Mar 6, 2018

5 Marketing Myths You Shouldn’t Believe

Marketing gets a bad rap

But it really shouldn’t!

Marketers are always the bad guy in the room. It’s our fault if sales are soft and we’re the first to get cut when budgets get a little tight. People hear “marketing” and the image of a sleazy guy trying to convince them that they need something they don’t want conjures in their minds. But they’ve got it all wrong!

I assure you, marketing is not evil. If your business is struggling, chances are your marketing needs attention. If the idea of marketing feels bad, expensive or out of your league, I’m going to challenge that you’re probably not doing it right. Marketing should get you excited about sharing the mission that you’re on! The best marketers out there have passion for what they are promoting and it shows.

Are these marketing myths keeping you from creating raving fans?

5 Myths about Marketing

#1: Marketing is Only for Large Corporations
#2: Marketing is Expensive
#3: Marketing is Deceitful
#4: Marketing is Time-Consuming
#5: Marketing is a Guessing Game

#1: Marketing is Only for Large Corporations

Marketing is the lifeblood of any business. After you write your business plan, the next thing you should do is create a marketing strategy. Marketing is all about getting your business in front of the right people at the right time. Whether your business is big or small, marketing is necessary for success.

The idea of “if you build it, they will come,” is not the right way to approach business. Even if you have the greatest idea on the planet, if no one knows about it, no one will buy it. For those in a brick-and-mortar store, depending solely on foot traffic to keep you afloat simply won’t cut it. If you’re online, just loading your website full of keywords and praying to the SEO gods for first page placement won’t magically drive traffic to your site.

Instead, think about the ideal customer persona (ICP) that would benefit from your products or services. Once you know who you’re selling to, you can begin to craft a marketing strategy that speaks to them, engages them, and ultimately, helps them to solve a problem they may or may not even know they have. You will see an increase in traffic, and ultimately, an increase in sales. This matters whether you’re a Fortune 500 or a one-woman show.

#2: Marketing is Expensive

Marketing does not have to cost a lot of money. Yes, you will need to spend some money (Facebook alone is practically demanding that you must) but spending good money on bad marketing is no more effective than spending no money at all. The truth is, you can create good marketing on a shoestring budget. In fact, several brands we love did exactly that and are now rockin’ their revenue a decade later.

What is more important is that you are properly positioning yourself so that your ideal customers can find you! Is your ICP on Facebook, or are they on LinkedIn? What do they spend their time doing, and how does your product or service fit into their life? When you start to engage your audience authentically, you’ll create raving fans that will help you spread your message and tell more people about you. That is worth far more value than a paid ad any day of the week.

When you connect your business with like-minded people to initiate positive changes in your industry, good marketing will spread your message farther and be more effective.

#3: Marketing is Deceitful

Oh, we love to hear this one. Yes, there are dishonest marketers out there, but that doesn’t make all marketing bad. Marketing as a practice is not unethical. When you connect your business with like-minded people to initiate positive changes in your industry, good marketing will spread your message farther and be more effective.

The best part about being an ethical brand is that your honesty and integrity actually makes creating valuable marketing content a little bit easier. You’ll use your genuine passion to spread your message and create raving fans that will do the same.

Ethical Marketing Rule 101:
Be authentic. Be honest. Be an ethical Marketer. If you’re authentic and honest about your business, you’ll attract the right customer who’ll become your brand ambassador and help you make positive changes in your industry.

#4: Marketing is Time-Consuming

Don’t get me wrong, you do need to dedicate a portion of your time to be effective with your marketing. But we often see a lot of time wasted on ad-hoc marketing efforts. That time could be better spent building a focused marketing strategy that is on-brand and targeted to the right audience. This way, you won’t spend all of your time in the trial and error process and you’ll be able to focus on what you do best, which is caring for your customers.

Staying organized and focused with your marketing will help you mange your time better. Making an editorial calendar will help you create consistent and relevant content, freeing up time to engage with your customers and build the relationships that are necessary to cultivating raving fans.

#5: Marketing is a Guessing Game

My absolute favorite part of marketing is that it is almost equal parts creative and science. If you’re using the old “let’s try this and see if it works” approach to your marketing, you’re wasting precious time and money. And chances are, if something does stick, you probably have no idea why. That’s not a good way to gamble with your marketing budget, especially if it’s small.

From reading and understanding data to testing hypotheses, good marketing is data-driven, scientific and intentional. To be effective with your marketing, learn how to read and understand what your analytics are telling you and how to turn that data into actionable steps. If you’re ever unsure of whether or not something works, you can always make small adjustments to hone in on the aspect of your marketing that is drawing attention so you can replicate it. After all, who doesn’t love a good A/B test?