Beware These Digital Marketing Urban Legends

I remember a few years ago a colleague forwarded an email to me about an allegedly true incident which had happened the previous week. It went something along these lines…

This actually happened to my friend’s niece last week. It was after dark and she stopped to get petrol at BP. She filled her car and walked in to pay. The cashier told her “don’t pay for your petrol yet . . . walk around the shop a while and act as if you’re picking up some other things to buy. A man just got into the back of your car. I’ve called the police and they’re on their way.”

When the police arrived, they found the man in the back seat of the girl’s car and asked him what he was doing. He told them he was joining a gang, and the initiation is to kidnap and murder a young woman.

Scary stuff. But a quick Google search would lead you to a website like snopes.com where you would see a variation of this has been doing the rounds on email and social media for a long time. The story actually predates the internet with its roots in a fictional tale from 1967.

It’s an urban legend. Something that someone, somewhere, swears is true – especially as having happened to a “friend of a friend” or an obscure family member, usually with horrifying, or cautionary elements.

We see these horror-stories that refuse to die in digital marketing all the time. And much like urban legends, some of these digital marketing myths are naive and silly, but others are actively harmful to your conversion rate and lead generation.

10 Common Myths About Digital Marketing that will haunt your conversion rate

1. My company is too small for digital marketing

One of the most common misconceptions among small business owners is that digital marketing isn’t for SMEs. After all, how could a small business compete against huge corporations like Amazon and Apple?

Unless you’re trying to launch a direct competitor to the new iPhone, there are plenty of ways a small business can leverage digital marketing to grow their brand online. You don’t need to worry about whether your industry, products, or service affects your ability to do online marketing.

It’s often thought that digital marketing requires a massive budget, and while larger budgets can certainly help, smaller budgets can still be very effective. In fact, a more focused digital marketing budget can lead to better ROI when compared to traditional marketing because digital marketers are able to experiment with different tactics without breaking the bank.

2. I don’t need to update my website

It’s not uncommon for websites to get lost in the vastness of the internet. Google and other search engines like new content and are always looking for fresh material. A website that is updated regularly, with content like blog posts, is judged by google as an ACTIVE website – so content marketing should be a key cornerstone of your digital marketing strategy.

It’s not all about fresh content though, you’ll need to keep an eye on what’s going on ‘under the hood’ to make sure your website is in tip-top condition with updates to code, speed, and security. Optimising your website for search engines will help your site attract the visitors you want.

3. I should redesign my website/webpages regularly

Woah – hold your horses, that’s not what we meant by keeping your website up to date.

You should focus on improving your site’s usability and performance rather than its appearance. If you’re constantly redesigning your website, you might be doing yourself a disservice – your regular website visitors should know their way around your site, rather than get frustrated and leave. Worse; if you’re messing around with your URL structure you can really hurt your search rankings, and undermine your SEO efforts.

Speaking of SEO…

4. SEO is dead

We roll our eyes whenever we hear that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is old hat – or even worse, unnecessary. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

What some people might be talking about is that older ‘quick hack fix’ tactics like building huge backlink catalogues of simple keywords, no longer work, and in many cases are punished by search engines. Simply put, you need to play by the rules and please the algorithms, by optimising your on-page content. This will increase your website’s visibility, and boost its ranking online.

5. SEO is a one-time project

I don’t think anyone really believes this one anymore, but just incase, no – this is false too.

The reality is that SEO requires regular attention and maintenance. Google is constantly tinkering with their algorithms and moving the goalposts to improve performance for users – it’s how they’ve become the juggernaut of the Search Engine Industry (anyone remember Yahoo? No?)

Your SEO strategy needs to be inline with these changes, but also to keep up with your competitors, they will also be working on their SEO, and you don’t want to fall behind.

6. I use PPC instead of SEO

Nope. Using PPC (Pay Per Click ads like Google AdWords) is like paying rent, but SEO is like paying a mortgage. This is the last one about SEO, I promise!

Essentially, PPC is good for short-term gains, whereas SEO is necessary if you want long-term results. Both strategies are equally important, and if you want to succeed, you need to consider them both. For example PPC is good for learning very quickly what keywords convert more than others, and what you learn from that can influence your SEO strategy.

7. Your PPC Ads Should Appeal to A Broad Audience

More potential customers and traffic is better right?

Well, not all website traffic is equally valuable to you. So, when creating your ads and keywords, you need to focus on the quality as well as the quantity of the people you’re going to attract. Remember when you’re paying per click, you really want the people who are likely to spend with you to click on your ad.

We have an example from an XposureHUB client: Tick King, a watch repair specialist. Before we came onboard, they were being encouraged to spend increasing amounts on their PPC to get in front of as many people as possible. However, this approach meant they were spending just as much to convert a cheaper battery replacement as it cost them for a high-end, luxury, full watch servicing. Prioritising the PPC ads for the more lucrative services meant fewer people now see the ads, but they sold more luxury services and repairs and had a much increased return on investment.

See their case study for further details here.

8. I don’t need a social media presence

Only young whipper-snapper Millennials and Gen-Z types are on social media, right? Think again. And also older Millennials are starting to turn 40 (sigh).

According to Hubspot: 40% of internet users aged 46 to 55 are on LinkedIn. Roughly 55% of Facebook users are over the age of 35, and in 2020, over 70% of 45-64-year-old American internet users watched videos on YouTube.

With 4.5 billion people online, there are countless opportunities for generating leads through social media platforms. Your target audience is probably already on social media – you just need to figure out which channels they prefer. The more you know about your audience, and your ideal customers, the more you’ll be able to get out of your social media marketing.

Here’s our article on personas (again) to get you thinking about who your ideal customer is and what social media channels they are likely to use.

9. Hashtags are essential

Loving this article on #socialmedia #marketing that talks about #pinterest and has an image of a #puppy #lol

#HardToRead #Annoying

Hashtags are useful for joining together relevant posts from different people and can help your posts get seen by a wider audience. But while it’s nice to have a hashtag for an event, like a webinar or a trade show, or a particular social media topical day (get ideas here ahead of time for your social media posts), they’re probably not going to bring you in more leads.

Try to use hashtags at the end of your post if it’s relevant as a way to be more user-friendly for those following the hashtag.

10. Email marketing is dead

Email isn’t dead by any means. In fact, Webfx.com reports that 58% of adults check email first thing in the morning.

However email inboxes are getting more crowded, and email marketing is getting more competitive each year – which is why open and click-through rates are dropping (an open rate above of 20% these days is considered good).

When done correctly, email marketing is a great way of keeping an interested audience up to date about your business, products or services. Emails and newsletters are good reminders of you and your products, so they will keep you in mind next time they are considering buying.

Beware these digital marketing myths!

These digital marketing misconceptions only scratch the surface. There are countless other myths and false info out there, and it’s always better to be safe than sorry when starting out.

Digital marketing can be confusing but extremely rewarding. With Search Engine algorithm changes, and new technology being invented or updated, creates new challenges all the time, so what was true last year might just be a myth next year! Why not sign up for our email newsletter to stay up to date with articles like these, or follow us ion social media to stay up to date with digital marketing practices.