5 Digital Marketing Myths Debunked
There are many opinions about what works and what doesn’t work for digital marketing. This makes it difficult for business decision makers to cut through the noise and find what works for them. I’ve decided to debunk five digital marketing myths to help you make better decisions for your business to improve ROI and help you achieve your objectives more effectively.
Myth #1: The ROI from Digital Comes Quickly
It is unfortunate but too many companies believe that when they spend a certain amount on digital marketing activities, they’ll see huge sales and profits immediately. The reality is that digital marketing is simply a different channel for regular customers to access the goods and services you have available. External factors are still going to impact this channel as they do every other; but not incorporating an effective digital marketing strategy can lead to your business being left in the dirt by competitors who are modernizing their business practices.
While digital provides granular attribution modeling as well as a more detailed breakdown of ROI when compared to other channels, it still requires the support of a quality sales process and efficient operations management.
For example, communication with clients, delivery speeds, costs of products and services, company overheads, and other factors that impact any business will remain, and need to be addressed as with any traditional business. Digital marketing is a powerful extension of the core business that improves it, and requires a unique skill set to implement effectively, but it is no magic bullet.
Myth #2: Cross-platform is not necessary
While it’s possible to maintain a business by focusing on one part of your digital marketing activities, trying out various channels is more likely to boost overall efforts and results.
Providing more touchpoints for customers and potential customers to reach your business is of utmost importance, especially in the information age which has created so much noise in the vastness of the internet.
Delivering a broad but integrated digital marketing campaign that encompasses website improvements, social media campaigns, search and display, email and more is an effective way of promoting your brand, products and services, and increasing the likelihood of getting more engagement and sales for your business. A measured approach is necessary; and not all channels will work for all businesses, but starting broad with ideas, and narrowing things down later is a good way of ensuring you don’t miss an opportunity that works well.
Myth #3: Automating Digital Campaigns is Good Enough
In recent years there’s been a big push towards automation, especially from large companies like Google who have been pushing their AdWords Express offering. To offer an anecdote, I’ve seen many occasions where a client has set up their own Express campaign and ended up with broad, irrelevant, low quality search terms that waste money and don’t convert.
Human intervention is still necessary in digital marketing. If it wasn’t, every digital marketing agency would be out of business. Digital marketing may have powerful tools, and a skilled agency can provide great results, but this comes with time, hard work and experience.
There is another layer of intervention to consider: agencies require a collaborative effort from clients to make the most out of campaigns. While an agency may know their field of digital marketing well, the client is usually the expert in their field of business and knows their company and customers best. Creating a collaborative synergy between the two parties to enhance the work being done and improve campaign performance is of utmost importance.
Myth #4: A One-Size-Fits-All Approach in Digital Works
Some decision makers tend to simplify things, assuming that what’s working for a SEO campaign will work as effectively on social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing and all other digital activities. The truth is that these all require a measured and unique approach that considers the industry, the products and services on offer, as well as the customer and how they engage with the business on various platforms.
The best approach is to use data to make decisions. An effective marketing campaign is based on data. Using data along with creativity to strategically design unique campaigns for each channel is the first step. Next, we recommend running these campaigns on each channel and tracking the results accurately. Finally, the data from the campaigns is then analysed and used to make adjustments to improve each channel’s campaigns over time. Repeating this process and using data to prune the overall digital marketing strategy will lead to better results over time.
Myth #5: SEO Tools Fix Everything
Tools are great for efficiency and automation. But the reality is that they cannot replace human experience, talent, intuition, or foresight. A spanner is a tool but requires a mechanic to use it in the right way to fix something on a car. To extend the metaphor, the spanner in a lawyer’s hand isn’t as effective at fixing that same car as it is in the mechanic’s hand.
The same goes for various SEO tools out there. Once again, none of these are a magic bullet that will fix and improve everything instantly. Tools are used by digital marketing professionals to collect and review data, make decisions and improve marketing campaigns over time. The right tools used by qualified and experienced people will lead to the best results. We use a range of tools to diagnose issues on websites, analyse data from client campaigns and report to clients on performance.
If you’re looking for an agency that can cut through noise and misinformation about digital marketing, and focus on effective marketing strategies based on data, then get in touch with Let’s Go Media by filling in the form below. We work with clients, with a focus on performance to improve ROI and meet your company’s business objectives in the most efficient way possible.