The economy has taken a hit. The cash flow has decelerated. In turn, businesses have become volatile, some shutting down, some downsizing. The only COVID-proof (partially) businesses are the ones that are holding reins on the Internet. And that doesn’t necessarily mean through an online store or e-commerce. Digital marketing is an excellent flying start. Marketing involves reaching to your audience where they are and today, everybody is present on the Internet. So it is safe to say that digital marketing is the high scoring younger brother of marketing.
The daily average time spent on the Internet by a person was 144 minutes at last count. With the ongoing global crisis, surfing on the Internet and spending time on social media will definitely have taken a new high. And so now is the ideal time to capitalize the surge in screen time. To get into the race of digital marketing, you need to understand the clear picture of the what, why and how. Secondly, you need to clear the fog around some of the most common myths of digital marketing which can otherwise be frightening.
Myth
Truth
Myth
1) More Traffic = More Sales
Truth
More traffic does not translate to more sales. Picture a physical store in your city. Many people walk in but how many of them actually buy? Not many, right?
Traffic does play a role, but it is not all. To increase more sales, your landing page needs to be conversion rate optimized. It means that it should prompt visitors to take action – sign up/buy/follow/fill form.
Myth
2) Digital Marketing Is an Expensive Affair
We, humans, have developed the habit of assuming a lot with little known details before verifying it for facts like with the classic WhatsApp forwards.
Truth
Newspaper marketing, hoardings, TV marketing is much costlier than digital marketing. You can run a digital marketing campaign with as little as a few hundred rupees to as much as a few lakhs.
Digital marketing can be aimed at a targeted audience whereas mainstream marketing is not focused on one set of people. Therefore, in digital marketing, you target a smaller set of audience (but the right one) and spend a smaller sum of money.
Myth
3) More Money = More Results
“I am going to spend all my money on this digital marketing campaign, it better give me good results.” In such cases, you might not get any results at all if you solely depend on the amount of money you put in.
Truth
Along with money, you need to spend time and resources to get it right. If you spend a huge sum and send your digital marketing campaign to 50-year-old men, but in reality, your product/service is to be used by teenagers, your action will be a failure.
You also need to concentrate on the quality of your content, its value to the users, and reach to your potential customers.
You can bag returns in a campaign run with less money if you shoot your arrows right at the target audience.
Myth
4) Cross-platform Is Futile
Truth
Promoting your business on one media simply means you are putting all your eggs in one basket, and we know how well it can backfire.
When your business is searched on a social networking site, it might mean people want to stay updated with what you regularly do. When you are searched for on online directories, they might want to locate you/contact you.
Thus, it is fundamental to determine your presence in multiple platforms across the internet and it is an easy way of pushing your business ahead.
Myth
5) Digital Marketing Is a One Time Job
Truth
How we wish this were true. But the truth is you need to constantly update your content. You cannot engage your audience with content that is 5 years old.
With trends constantly changing and style rising anew from its own ashes, you need to too. Much like how your business evolves with the introduction of new products/services, your digital marketing strategies need the same.
But it is essential that each strategy is given its breathing space and time to produce results before moving on with the next.
Myth
6) SMEs Don’t Need Digital Marketing
Truth
To break the spell, EVERYBODY needs digital marketing. In fact, only larger enterprises benefited from digital marketing initially. But today, technology is widespread and affordable, so the same opportunities are presented to medium and small scale businesses as well.
The benefits are so many that it is silly to overlook digital marketing irrespective of the size of your business.
Myth
7) Retargeting Is Repulsive
Truth
Retargeting is a digital marketing strategy that is more dismissed and less utilized. It is thought that it scares the users away. But it is now evident that our Internet actions are continually monitored (cookies) and retargeting is normal.
We need to wake up to the fact that retargeting can increase conversion rates by as much as 150% and develop user-friendly retargeting strategies to eliminate the elements of scare.
