How you choose to market your business plays a foundational role in its success. Good marketing is one of the core tenets of a healthy, thriving business model. Yet many businesses remain unconvinced of its necessity.
Most of the time, it’s small businesses that choose to surrender marketing from their business strategy. This is often due to a lack of experience or tight budgets that don’t allow for a broad variety of subdivisions. However, marketing is one of the most important elements of any business – regardless of size, industry, or budget.
With a strong marketing strategy, your business will receive the visibility and reach it needs to grow its revenue and its client base, thus bringing in more money and expansion opportunities.
Ready to find out more about the biggest marketing, sales, and growth myths? We’ve debunked the biggest here to ensure your business doesn’t make costly mistakes.
Biggest Sales Myths
#1. Marketing is Easy Enough to do Myself
One of the biggest and most widely held misconceptions about marketing is that you can do it without any real experience in the field.
You can’t. At least not in a way that really counts.
Marketing is a wholly established component of business that sets major strategies in motion for profit growth, audience reach, consumer connection, and sustainable ROI.
But despite this gross misconception, it’s easy to understand why marketing has become such a non-priority in some people’s eyes.
With social media rising to such unprecedented popularity, every second person is an influencer using their own marketing tactics to rise to fame. But managing a personal account and running a business are two completely different things and should not be placed on the same marketing strategy pedestal.
#2. Advertising is the Same as Marketing
While advertising and marketing do share some overlap, they are separate concepts that involve unique skill sets and approaches.
Let’s take a closer look at each one to differentiate them:
- Advertising – Advertising is the process of promoting a brand’s products or services via paid channels. It is a fairly straightforward practice that involves creating promotional content and inserting it into the public eye for greater visibility.
- Marketing – Marketing is the art of identifying customer needs and cultivating an advertising plan that appeals to those needs. More complex and nuanced than advertising, marketing requires a deft (and adaptable) knowledge of consumer behaviour and patterns.
If advertising is the “what”, marketing is the “how” and “why” behind customer connection. It’s strategic and heavily research-based, making it an indispensable and catalytic tool for businesses.
#3. I Don’t Need a Marketing Department
Every business needs a marketing department or a marketing agency they outsource to. Without one, any advertising strategies you develop may become scattered and unfruitful, rendering your hard work (and advertising money) in vain.
You need a marketing team (in-house or out) to refine your brand to a point that makes it genuinely engaging to consumers.
#4. Small Businesses Shouldn’t Waste their Money on Marketing
If anything, the fact that small businesses are still in the early phase of development only means they need marketing more. Resisting marketing assistance while you are in the process of launching your business only means you cut yourself off from necessary growth and visibility from clients.
The term “waste” in this sense can be very misleading. Yes, it does cost money to obtain a strong marketing strategy. But it’s much more of an investment than a splurge.
The right marketing tactics will help your business to attract new customers, establish deeper relationships with them, and shape your products or services in a way that makes them more appealing to the general public. All these things are key to generating profit, which is ultimately what every business is in business for.
#5. Quality Products and Services Will Sell Themselves
Unfortunately, even some of the best goods and services in the world can produce fruitless results if not marketed in the correct way. A strong marketing strategy will not only spread your message far and wide, but it will also help target the customers that are most likely to purchase your wares.
You might have a great product. However, without the visibility and structure provided by a marketing strategy, that product may stay in the dark.
#6. Marketing is Only Needed for Acquiring Customers
Marketing is about so much more than just putting your brand in plain sight. While visibility plays a key role in what modern marketing is all about, there are many other benefits to this aspect of business.
- Defining your brand – Marketing supports the brand awareness process and helps customers understand who you are and what you represent.
- Conducting market research – You can’t please customers if you don’t know who they are or what they really want. A marketing team will perform all this research for you to help you mould your business into the most success-ready version of itself possible.
- Setting realistic KPIs – Setting goals and KPIs is essential for staying on track and growing at a sustainable pace.
- Fostering trust with customers – With a strong marketing strategy, you can show your customers that you understand and care about their needs, thus nurturing your relationship with them.
#7. Sales is Not a Numbers Game
A sale is a win for any business, but that’s all it is. A single sale. If you look at the bigger picture, you’ll see that sales are all about performance. If you run a marketing campaign with no real target audience, you’re sure to get a few once-off takers. However, if you create targeted campaigns that engage and build trust, you’ll consistently attract the attention of the audience that you want your brand to appeal to. You’ll create relationships, encourage retention, and build a loyal following.
The thinking of playing the numbers is outdated. Businesses that fall into this trap may thrive initially, however, their success won’t be sustainable.
The Bottom Line
Marketing myths and misconceptions are a major stumbling block and every business big or small needs to know the truth. As usual, knowledge is power and if you know what not to believe, your business has the best chance of success.