10 Digital Marketing Myths Surrounding Small Businesses | Pepper Content

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Businesses are constantly striving to increase their digital marketing spending. In 2020, businesses around the globe spent over $378Bn in digital advertising. This marketing strategy is low-cost and offers a wider reach, which is why most businesses prefer it. Most companies have a blog that improves their lead generation. According to HubSpot, at least 53% of marketers consider their business blog their top-most priority. In the post-pandemic world, digital marketing spending will increase as consumers are waiting on digital platforms for businesses to approach them. It has become all the more important for businesses to consider investing in digital marketing. 

However, the field of digital marketing still has a long way to go. The industry is riddled with a host of digital marketing myths that make it difficult for businesses to adopt digital marketing in its entirety. In this blog, we bust 10 such myths. 

Busting Digital Marketing Myths for Small Businesses

Despite the growing need for digital marketing, there is a lag in investment, and this can be attributed to the fact that digital marketing is surrounded by a lot of myths. These myths impact the belief systems of marketers, as a result of which most companies don’t want to risk investing in them. Let’s debunk a few digital marketing myths and understand how digital marketing can help your small business stand out.  

Using one social media platform is enough

Many businesses believe that they can market their products/services to their target audience using a single social media app. However, this will limit their reach and take away the chance of maximizing visibility. There is a good chance that your target audience limits the time spent on a particular social media channel. And if the app you choose to promote your content on, you will miss out on a potential customer. 

If you want to prevent your content from getting lost in the social media abyss, you need to promote it on the social media platform(s) your audience chooses to spend time on it may be a single platform or many. When you design your social media strategy, study your consumers well. Identify the channels they frequent the most, know what posts they like to view, and know-how long they stay on the app. It will enable you to create a social media strategy that will help you win more customers.

Investing in digital marketing is enough

The new normal has called businesses to invest in digital marketing. However, it is not enough to invest in digital marketing alone. The reach is limited to your online audience. If you want to reach people who still love shopping in stores or consume the newspaper, you should work on an integrated marketing mix. Digital marketing should be a part of the mix and not the entire mixture.

Content marketing doesn’t help businesses

We live in an era where content marketing dominates the digital marketing mix as well as search engine optimization. You cannot work on most digital marketing strategies if you don’t have the content to fulfill your needs.

As a result, working on a good content marketing strategy is important for businesses to thrive in the online era. If you want to reach more people, you need to create content constantly. This could be a small reel, an infographic, a video, or a blog, depending on your organization’s needs.

SEO is as good as dead

We have been hearing this for a while now. SEO has been called dead for some time now. However, this is far from true. SEO has evolved in the past few years and has gone from just a link-building or keyword strategy to a completely content-based white hat technique.

You can no longer optimize content using keywords alone or link to sites; there is more to SEO now than has ever been in the past. You need to work on content, social media, and technical SEO to optimize your business and increase your reach.

Email marketing is long gone

You have been hearing this, too, haven’t you? Yet, some companies thrive on email marketing and are employing excellent email marketing strategies. However, email marketing, like most other strategies, has changed.

You cannot send emails to random people; you need to grow your list of subscribers, make them interested in what you have to say, and send regular emails (without spamming them). In addition, people should opt-in to receive your emails. The content for email marketing has evolved too. Now people want to see less text and more images.

Websites are an outdated system

Many businesses operate with their social media accounts alone. They don’t have a website at all. These companies either don’t feel the need for a website or don’t have enough resources to build and maintain one. However, that is not how you implement a successful digital marketing strategy. You need to have a website that helps customers know more about you. Digital marketing for small businesses, especially, includes social media, a website, and other assets to help customers get a 360-degree view of your business.

Digital marketing is expensive and needs too many resources

Many businesses don’t invest in digital marketing because they believe it is not their cup of tea. You would have heard managers stating it is an expensive model, and that they cannot afford it. Moreover, they think that it needs a lot of people. In today’s era, however, digital marketing can be outsourced and done cost-effectively. It is not essential to do all the digital activities. However, investing in the right strategies will guarantee you the desired reach.

Going mobile-first is not necessary

This is one of the biggest myths about digital marketing. If you want to expand your reach, it is essential to invest in a mobile-first strategy. Most of your consumers are sitting with their fingers on the mobile phone. So if your marketing methods and content are not optimized for the smartphone, you are limiting your reach.

It is not necessary to personalize your messages

Many brands still don’t personalize their content, thinking it is not too essential. They believe a direct and regular message is all you need to connect with their audience. However, your audience is segmented and may look for different things in the same brand. For example, Maggi can be a two-minute snack option for some while others look at it as a regular meal. Different perceptions concerning the same product lead to personalized messages, which are an extremely part of your digital marketing campaign.

It is best to avoid negative reviews

If everything said about your brand is only positive, it can lead to doubts. Furthermore, negative reviews are as critical as positive reviews. Constructive feedback, especially if it comes from your audience, helps you know your users’ needs better and revise your content accordingly. It is essential to reply to this negative feedback and connect with your audience to let them know you are willing to improve and evolve.  

Conclusion

Digital marketing paves the way for businesses to reach their target audience and enhance profits. However, digital marketing myths such as digital marketing being too expensive and technical can cause a delay in embracing the strategy and reigning the markets. It is essential to strategize your digital marketing initiatives in order to tap into the specific requirements of your audience, build connections with them, and generate leads. 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a technique used to optimize your website, social media, and other content to meet the search engine requirements. It helps rank your business on the search engine results using apt keywords and other methods. On the other hand, search engine marketing (SEM) maximizes your visibility and reach by incorporating both organic and paid methods. The goal is to invest equally or simultaneously into both strategies to get more traffic.

If you are starting out or want to get more visibility quickly, you should use Google Ads. These paid ads help with initial traction and visibility. However, you need to invest in SEO to further your goals and get more people to keep visiting you. It also helps with enriching experiences, improving your website’s ranking, and driving more retention for your business.

That a website is inessential; promoting on one social media channel is enough, and SEO and email marketing are dead are some of the common myths about digital marketing.

With SEO, you get to increase the visibility of your business. On the other hand, social media optimization (SMO) works towards improving the business’s marketability and gaining more customers on social media channels. Both are crucial in your marketing mix and should have a defined place in it. However, it is essential to know your target market before using any of these strategies.