8 Digital Marketing Myths to Stop Believing This Year

“Digital marketing isn’t affordable.” “Search engine optimization (SEO) doesn’t work!” “You have to post on every social media platform.” What do all these statements have in common? Well, they’re digital marketing myths. Digital marketing myths aren’t uncommon, but they are detrimental to understanding the effectiveness of digital marketing and how these strategies work.

1. Digital Marketing Is Only For Big Businesses.
2. Digital Marketing Doesn’t Need To Be A Priority.
3. Having A Website Is Enough To Market My Business.
4. If I Just Put Content Out There, It’ll Be Enough.
5. If My Competition Isn’t Doing Digital Marketing, I Don’t Have To Do It Either.
6. There’s Too Broad Of An Audience Online To Market Effectively.
7. Email Marketing Isn’t Effective Anymore.
8. Personalization Is Creepy.

On this page, we’ll look at eight digital marketing myths and bust them open! Keep reading to find out why these Internet marketing myths aren’t true!

1. Digital marketing is only for big businesses.

One of the most common digital marketing myths is that digital marketing is only for big companies. As a result, many small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs) avoid digital marketing because they think it’s something only big companies can do. Well, that’s false.

All businesses can use digital marketing.

Whether you have one employee or one thousand, the size of your operation doesn’t impact whether you can use digital marketing. Likewise, your industry, products, or services don’t affect your ability to do online marketing either. You don’t need a massive, corporate-sized budget to do digital marketing.

You can have a substantial, SMB-sized budget and still see results with digital marketing. The recommendation is to spend 7-8% of your business’s revenue on your business’s marketing efforts.

2. Digital marketing doesn’t need to be a priority.

Next on our list of digital marketing myths is the belief that digital marketing doesn’t need to be a priority. Many companies don’t prioritize digital marketing because they think it’s something that’s “nice to have” or “a bonus.” Realistically, though, digital marketing is a critical component to helping your business grow. In the 21^st century, most people turn to the Internet to help them find the products or services they need.

Over 70% of people research a company on the web before deciding to visit or buy their products.   So, if you’re not prioritizing digital marketing, you’re missing a prime opportunity to reach prospects where they’re researching companies. If you’ve fallen victim to this digital marketing myth, it’s not too late to change!

You can start developing your digital marketing strategy now. Check out this guide to digital marketing to help you get started!

3. Having a website is enough to market my business.

Many businesses believe the digital marketing myth that having a website is enough to market your business. After all, if people can find your website, they can get all the information they need about your business there. The only problem is finding your website.

Without a digital marketing plan in place, people won’t find your website online. Simply creating a website isn’t enough to get your business discovered. You need strategies like SEO, content creation, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to help people discover your website.

If you don’t promote your website, people will struggle to find it online.   That’s why having a website isn’t enough. Having a website is a great start, but you need a digital marketing strategy if you want people to discover your website.

4. If I just put content out there, it’ll be enough.

Next on our list of Internet marketing myths is the belief that if you just put content out there, it’ll be enough. Many companies know the power of content creation, so they focus on getting as much content as possible out to prospects. The problem with this belief is that it’s not about the quantity of content but its quality.

If you put out 100 low-grade, low-quality content pieces, you wouldn’t see as great of results as you would with 50 high-quality, well-researched content pieces. You’re better off creating fewer informative articles than pumping out dozens of subpar content pieces. Content is only effective for your business if your audience finds it helpful and informative.

Generally, low-quality content isn’t beneficial to your audience and leaves them bouncing from your site. Only high-quality content will amount to positive results for your business.

5. If my competition isn’t doing digital marketing, I don’t have to do it either.

Many companies are under the false impression that if your competition isn’t doing digital marketing, you don’t need to either. This digital marketing myth could not be further from the truth. In fact, if your competition isn’t doing online marketing, it’s all the more reason to start!

Digital marketing will give you a leg up on your competition. Not only will you have increased brand exposure, but you’ll also reach your target audience more effectively than your competition. Since you can reach your target audience more effectively and more often, you’ll see better results from your marketing efforts than your competition.

6. There’s too broad of an audience online to market effectively.

One of the most common digital marketing myths companies believe is that the audience online is too broad to reach people interested in your business. After all, the Internet has millions of people, whereas your local community may only be a few thousand. Just because the Internet has a larger audience doesn’t mean you can’t reach people interested in your business.

In fact, you can reach more people interested in your company through digital marketing. Let’s look at it like this: When you use traditional marketing, you advertise to everyone — whether they’re interested in your business. Unfortunately, that means that your billboards, flyers, or radio ad spots are reaching more people who aren’t interested in your business than those who are.

With digital marketing, you can precisely target people interested in your products or services. As a result, you don’t waste advertising dollars on people who aren’t interested in what you offer. Even better, you not only save more money, but you also reach more qualified prospects that you can turn into customers for your business.

7. Email marketing isn’t effective anymore.

One of the most common digital marketing myths is that email marketing isn’t effective. As new digital marketing strategies arise, many companies believe that email marketing fell to the wayside. This belief couldn’t be further from the truth.

To this day, email marketing is still one of the most effective strategies for helping businesses earn more revenue. In fact, email marketing has a return on investment (ROI) of $44 for every $1 spent. Many prospects heavily engage with emails from companies they love.

In fact, 58% of adults check email first thing in the morning, and 61% of people like receiving weekly promotional emails.   Email marketing is far from a dead strategy. If anything, it’s the strategy you need to help you nudge prospects towards conversion.

8. Personalization is creepy.

The last item on our list of digital marketing myths is the belief that personalization is creepy. When you learn about digital marketing, many marketers will talk about using personalization to reach your audience effectively. Many people falsely think personalization is creepy because it involves getting to know your audience intimately to deliver content relevant to them.

Realistically, though, prospects love personalization. Here are a few stats that show the impact of personalization:

• 81% of consumers want brands to know them and know when to market to them
• 79% of consumers only take advantage of brand promotions if they are tailored to previous interactions with the brand
• 77% of people choose, recommend, or pay more for brands that provide personalized experiences
• 74% of customers get frustrated when they receive marketing content irrelevant to their interests

As you can see, personalization isn’t creepy –– people expect companies to deliver a personalized experience with their marketing.

Digital marketing myths: Busted. Time to invest in digital marketing

We’ve busted eight common digital marketing myths that show that digital marketing is very effective for businesses willing to put in the time and effort. With a digital marketing plan in place, you can start growing your business online.

WebFX can help you get started. We have a team of over 500 marketing experts that can help you craft a digital marketing campaign that drives results. In the past five years, we’ve driven over $6 billion in revenue and over 24 million leads for our clients.

Ready to grow your business online? Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our digital marketing services!