When it comes to Internet Marketing, we cannot overstate all the amazing opportunities it has brought to entrepreneurs. Especially those that are just starting. The internet and the popularity of social media channels have created faster and more targeted ways to build brand awareness, generate leads, and grow your bottom-line.
However, all experienced marketers know that, despite its many advantages, there are certain marketing myths that need to be refuted. These are my top 6 expectations vs. reality examples:
Everyone is a marketer
If you need surgery, do you tell the surgeon that you “can just do it yourself?” Of course not. Same with internet marketing. It is one of those things that everyone believes they can do until they’ve thrown a lot of money down the drain.
Internet marketing experts know the very specific processes that need to be performed at a very high level to see positive ROI. You can write a copy – but can you write a copy that sells? Or target the right people? Or know when to change your strategy? There’s more to it than what the eye can see.
More traffic means more sales
Traffic is king to generate leads and grow your revenue. Intuitively, it makes sense: the more visitors your site gets, the more conversions you’ll have. But is this really true?
Not really. First of all, you don’t want traffic. You want targeted traffic. What’s the difference? Well, if you sell PlayStations, you want people interested in gaming, not in movies.
And don’t forget about your conversion rate. You can bring millions of viewers to your website, but if it’s ugly and slow, you won’t see money back.
Further Reading: How to get free website traffic
Paid ads will be very profitable right away
Paid ads give you a better chance to turn a profit because it is a cheaper and more targeted way to promote your business. But everyone who guarantees positive ROI is lying.
You need to make sure you are creating ads that will convert AND showing them to the right audience. You should always be testing different ad versions and retargeting those that have interacted with them.
Have a universal message for all platforms
There are many different social media platforms, and all of them have different demographics. When you have a presence in more than one, you have to respect the platforms.
What does that mean?
Make sure you know what the audience in each platform wants. Snapchat’s 14 to 23-year-old users want a more juvenile and visual message than Twitter’s older and written-based audience. And they are all different from Facebook’s, or Instagram’s, or Pinterest’s, etc.
Further reading: How to decide which Social Media Platform to use for your Business
It is easy to come up with innovative ideas for your business.
Sometimes it can be difficult to find out the great ideas for your digital marketing campaign. One of the big facts is that you can’t get results overnight.
It’s important for your business to think outside the box. Innovative ideas with your marketing campaigns can attract new customers for your business.
It can be difficult to give time to get some innovative strategies while you are trying to establish or run your business. That’s why there are people who rely on a professional digital marketing company to study the market.
The reality is, you need to try and test and experiment, it is not necessary that you will always get an innovative idea and that idea will work.
Digital Marketing is all about experimenting
Digital marketing is “set it and forget it.”
Facebook/Instagram and PPC ads require constant monitoring of its campaigns. Audiences can get exhausted and make your CPM rise. Frequency, the number of times someone has seen your ad, can also increase. Maybe the ad that was working great last week then stopped performing.
Make sure you keep an eye on all your campaigns. You should periodically change your ad’s creative design and written copy. You can also try new ad ideas or even scale up the ones that are working.
These are my six main expectations vs. reality disconnects in digital marketing. Can you think of others?