Debunked: 4 Marketing Strategy Myths Shattered

Spiders, teenagers, and Bombay ducks are some of the most misunderstood beings in the world. We can add marketing strategies to the list too. Often a misunderstood term, marketing strategies suffer from a bad reputation. We’ll look at what these misconceptions are and why they’re actually not as bad as they are assumed. Here are 5 marketing strategy myths:

Myth 1: Content Marketing is an Internet Fad

Wait, was there no content marketing before the internet? Sure there was. Two words: Soap operas. That’s right, your grandmother’s favourite daytime drama started off as branded content to market home products to housewives back in the 1950’s. Soap opera got its name because most television dramas aired in the US that time were sponsored by soap brands like P&G.

Content marketing today is amplified through the internet because that’s where a lot of people spend time on these days. The internet has also facilitated a brand’s marketing strategy to be more tactical and specific, allowing them to control what content to show to which audience.

Content creation, including those on your social media platforms, has been gaining more traction than previous years. And 78% of CMOs see content as the future of marketing due to its efficiency. So it’s not a fad, but an essential marketing tool that people are becoming more aware for its usefulness and effectiveness.

Truth: Content marketing is not new, and will not likely to go away soon.

Myth 2: Email Marketing is Spam

It will be spam if it’s a) too frequent than necessary and b) of no value to the recipient, thus the name junk mail. Other than that, email marketing is still the top marketing strategy used by marketers to nurture leads and convert them down the marketing funnel. Done right, it can generate a staggering 4,000% ROI. That’s RM40 for every RM1 spent on email marketing!

Here’s what a usual email newsletter looks like. B2B businesses like us might send some useful reading materials to our valued subscribers now and then. However, the possibilities are endless. You can promote campaigns, keep in touch with your customers, or push some sales through your emails.

Email marketing can also be used to tell your brand story or connect to a lead. The trick is to tailor your emails to be useful to your subscribers without spamming their inbox. Or at least, if they want to unsubscribe, put up a short survey and ask them one brief question on why they’re unsubscribing. From there, you can identify the problem areas of your email.

Truth: Email marketing is not always spam, done right.

Myth 3: Results Are Instant

Marketing strategy like emails and content can generate ROI, but the time for it to bear fruit depends. Unless you spend a lot of money on ads or got a shoutout from Oprah, you will have to be patient. Success does not often happen overnight. More so for long-lasting success, which needs a long-term commitment.

The ‘how long’ of this equation is subject to your investment, your time, and your team’s talent. Some say you’ll see some results in 6 months, others say it might be 2 years tops. It depends on many factors set on your marketing strategy.

Instead of waiting for the money to roll in, you can measure the effectiveness of your marketing strategy through several metrics. Based on which part of the funnel your strategy lies, you can measure how your marketing performs at that stage. Metrics like web traffic, lead generation, lead conversion and customer retention are some tools marketers use to gauge and get some numbers to plan for the next step.

Truth: Substantial results that impact the company in the long-run takes time.

Myth 4: Social Media is for Kids (and B2C) Only

It’s true that social media was mostly developed for people to be social online, poke strangers (do we still do that?), and get jealous of other people’s vacation photos. However, what started as a medium to connect back to old friends has today evolved into something much more.

Social media is serious business. There are 50 million Facebook business pages this year. Among these businesses, another 2 million use Facebook Ads to boost brand awareness and increase social engagement. Social media has been helping B2B brands as much as it helps B2C brands. This happens because marketers, CEOs and brand owners are people too. There’s a big chance that they have a social media account, be it Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. And what better way to introduce your brand, whether it’s B2B, B2C, NGO or a government agency, in a friendlier way that can only be done on social media.

Truth: Social media is an essential tool for marketing, suitable for a variety of brands.

Marketing strategy evolves with time, and with people. Ultimately, whatever the people are doing, marketers have to follow suit. Wouldn’t you therefore, agree that marketers are lifelong learners with the ability to adapt to new innovation and trends? We think so. That’s why the mentality of believing these myths are true has to end.

Take a fresh perspective on your marketing and branding efforts and see what new strategy to take based on your goal and environment. Marketing professionals are great sources to refer to for advice. See which marketing strategy can work best to deliver the result you and your team aspire to achieve.