As a blogger, marketing your product or service online can be incredibly effective. And, if you offer online marketing services as well, you certainly know its value for practically any business. However, there are certain marketing myths that we need to debunk. Some of the most common are outlined below.
Social Media Can’t Work For Every Industry
For some reason, some people believe that social media doesn’t apply to every business sector. Wrong! Proven social media marketing methods, like outstanding link-building strategies, can be an effective marketing tool for almost any industry or business. The same attributes that help one sector can be used equally well in another.
That said, not every social media site is as good as another, so don’t put as much money into each one.
If you’re a freelance marketer, Instagram and Pinterest are not your best choices. Instead, consider Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook.
But if you’re a freelancer who offers business-to-consumer services, Linkedin won’t be effective. A combination of various social media channels can provide an excellent return on investment for practically any business.
Negative Social Media Comments Are Always Bad
You might think so, but it’s not always true. Customer concerns or complaints about your product need to be addressed. While problems and complaints aren’t ideal, they are an excellent opportunity to show exceptional customer service. After all, most consumers understand that problems can arise with almost any product or service. How the company responds is critical.
Never try to hide or delete complaints on your social media channels. Instead, offer a sincere, well-thought-out response with the choice to email or call customer service for help. Ensure that someone in your company is following up with the person quickly.
And remember, the more time and money you spend on social media, the more people who are loyal to your brand will come to your defense online.
We all know that critical feedback can be hard to see or read, but you can turn it into a business opportunity if you do it right.
People Don’t Become New Customers On Mobile Devices
Indeed, many people will not bother with a complex checkout process on a cell phone. If you want your customers to answer on their phone as they would on a PC, you’re taking the wrong approach.
Your mobile checkout pages and forms need to be simple. Make any interactions on your site on mobile devices to be as easy and straightforward as possible. If you aren’t getting mobile conversions, it’s not the phone’s fault.
More Site Traffic Means More Sales
If you want your freelance career to rake in cash, you just need to boost traffic to your website, right? Well, not always.
Getting some additional traffic can indeed increase your sales, but not all site traffic is created equal. For the traffic to be valuable from a sales perspective, it must produce leads and sales.
To convince site visitors to become customers, you must communicate the value of your products and services. And you need to do it often enough that they’ll pull the trigger and go to the checkout page.
So, if you get high-quality additional traffic to your site and make a compelling pitch to the visitors, more traffic can create sales.
Your Marketing Content Must Deliver Sales To Succeed
If you look at your company’s content writing from only an ROI point of view, it’s understandable to think that it’s not essential.
However, compelling, engaging content can produce a lot of income for your company and much more!
One of the best things about writing effective marketing content is that it’s so versatile. It can lead to sales, but even if it doesn’t, it still offers tremendous value.
Rather than focusing on sales with your content, establish other concrete goals that benefit your freelance career. It might be to increase site or social media traffic or boost conversion rates for an ebook. Or maybe the content’s purpose can be to increase customer signups for your newsletter.
Digital Ads Must Appeal To All Markets
The idea that more is better in marketing isn’t always accurate. Many marketers believe this when they make a new ad and attempt to make it appeal to everyone.
The assumption is that if the advertisement hits all markets and demographics, it will equal more sales. Not true.
The issue with this approach is that if you attempt to appeal to every human being, you must dilute the message. So, you aren’t enormously appealing to any one market. The result may be that your general marketing ad is ignored.
For example, there was a successful online ad a few years ago for a waterproof firestarter. Most people would see that advertisement and not even know what it is or why you’d want it. But the ad isn’t appealing to people who don’t know what a waterproof firestarter is: It’s targeting survival enthusiasts!
The ad is effective because it makes a solid pitch to a small, specific group. It touches on their dreams, hopes, and fears. When they saw the ad, it often compelled them to act.
That’s why designing an ad to appeal to everyone often fails. Instead, pinpoint who the audience is for your ad and make the strongest possible appeal to them.
Email Marketing Doesn’t Work Anymore
About every two years, some prominent media expert says email marketing is dead and buried. Indeed, email marketing isn’t as effective as it was 10 years ago. But it’s an error to say that it’s a waste of time to spend money on email marketing.
Click-through rates are lower than in the old days, but they still generate a ton of sales when done correctly. A recent DMA report found that for every dollar spent on marketing by email, $38 is produced in revenue. That’s not a bad ROI, right?
Campaign Monitor also notes that email can be up to 40 times more effective than Twitter or Facebook in getting new customers.
There are so many ways that your company can use digital marketing to produce more sales and engage more consumers. Just focus on a few of the methods mentioned above and keep at it, and you should see a marked improvement in sales soon.
