It is surprising how many companies, large and small, are still hanging on to these common online marketing myths. Subscribing to any of them can be costly in terms of resources wasted and business opportunities lost. It is time to put these marketing myths to rest:
1. A website is a website…they’re all pretty much the same, right? Wrong. All websites are not created equal and that’s where the trouble can begin. Launching a quick turn website without adequate planning, content developed to engage target audiences, site design and functionality that achieves business goals, good coding, stable hosting, and expert optimization can be a huge waste of time and resources. Website development, like most everything else in effective marketing, requires the time and other resources to do the due diligence.
2. We just need a web presence…a cheap website can get the job done. There are ads all over the place for crazy inexpensive websites that promise to “get you found”. The reality is: they can’t get you found. The reason they are so inexpensive is because they are not well designed, they are “off the shelf”, not custom and not based on your business strategy, they are thin on content, and coding is poor. All of that adds up to the inability to effectively optimize the site for search. If your site is not optimized for search, you won’t “get found”.
3. Social is easy...just launch a Facebook page and wait for the “Likes”. Social is strategically important, there is a high level of engagement, particularly for retail CPG, and the use of mobile devices, where most social activity is occurring, is in high growth mode. However, it is important to understand that social is not passive marketing. It is all about strategy and responsiveness. Here are just a few of the considerations: which social media platforms will work best for your business, who are your target audiences, how will you reach them, who will be responsible for daily interaction with target audiences, who will develop new content on a frequent scheduled basis, what are your competitors doing, how will you measure effectiveness of your social campaign, what ROI are you targeting for this effort. Banking a large number of “Likes” is not like banking a sizable increase in sales.
4. Website traffic is the key to making money...just maximize site visits. Traffic is traffic. It’s the conversion of traffic to action that generates sales leads and purchases. Website traffic raw numbers is not a metric for the effectiveness of the website to increase business. The objective is to provide a website experience that sends visitors into action/purchase mode. If, for example, online shopping/purchasing is a stated objective of the website, is the site designed for easy shopping/purchasing. Why maximize traffic if there is no where for that traffic to go.
5. We’ve invested in our website and online marketing…why haven’t sales increased? This is a complex question, but the first place to look for an answer is in the business operations. Day-to-day operations, like how the phone is answered, how pleasant, helpful, and informed are staff members, does the business deliver on its product quality and value, is service provided as promised in marketing messages. All of the well intentioned marketing efforts, both online and offline, are wasted if operations don’t deliver on the promises.
With a commitment to due diligence and ongoing effort, effective, successful online marketing can be achieved, but the myths need to be left behind.
