Digital marketing myths are like balloons. They’re meant to be busted. I have seven myths about marketing that I’m
going to debunk in this video. Don’t worry, I ran out of balloons to pop. Let’s jump right in. Myth #1. “X” marketing is dead. I’m sure you’ve seen clickbait headlines
that say something along the lines of: Extra, extra! Read all about it! SEO is dead
Email marketing is dead Stop writing those obituaries. Nothing has died. It’s just different. And when I say nothing has died, I’m talking
about digital marketing, not traditional marketing strategies like TV or radio advertising. Think of how much the Internet has changed
in a matter of 20 years. In the early 2000s, Pew Research Center reported
just over 50% of adults in the U.S.
Used the Internet. In 2021, that number has grown to 93%. I even remember a time — not too long ago
— when Wi-Fi was a household luxury, not a necessity. More people using the Internet means more
businesses are adding digital marketing to their growth strategies. As a result, there is a lot of competition
to reach your target audience with marketing. And the platforms we use to market our businesses
have gotten smarter and have continually adapted to their digital environments. For instance, Google has gotten exponentially
better at detecting spammy websites and marketing tactics since the early 2000s. That means your SEO requires more effort and
more planning. In fact, all of your digital marketing campaigns
require effort and planning to be successful. It’s certainly possible that a random social
media post can go viral, but it’s not very likely. Anyone who says “X” marketing is dead
probably just isn’t doing it right.
Myth #2. You need technical skills to do digital marketing
Okay, being able to read, write, and edit code does help you with your digital marketing
efforts. But you can still do a lot without that knowledge. I would bet that the majority of people who
use social media don’t know how to code. And so many website builders and tools exist
to help you add content to your website quickly and easily. Want to create videos? Use the phone that’s in your pocket 24/7
and upload to YouTube. Email marketing? Choose from the large number of email management
tools to design and send newsletters.
All you really need to start marketing your
business online are some writing skills and creativity. You can build from there. Myth #3. SEO is a one-time effort
You can’t do SEO once and call it a day. We’ve made several videos where we tell
you that SEO is an ongoing marketing strategy. And we aren’t kidding. Search engines constantly change. Your competitors are always updating their
websites. A page that’s at the top of the search results
can easily be bumped down by another page that was well-optimized. If you aren’t paying attention, you’ll
lose all of that momentum you built up from your initial SEO and see your results go down
the drain. Myth #4. “X” word count guarantees good rankings
Spending hours and hours on an in-depth, informational page can pay off in terms of SEO success.
But creating a lengthy page of content is
not necessarily a guarantee it will be at the top of the search results. There are certainly studies that show a correlation
between higher word counts and higher rankings, “higher” meaning about 1500 words. But two things:
Many factors affect where your website will rank in search results. Plenty of first-page results are shorter than
1500 words. If you add more to your content just to hit
that target word count, and none of what you add is helpful, people are going to notice. And if people don’t like your content, that’s
going to tell search engines that it shouldn’t be at the top of the results.
On the other hand, if your concise page is
helpful and answers people’s questions, it will probably perform well. Probably. There’s really no guarantee you’ll have
a number one page. Myth #5. Digital marketing is expensive
Sure, digital marketing requires an investment to drive results. But you can do a lot within your budget. With digital marketing, advertising specifically,
most platforms allow you to set a budget and place bids within that budget. If you aren’t happy with the results you’re
seeing, you can easily make adjustments to how much you’re spending, or use AI to maximize
your budget for a certain goal.
And many other aspects of digital marketing
are either free or come at a low cost. Partnering with an agency can certainly help
take some work off of your plate, freeing up your busy schedule and saving you the cost
of hiring someone full-time. I might be biased, but it’s an investment
worth investigating. Most agencies offer flexible plans that work
with your budget, and you can easily add more digital marketing services to your plan if
you realize you need them in the future. Myth #6. It’s impossible to track digital marketing
ROI Yeah, we made a video on how to calculate
ROI for your campaigns, so we can’t even begin to tell you how wrong this myth is. Here at WebFX, we’ve also developed our
MarketingCloudFX platform to make tracking ROI easy for our clients. Digital marketing is all about data. Once you decide on a goal, like increasing
purchases or traffic to your website, you can measure that against how much you’re
spending on your campaigns.
If you’re working with an agency, you’ll
factor in how much you’re paying their team to get results. If you’re handling your marketing on your
own, you’ll have to factor in the cost of your time, tools, and anything else you’ve
invested for your strategy. You have so much data at your fingertips that
calculating ROI is easier than ever before. Myth #7. High traffic equals a successful campaign
Yay! Your marketing efforts are bringing a lot
of people to your website. Cool. But are those people becoming leads and customers,
or are they leaving your website without a trace? If your goal is just to have people on your
website, then I guess you can say high traffic equals success. But I’d say this isn’t the case for most
businesses. You want people to become customers, don’t
you? Traffic does not equal customers.
Getting people to your website is only half
the battle. The other half is getting them to sign up
for your emails, getting them to download a guide, or getting them to make a purchase
on your website. Which scenario would you prefer? 1000 people visit your website and five make
a purchase 500 people visit your website and 10 make
a purchase Even if those 10 people are just giving you
their emails, you can use that information to move them through the buying process with
your content.
Traffic is great, but conversions generate
revenue for your business. The next time someone repeats one of these
seven digital marketing myths, show them this video, or send them to the text transcript
on our blog. We’ve got a bone to pick with them. We hope we’ve helped identify the different
misconceptions about marketing. If you enjoyed this video, take a moment to
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digital marketing content. Thanks for watching!.
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