let’s help you out by clearing these myths out right away:

1 | All you need to do is digital marketing and everything will be good.

Well… Of course not!

It’s all about a good combination of so-called “contact points” (any place/way that customers experience your brand) that fit your customers and your area of business. Many of those will likely be online nowadays, but if there’s a lovely thank you card you send over after someone buys your product or service, or you send a little chocolate or a bottle of wine to an especially dear and loyal client that’s a great gesture.

This is human.

The human parts of brands don’t die out because of the internet.

2 | Creating a website is enough for your marketing. 

Let us stop you right there… no.

It is not enough.

A website is one contact point out of soooo many more that you need to succeed.

• How are people going to know about that website in the first place?
• How are they supposed to get there?

We wrote a whole other article about contact points if you want to get a little deeper into why a website alone is NOT enough. 

3 | Good digital marketing is all about tech.

In a way, yes. Let’s put it like this.

Good marketing = good tech, BUT good tech ≠ good marketing.

So what you would want to do is get a good agency on board for your marketing first, and they will know what tech is necessary to make it work. They will also have or know the right people for getting that done.

If all you think is TECHTECHTECH and you set up a pro-tech-team without a deeper knowledge of marketing, you are likely lacking in conception and creativity, which are just as important if not even more.

That’s where things tend to go wrong.

4 | Everyone can communicate and write advertising copy – we can all talk, can’t we?

We hear that a lot. And… we would like to scream “NO, damn it!”  into everyone’s face who thinks that.

We actually had clients asking us to “just do the website and they’d write the content themselves”.

That is not usually how it works.

Yes, they are welcome to give input. Actually, we hope they do! It’s their product after all!

But communicating it the right way is what will win or lose you money and we don’t want anyone thinking we did a shitty website when actually it was the content that was the issue. 

5 | I’ll buy one magic tool like a social media dashboard or something, and my team will turn into marketing wizards.

Again: we hate to break it to you, but it’s not going to happen.

A fool with a tool is still a fool.

You need to know what you are doing, whatever it is. There is more behind, let’s say a good Instagram account than putting posts into time slots in an app. What else you ask? Well… that kind of proves our point. 😉

6 | We’ll set up an Instagram channel, put some ads live and the money will come flowing

How great would that be, right?

We’re totally pro!

And yeah there are always examples where that seems to be the case, especially nowadays with influencer marketing and all that jazz. However, it is not the rule and it will more likely than not NOT WORK that way. Kind of like with the website,

you need more than one contact point.

Even for these “Instagram Brands” (think fitness and beauty brands), it is not “just” an account. They usually invest extensively in ads and work together with many influencers on YouTube, likely spending hundreds of thousands there too. Want to do that? Great! Otherwise, this is not your strategy. Besides: The sustainability of those fast-rising Insta-Brands is questionable – after all, they are built on Facebook’s ‘real estate’.

What if Facebook cuts that cord? 

7 | We do B2B, so social media is not important for us.

Nope, nope, nope.

Totally nope.

Yeah, in rather recent times and more conservative industries, pen and paper were the way to go and social media may have been a foreign concept to some. So we get why you might think that. However: times change, even in the dustiest of industries. Even if your social media doesn’t generate a lot of leads for you, it is still expected of companies to at least have a basic presence on LinkedIn, Instagram and Co.

One mistake where old-fashionedness can really show is the website too.

A lot of B2B companies don’t have a proper mobile version of their website. It is 2021 and people are likely checking you out on their phone or tablets! If you don’t have a mobile version, it is going to be a major pain in the butt for anyone that was interested enough to make it this far. Don’t drive them away!

Also:

No, social media is not used by teenagers only.

Things have changed in the last 10 years, those teenagers from back then are grown-ups now and they have taught their parents to use Facebook too! 

8 | Culture doesn’t matter for our marketing.

It is usually a kind of elitist way of thinking from western and especially Anglo-Saxon countries to believe “It’s English, everyone understands!” Well, it is not that simple.

The Native language of a person is the language of their memories and emotions.

This is exactly the place where good marketing should tap into: emotions!

But apart from the language colors, brand name and symbols can play a big role too.

What might be considered colorful in Sweden, could be bland in Italy. What might be a lucky red in many Asian countries could be more of an alarming red in western countries. We wrote a whole (German) article about colors in branding if you want to check that out HERE!

9 | Content marketing is just for the really big ones.

We hear that often. But in terms of stats, content marketing is proven to be really effective! It’s also called inbound marketing because it saves you the (often considered as awkward) reaching out part. It means people will actually reach out to you because maybe they saw a great YouTube video or read an interesting blog article.

We can tell you: Future clients calling you up feels amazing!

Because let’s be honest, who loves cold acquisition? Writing 100 e-mails, making 100 calls for one or two answers. 

Another pro: People that reach out to you already know your style, they know what you do and they like it. That saves you a whole chunk of the sales process because they are already somewhat convinced. So yes, content marketing is a time and/or money investment but it pays off if it’s done right. 

10 | SEO will do the job

No, SEO is not the magic wand that’ll make your company flourish.

Obviously, if you have a blog article and website, don’t forget to adjust that SEO score. Don’t neglect it. It is worth knowing your basics, but it is more of a cherry on the top. Amazing SEO will not make you rich and sometimes it is a little overrated. 

11 | WordPress, Shopify and Co. are bad

Not. At. All.

Actually, we love them!

There is a reason WordPress is the most used website building system in the world: It’s really good.

It’s an honorable ambition to do everything from scratch but it is

• A. likely going to fail or lack quality,
• B. going to take lots of precious time and money and
• C. going to be less flexible for your future plans.

Hundreds of thousands of developers have invested hundreds of thousands of hours into these website building systems.

You are not going to find a developer who can set you up with that quality, functionality, and flexibility within a few months. You’ll also spend all your budget and more on tech and code and likely notice that

“oops, it looks pretty shitty”

because the coder is no designer and you’ll have to spend even more on that. 

Also: What if you want to add new functionality like a blog or an e-learning platform later on?

You’ll have to get that coder back to do it because you can do nothing on your own in that code maze.

It is much better to start with a good, standard website and then only spend the money on special adaptations that you need for your company.

So yes, we like to help our clients set up a high-quality, personalized and sleek looking, functional website or online-shop that they will be able to add to or make small changes in the long run on their own. We don’t trick them into a life-long dependency.

We hope some of these marketing myths could be busted for you and we could help with this little reality check.

Which one was the most helpful for you?

If you have any questions or need help with your own marketing strategy, hit us up ? HERE and we are happy to help you out wherever we can!