Brands are sold packaged digital marketing lies every day across the world. From search and social media to content marketing, there’s a growing distrust from brands about what they’re actually getting.
In this article, I’m sharing 86 digital marketing lies (myths) you need to be aware of when talking to marketers.
Keep on reading to find out what these lies are.
But before we get to the juicy stuff, there’s a misconception on the brand site as well. When I talk to brands about their digital marketing, it may seem simple enough.
Build a website, make it look nice and we’re off to the races, right? Wrong!
Just like all things amazing, various aspects of digital marketing are shrouded in myths, misconceptions, and lies.
These believes are perpetrated by groups of marketers who really don’t know any better, or do they?
You see, throughout my years as a marketer, I’ve been fortunate to work in-house and got a front row seat to some of the shenanigans that ad agencies tell their clients. It ranges from outright lies, bending the truth, or just plain ignorance.
Either way, the clients suffer as a result of the lack of accountability and knowledge.
We’ll take a look at the myth and over 80+ digital marketing lies — and the truths about marketing.
We’ll cover myths, from SEO and paid social to social media and mobile, and many more.
There are countless myths surrounding digital marketing do’s and don’t’s.
The important thing to remember is that digital marketing is becoming less of a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity for companies as the shift towards digital is not slowing down.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common myths out there.
86 Myths of Digital Marketing you cannot afford to ignore:
Myth #1: There is a perfect time to launch a campaign
I wish this was true. But it’s not. It depends on how engaging your campaign is. If it resonates with your customers with a high-value offer, you can launch it anytime. It’ll get noticed.
Myth #2: Your competitor is optimizing their Google Ads 24/7
Yes, if you’re a major brand using enterprise bidding software. You might hurt your campaign performance with too many changes in a single day. Sometimes, less is more.
Myth #3: You don’t have to change your ad copy once it’s performing
Only if you’re lazy. Visitors come to your website by them clicking your ad copy. Keeping your ad copy fresh and relevant is one of the best ways to increase you click-through-rate (CTR).
Myth #4: It’s not worth it to advertise in Bing Ads
Bing has a much smaller market. That doesn’t mean your customers don’t use Bing – a grave assumption. We’ve seen campaigns in Bing outperform Google by 2.5X for our clients.
Myth #5: Creating content is a waste of time
Content is a long-term strategy. Don’t expect dramatic increase in sales just because you posted a few articles, videos or images. Build your authority over time with content.
Myth #6: Automation will solve all my problems
Marketing automation is an intelligent approach to maximize your efficiency and productivity for your business. Automating your campaigns – from email and pay-per-click to display and social – can increase your revenue. But it will not solve every problem for you. You still need to continually improve your site conversion to get the highest yield from your marketing channels.
Myth #7: We must get rid of all negative comments
Excellent customer service is one of your biggest opportunity to build a relationship with your customers and a brand that is trustworthy. Address negative comments. Your customers will appreciate your transparency, authenticity, and empathy to their questions and issues.
Myth #8: Display network doesn’t work
This is untrue. Just because you don’t see direct conversions from your display ads, it doesn’t mean the banner ads was not part of your customers’ conversion path. Conversion path analysis can help you validate the effectiveness of your display advertising campaign.
Myth #9: Turn off your ads after office hours
It depends on your business. If you’re a law firm or dental office, it makes sense to consider turning off your ads on Friday – Saturday. Then resume on Sunday. But if you’re an e-commerce business, then use bid adjustments to increase or decrease your bids based on days and hours.
Myth #10: I don’t need to bid on my brand terms
There are many competitors ready to win customers away from you. Bidding on your brand in search engines is a cheap way to defend your domain and drive revenue.
Myth #11: My business does not need online marketing
Online marketing is your gateway to a whole new pool of audience and potential customers. If you’re not considering to take your business online, you’re going to be in for a bumpy ride in years to come.
Myth #12: Only focus on creating video content
Don’t put all your eggs in the video basket. Create videos but don’t neglect the other content types like articles, images, and audio. Your audience consumes every type of content — don’t miss out on opportunities beyond videos.
Myth #13: LinkedIn is only for lead generation
The social network is not just a sales tool anymore. If you’re not using LinkedIn to build relationships, add value to the community, and share content, you are missing out on a big opportunity to build your brand.
Myth #14: My business is too small for digital marketing
The key to successful digital marketing is relevant traffic for your business. You don’t need to spend a lot or get a lot of traffic. You just need to find the right channels and targeted audience who are looking for what you offer.
Myth #15: Facebook is the only social platform I need to focus on
While Facebook might be the largest social network right now, your potential customers are also spending time and consuming content everywhere else. You can focus on Facebook, but make sure you leverage marketing automation to distribute your content to other social networks for coverage.
Myth #16: Email is not an effective channel anymore
It’s actually the opposite. Email is one of the most effective revenue contributor to many of our clients. And that’s because these are people who have raised their hands and shown interest in your products / services. I’ve seen conversion rate for email frequently in the double-digits.
Myth #17: I will not offer discounts to cheapen my brand
We agree with this, for the most part. You must be strategic about opportunities to offer a discount so you won’t lose out on seasonality. A discount doesn’t always have to be % off.
Myth #18: I can’t launch my campaign until the banners are perfect
You will never launch anything if you wait for perfect creatives. Digital ads allow you to change and update your creatives with a few clicks. There’s no need to wait. It’s better to put your banners live, collect data, and improve.
Myth #19: Blogging is not important for my business
That’s not what your competitor is thinking. The internet is all about content. And maintaining a blog is a great way to consistently engage with your site visitors. Whether it’s video, articles, images, or audio — without content there’s nothing for your customers to engage with.
Myth #20: All I need is digital marketing, and my business will grow
Digital marketing should be integrated into you overall business strategy. It cannot be siloed and expected to drive growth for your business. Online marketing augments your strategy and amplifies your brands’ value proposition. It’s powerful when mixed into your organization’s strategy.
Myth #21: I’ve done it before, so it won’t work
If your previous Pay-Per-Click campaign didn’t work out, it doesn’t mean Google Ads is a bad channel for your business. You need to audit and see why it didn’t work before throwing in the towel.
Myth #22: It’s impossible to come up with fresh content ideas
You have more than you realize. Everything you do is content. You can turn a pillar blog post into a video, slide show, image memes, and micro-content pieces – all you need is just some planning and creativity.
Myth #23: If I grow my followers and fans, I will get more sales
More followers and fans doesn’t always translate to more revenue. If you’re not getting the engagement or site visits from your social audience, it doesn’t mean much.
Myth #24: My competition is not online, so I don’t need to
This mindset is archaic. There’s no reason why you marketing your business online should be predicated on what your competitor is or is not doing. If your brand is not found online, you will start losing relevance quickly.
Myth #26: I will get great results if I copy what the experts do
The experts never reveal everything they do to get their results. They will give you just enough information and the rest is up to your creativity in how you promote your products or services.
Myth #27: I need to post images on my Instagram page every day
Consistent is the name of the game on Instagram. But it doesn’t need to be every day – that’s not realistic. But make sure when you do post to your Instagram profile, your content is relevant and what your audience is looking for.
Myth #28: My ad copy message needs to be flawless
There is no such thing as the perfect ad copy. Focus on grammar, the hook, and simplicity. Fancy ad copy can confuse your customer. The best thing to do with ad copy is consistent testing — stay relevant.
Myth #29: Non-branded keywords are a waste of money
Your Google Ads and Bing Ads campaigns will not survive on your brand keywords. The ROI on non-branded keywords will be lower than branded campaigns, but this is a proven tactic to acquire new customers for long term growth.
Myth #30: If I build a website, customer will find my brand online
A new website never guarantees more visitors. There are so much competition online; without any marketing your website will not be found. It’s exciting to launch a new website that looks better than your previous. But don’t expect traffic growth to happen automatically.
Myth #31: Conversion tracking doesn’t need to capture everything
This is where I strongly disagree. While I’m all for not being perfect, when it comes to tracking website conversions — there’s no room for compromise. Many websites capture just enough data to function, but missing out on a lot of other valuable visitor behavior and actions that can be used to create better marketing strategies, content, and messaging.
Myth #32: I should exclude by customers from retargeting campaigns
Unless you are selling a home or a car, you will want to continue retargeting your existing customers — but with different offers that add value to their life. If customers have already bought from you, they are more likely to buy again if they had a great experience with your brand.
Myth #33: I can maintain the same ROI when I scale
Not immediately. Over time you could achieve the same ROI or greater. When you’re scaling your digital channels, expect your ROI to drop. That’s because you are driving new visitors and they are probably not ready to buy yet.
Myth #34: I can run everything myself in-house
You can, but doesn’t mean you should. Even large organizations outsource portions or entire marketing functions. Keeping up with changes across search engines and social networks distracts youfrom running your business.
Myth #35: Loyalty points is old-fashion and doesn’t work
Any reason you can give your customers to come back OR perks to new customers can only help your business. Points is a low risk incentive that can create loyalty without discounting your brand.
Myth #36: I’ll get immediate results with digital marketing
There’s a huge misconception that you can grow your business online in less than 60 days. Rome wasn’t built in one day, and neither will your business. Growing a sustainable and profitable business requires thoughtful planning, patience, sound strategy, and calculated tactics.
Myth #37: I can growth-hack my business to a generate millions
This is the magic pill every business is looking for. There are only a handful of companies that managed to “growth-hack” their way to success. It’s akin to winning the lottery — probable but highly unlikely.
Myth #38: My landing page is doing well, I don’t need to change it
Without ongoing testing of landing pages, you will run the risk of fatigue. There are many landing page software that makes it easier to optimize your landing pages. Never stop testing.
Myth #39: If I ignore a complain, it will go away
One negative remark will take tenfold the effort to recover from if you do not deal with it right away. With a tap, your customer can share their complaint with everyone in their social network and beyond — it tarnishes your brand.
Myth #40: I don’t need to engage with every social comment
Lucky for you, many people think like that. This is an opportunity to set yourself apart in the marketplace and go all-in with your social followers. Your commitment to engage will blow your competition out of the water.
Myth #41: My new website will increase visitors
Many businesses make this assumption, because some sales person convinced them it would. I’ve seen the opposite happen more often than I would like. A new website never guarantees more traffic without optimization.
Myth #42: My agency will take care of everything for me
Your agency is not your babysitter and they are not mind readers either.
They are an extension of your team and must be integrated into your organization’s strategy. Success will only be achieved if your digital marketing agency is part of your feedback loop.
Myth #43: I must be on every social media network
Most businesses do not have the resources to manage every social profile — just focus on your pillar profile and be great at it. Your pillar profile is where you have the highest quality engagement with your core audience.
Myth #44: Shopping campaigns are only relevant for holiday season
That’s true if it’s the only time your customers shop. Building and maintaining a high performance shopping campaign must be done all year round — make sure your product feed is optimize, curated, and fresh to get the best results.
Myth #45: You need to submit your website to directories for SEO
Not immediately. Over time you could achieve the same ROI or greater. When you’re scaling your digital channels, expect your ROI to drop. That’s because you are driving new visitors and they are probably not ready to buy yet.
Myth #46: My target audience doesn’t change
Your customers are not static. They are bombarded by marketing messages everywhere they go. Don’t assume your audiences’ behavior is constant. You need to constantly discover new audiences, nurture current ones and evolve your message to their taste.
Myth #47: More traffic = more sales
Not necessarily. The wrong type of traffic can hurt your site bounce rate. Focus on getting traffic that make sense for your business. Don’t be tempted to get more vanity traffic and hope for more sales.
Myth #48: Affiliate marketing is a scam
Anything can be a scam. But proper affiliate marketing strategies and partnerships can amplify your brand, while generating incremental sales. Be careful not to over discount through affiliate partners — abusing affiliates that promote too many coupon codes can cheapen your brand.
Myth #49: LinkedIn is the best B2B lead generation site
The cost per click on LinkedIn is higher than other social networks — but because of your ability to hyper target your ads, this make sense.
Myth #50: I need a mobile app for my business
Mobile is a channel, not a brand strategy. Many businesses build apps for the sake of having a mobile app. You need to serve a need and have an impact before investing in your app. Tip: Apps are not the same as a mobile site.
Myth #51: I need to know where every site visit is coming from
You may never know with 100% certainty where every visitor came from — that’s the ugly side of tracking. There’s no perfect analytics that will get this for you. There are too many variables that might cause your analytics software to drop a few cookies along the way — causing a small discrepancy in tracking. So don’t stress over a small discrepancy if it’s not critical.
Myth #52: Content is all I need to do well in SEO
Content without high quality links will not rank well over time. Like peanut butter and jelly, one will never taste as good without the other. Content is the foundation of any solid SEO strategy, but it’s only the beginning. You need to spend time promoting and distributing this content to maximize your SEO traffic.
Myth #53: I need to submit my site to every directory
Not as critical as it used to many years ago. Search engines like Google can easily find and crawl your website when it launches. You can manually submit your new site to Google and then, sit back and wait.
Myth #54: I don’t want to give away my “secret sauce”
Sharing what you know doesn’t mean the other person can do what you do. It actually builds your authority and awareness your brand needs to grow. There’s a misconception and fear about giving the farm away. Did you end up building a rocket just because you got your hands on a tutorial video?
Myth #55: I must invest in Big Data analysis
If your site is collecting terabytes of data, chances are you are having a difficult time combing through everything. Finding a needle in the haystack sounds sophisticated, but start with the obvious and you’ll make more cumulative progress. There’s no silver bullet.
Myth #56: Being in position #1 for PPC will make me the most money
#1 draws a lot of searches and clicks. There’s a large percentage of users who are not ready to buy, but click because it’s the first listing in their search results page. Test with different ad positions and determine what position is best.
Myth #57: Only run the best performing PPC ad
Ad testing is a great strategy to increase click-through rates and conversion rates. Having only one ad running you won’t be able to truly grow your account.
Myth #58: Good conversion rate improves my Quality Score
Not true. It’s a fact that Google says conversion rates are not included in the calculation of your overall account Quality Score
Myth #59: Advertising in Google search is enough
100% myth. For some products and services, Bing Ads, Yahoo!, Facebook, and other search engines might actually work better and give you better ROI.
Myth #60: Stop sending emails to inactive users after 6 months or more
Don’t write off your subscribers too quickly. Before purging your list, send a reminder or two for them to update their preferences in exchange for an offer.
Myth #61: Sending too many emails hurts my open rates
It’s not how many emails you send per week, it’s what is in the email that matters most to your subscribers. Research has shown than sending 4 emails per week can double your open rate. This is not an excuse to start blasting out emails. You still need to have something valuable to say or offer to stay engaged.
Myth #62: Unsubscribes is bad for my business
What’s so bad about people telling you they’re no longer interested in your brand. It’s better for them to self-select out and make space for new subscribers — further more, having them on your list hurts your open rates.
Myth #63: Short email subject lines are better
Sounds like an excuse lazy email marketers came up with. Research has shown that subject lines with 60 – 70 characters have a higher engagement rate than the shorter subject lines.
Myth #64: Whatever works in Google Ads must work in Bing Ads
Just a myth. Each ad platform’s algorithm on how they match keywords, quality, and CPC are different. You’ll have to go through their settings and think through your strategy.
Myth #65: Sending too many emails will increase unsubscribes
Spamming your subscriber list is never condoned. Depends on the type of campaign the emails are part of, sending multiple emails in a short period could work brilliantly.
Myth #66: PPC advertising works for all businesses
I wish this was true. While every business should test PPC advertising, and see if it works, there’s never a guarantee. Even for us, some businesses are not suited for PPC advertising.
Myth #67: PR is great for SEO
Back in the day, when link buying and selling was a business, PR agencies were minting money. These days, PR is still a solid way to get brand exposure, but the SEO value from links has diminished.
Myth #68: Social media marketing is not measurable
Tracking URLs and social media advertising software makes social advertising very trackable. It takes effort to collect, analyze, and report social advertising in a easy-to-read view, but to say it’s not measurable is 100% myth.
Myth #69: Social media is an email-killer
What? Social and email are joined at the hip. There’s not a social platform that doesn’t require an email. Both channels are the perfect distribution networks to help keep your brand top of mind. A solid social campaign will always complement and amplify an email campaign.
Myth #70: Google’s keyword tool is the best for PPC
There are many keyword research tools that provide additional insight when performing your research. We recommend using a few to get a broaden your keyword list to get more ideas with different keyword tools.
Myth #71: Google has better targeting settings than Bing
Bing has caught up to Google’s level of targeting — with demographic and geo-targeting options. If you haven’t used Bing in a while, we recommend giving it another shot.
Myth #72: Tuesday is the best day for emails
There is no such thing. Every list is different and results vary depending on your audience, how you segment your subscriber list. So you’ll need to test it. But with email automation, you can send emails out on-demand and with higher level of precision.
Myth #73: Rules for B2B vs B2C are different in social marketing
Regardless of who you are selling to, the pillars of customer acquisition is the same — educate, engage, and entertain. Rather than calling it B2B or B2C, we call it H2H, or Human-to-Human.
Myth #74: My VP of Digital Marketing cannot be wrong
100% myth. VPs are usually detached from reality and operate at a 30,000 foot level. The ones who are on the front lines are the people that organizations should listen to. They are your ears and eyes.
Myth #75: You don’t need to hire a PPC agency
If you cannot manage and optimize your PPC campaign at least once per week, you should consider hiring someone to help you. Keeping up with changes is a full time job.
Myth #76: Brick and Mortar stores are history
Contrary to what the news is reporting, brick and mortar and online will see more integration as companies start to understand the need for multiple touch points in the customers buying journey.
Myth #77: VR and AR is the next big thing
This is still up for debate. There are many practical applications of AR/VR in our lives, but the experience may not translate across the board. This technology still requires higher adoption from businesses of all sizes.
Myth #79: I can hire anyone to create my content
Content creating requires a unique set of skill. You get what you pay for. If you need to hire, quality creators don’t come cheap if you want your content to engage and convert your readers.
Myth #80: We exceed all our clients’ goals
Myth. And realistically, no one can ever achieve 100% satisfaction — that is the holy grail. A transparent agency will tough their successes but also give examples of when things went wrong and how they fixed it.
Myth #81: Our customers don’t shop online
True story. A major vape brand told me their customers do not buy their products online. So they don’t need to focus on digital marketing. A quick look around and you’ll notice digital marketing is here to stay, and there’s no stopping this train.
Myth #82: SEO is a one-time thing
100% myth. SEO needs to be an on on-going marketing effort that is integrated into your overall business strategy. Your competition is constantly optimizing their site to compete for first page rankings in search engines.
Myth #83: You can do everything yourself
What you need is to hire a marketer who is knowledgeable with experience in getting your more website traffic and sales. Online marketing is complex. Hiring an expert or outsourcing to an agency can help you navigate better.
Myth #84: Social media is top funnel traffic
Thanks to improved targeting on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, you can drive bottom funnel direct-response conversions. It allows you to reach the right people with the right message at the right time.
Myth #85: Last-click attribution is all we need
Last-click is certainly the easiest to track and has been the de-facto conversion methodology for years. You need to measure upstream channels or risk shrinking the funnel and devaluing upper-funnel channels that sent traffic to your website in the first place.
Myth #86: Retargeting is creepy and stalkish
Retargeting is far from stalking any user. While it can be argued that you are tracking and following your customer everywhere they go, what retargeting allows advertisers to do is create a consistent experience to reinforce branding and product offering. Thanks to better technology, you can control how many times you show you ads to your customers based on their behavior, interest, and location.
Conclusion
There are a lot more myths (believe me!) out there, and new ones come up from time to time as the industry continues to evolve.
What have you heard (and debunked) in your digital marketing experience?
