New to marketing or keen to learn more? The world of marketing constantly changes, but here at Blue Moon we see the same marketing myths pop up time and time again. In this week’s blog, we decided to set the bar straight, by busting eight of the biggest marketing myths to date!
Marketing Myth 1: “Marketing and advertising are the same thing.”
These two words get tossed around together a lot, but did you know that marketing and advertising are very different?
The goal of advertising is to promote a product or service. Often requiring you to pay for set space or slot to advertise. Marketing on the other hand involves a much broader spectrum of empowering customers to connect with a brand and has a longer term goal in mind.
Sure, a marketing strategy can involve running different adverts, but marketing looks at the bigger picture, going beyond the success of a single ad campaign to ask “How does this affect our customers in the long-term? And how can we nurture the relationships with our customers to ensure they come back, even after this one-time ad?”
Want to overcome this myth? Start by identifying your business goals. If you want to sell a product or service, then your best bet is strategic advertising.
But if your focus is on getting your brand up and running, by building a relationship with your audience through creation of engaging content (using emails, social media and the like) then you’re looking for marketing services.
Luckily the best agencies out there (just like ourselves) offer both advertising and marketing services — meaning you can keep all projects under one roof!
Marketing Myth 2: “We need to market to everyone because everyone is our customer.”
You might have an amazing business but let’s be real, it won’t appeal to everyone. Men won’t shop at a female clothing store (usually), people without kids won’t go to a children’s theme park (unless they’re still kids at heart) and someone who doesn’t drive certainly won’t buy a new car – no matter how prestigious or sexy the brand.
The most effective way to market to your target audience is by firstly knowing WHO they are and secondly knowing HOW to relate to them. You want to connect to your target audience so that they feel truly connected to you. Capturing their hearts as well as their minds. Establishing a target audience also helps save precious time and expense at your end, allowing you to invest more in the people who will actually buy into your vision.
Spend time profiling your target audience and you’ll overcome this myth with no trouble!
Marketing Myth 3: “Results from marketing campaigns need to happen immediately to be successful.”
As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait. Whilst we’d all love to exercise once and gain rock hard abs that last a lifetime, sadly God hasn’t blessed us that way. And the same can be said for the expectation wrongly placed on marketing.
While online marketing and ‘viral’ social media posts can bring in fast results, they often don’t lead to sustained long-term growth. In reality it can take months to get an accurate result from a campaign. But
that doesn’t stop us measuring the performance of the journey as we go! Noting down key insights as to what’s working (and more importantly what’s not) to inform your campaign strategy moving forward.
So learn to be patient 🙂
Marketing Myth 4: “Our content marketing can be whatever we want to write about.”
Content marketing is more than just a blog post. It’s how your blog, videography, website copy, social media content and all other touchpoints work together to seamlessly tell the same stories about your brand. With content nothing should ever be considered in isolation.
It can be tempting to jump on the bandwagon and tap into key trends everyone else is on your Newsfeed, but that won’t always work for your brand. Creating content that isn’t relevant to your brand, can be incredibly detrimental. Confusing your customers and harming your reputation in the process.
Take your time to identify the type of content you want to create and write down the content pillars that fall out of it. We aim for 3-5 different pillars.
Marketing Myth 5: “Social media strategies aren’t important. The intern can handle it all!”
The handling of social media should be far from an entry level exercise. Whilst it’s incredibly important to nurture an intern’s journey with your business, the best way to serve both them and your social channels are to work as part of a team. Whether it’s planning, designing, writing or scheduling, social media can be a high maintenance task and leaving it to a single person can be daunting – even when you’ve done it for years. Sure, everyone has to start somewhere but putting your entire social strategy into inexperienced hands can be dangerous. Especially for your brand’s reputation.
Social media is a beast that needs to be tamed properly. It should also be included within a larger content marketing strategy for ultimate success. All of which. an intern can support you with – but don’t leave everything on their plate.
Marketing Myth 6: “Having a popular social media account means I won’t need a website.”
Wrong! Marketing on social media can be a great way of building brand awareness, but in reality nearly all of your call to actions are to drive people to your website. So what would you do if it didn’t exist?
Websites are an essential part of your brand toolkit. In a world where social media algorithms change rapidly, websites provide greater digital stability. Allowing you to better control your messaging and your marketing — instead of being left in the hands of a dreaded algorithm update. They also provide powerful SEO tools that social media currently doesn’t.
Most businesses can get themselves online in a matter of minutes using “free website builders” like Wix or Squarespace. But to ensure your website is gold standard for user experience, reach out to a professional web designer who specialises in WordPress like our friends Who’s Listening as it’s super important to build the right website for your business goals. Not sure where to begin? No problem. We can help with any Copywriting and Project Management needed for the development of your site, so you can focus on running your business while we bring your identity to life online.
Marketing Myth 7: “Everything is digital, so online marketing is all I need to be successful.”
Yes digital marketing is at the forefront of many marketing campaigns, but never underestimate the power of physical copy. Traditional media can provide amazing results, and some of the most well known campaigns took an out of the box, “guerilla marketing” approach.
Though you may not believe it, looking beyond your newsfeed is important from time to time and successful marketing campaigns should include both online and offline touchpoints to holistically reach your target audience.
Marketing Myth 8: “Marketing plans take too much time and effort for them to be useful.”
Marketing plans may be a pain to write with so many versions and iterations created before it’s finally signed off. But believe us when we say, having it all written down and rationalised will pay dividends in the long term! Like any plan, marketing strategies keep you focussed, keep you accountable and keep you on track. Preventing any impulsive reactions or costly mistakes.
If you want any help with your marketing strategy then you’re in the right place! Feel free to hit us up right here!
