As important as online marketing is to companies around the world, it is regularly m isunderstood. Businesses that open themselves up the idea of incorporating it into their marketing strategies often get it wrong. They think they know what they’re doing without conducting the proper research. Then, when they fail to produce results, they wonder what the hype was all about in the first place.
Online marketing comes with a lot of myths. On the surface, it looks incredibly simple to implement. Unfortunately, it’s easy to pick up, but it’s incredibly difficult to master. Here are a few myths that we’re ready to dispel.
#1 Social Media Is ‘Easy’
Anyone can create a Facebook and Twitter account and let loose. For that reason alone, social media seems like it would be an easy thing to master. It isn’t. Don’t be under any illusions that running a business social media account is easy. You’ve got to be constantly active, know what to post and conduct yourself in the right manner. Without the proper techniques, you’ll fail to gain success via this method.
In the very worst circumstances, you might find that it actually acts a detriment to your business.
#2 Creating A Website Is The Hard Part
There are some companies out there that think creating a website is the hardest thing about having one. They couldn’t be any further from the truth! Honestly, creating a website is actually the easiest part in many cases. Once you’ve done this, more complicated processes like SEO have to be considered. This is where research and extensive knowledge is needed in order to gain an extensive reach. There’s no point having a great-looking website if no-one can find it! Also, keeping it regularly updated and engaging viewers is just as important.
#3 It Wouldn’t Work For My Company
I’ve encountered companies that have neglected online marketing as they don’t think it’ll work for them. For whatever reason, they don’t believe that the power of social media and an internet presence is important. It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re running; online marketing can play an important part! Technology has advanced to the point that practically every business uses it in some form. The same goes for the public, who are constantly browsing the internet for information. In this day and age, every business can benefit from online marketing.
#4 It Works For Them, It’ll Work For Us
A lot of business owners have been stuck in their ways for a long time. They’ve gotten used to doing things the traditional way, and online marketing is somewhat of a foreign concept. In order to get past this hurdle, they look at what the competition is doing. Then, they try and mirror their successes, with varying results. While you might find success with this route, there are no guarantees. You need to come up with your own online marketing plan which is tailored to your overall marketing strategy. Copying others isn’t going to produce the best results in most cases.
#5 It’s Totally Free!
One of the most appealing factors about online marketing is that it’s totally free. At least, that’s how it appears on the surface. For normal users, it’s completely true. There are resources you can utilize to give you free email accounts, free websites, and free social media accounts. However, when you’re operating as a business, you’ve got to think differently.
Spending money on a professional website domain and set of email accounts is important. You come across this sort of thing everywhere! When buying a loan, locating a website for businesslendermatch.com is better than a website for businesslender.webs.com, right? Just the name alone is enough to convey a professional appearance, and it’ll only cost a small amount of money to implement.
#6 It Isn’t A Big Time-Sink
Having had experience with this myth myself, I can tell you that it definitely isn’t the case. If you’re asking one of your employees to manage your online marketing strategy alongside a host of other tasks, it won’t go as well as you’d hoped. Online marketing incorporates many different things, and they all take a lot of time and effort to implement well.
In truth, it’s a job all on its own, even in a small business. Having someone that can monitor websites and social media accounts along with SEO is important. If you don’t give them enough time to carry out this task effectively, you won’t get the desired results.
Those are just some of the myths about online marketing, and there are plenty more floating around out there! Hopefully, as more and more business owners come to understand the inner workings of it, these myths will disappear in time.
