We live in a world full of people, and people have a lot of opinions, so naturally, there are a lot of misconceptions and myths that people believe to be true about almost everything. Digital marketing being comparatively new, there may be certain confusion or misconceptions believed by brands who haven’t tested the waters yet. Today, we will be checking out some of the most common Digital Marketing Myths and see whether they are really true or not!
1. You don’t need a website when you have social media.
It is one of the biggest digital marketing myths! Tough, social media is a very important tool for your digital marketing, but it is in no way a substitute for a website. No matter how popular you are on Facebook and how many followers you have on Instagram, it all comes down to Sales. And that is only going to happen through your website, your social media may be just channels which lead to your website (best case scenario.) So it is important to make sure Google likes your website, that it is fast with good design, a strong SEO base, and the UX is all smooth!
2. People hardly ever click on Display ads!
So what are display ads? These ads are not found in your google search but when you’re browsing through some other websites or social media. They are small in size but they contain pictures and some very minimum text. These are also called banner ads. Have you realized that when you are searching something on Google, most often than not, you straight away ignore the first two ‘sponsored’ links and go for the organic results? So depending on your product, sometimes display ads may work better for you. It is a myth that display ads get lost in the clutter of the webpage, in fact they can be confused as a part of the webpage.
A lot of times when I want to impulsively buy something like a handbag, so I go on Amazon, search for some bags, then just go on with my day casually, and just a while after that when I am reading an article on my phone, the same bags pop out urging me to just buy them! And it works. So if you put some nice creative work into your display ads and place them on the right places you will get amazing results from it!
Read More: Trends in Digital Marketing using Google Ads
3. Digital Marketing takes too much time to set up.
I won’t consider it as one of the greatest digital marketing myths. Because, what doesn’t? Marketing is often confused with the idea of shortcuts, and no success comes with shortcuts. You have to invest smart work, consistency, and patience into it. In Digital Marketing the closest you can get to a shortcut is a pay per click ad, but anywho. It is definitely a digital marketing myth that DM takes time to set up, it takes just as much time as any other marketing channel, and with the correct expertise, probably less.
So once you have taken certain steps towards digital marketing, you have to be a little patient. And while being patient takes even more effort through smaller channels like writing blogs, maintaining good social media content, etc. Along with the fact that Digital Marketing takes way too long to set up is a myth, it also would not hurt to note, that the fruits that you reap through your efforts are very long-lasting and the more consistent you are the higher the results will be.
Read More: Top 10 Digital Marketing Mistakes that People Make
4. You need to have a high investment to be successful with digital marketing. 
Well, I must say it is another popular myth of digital marketing that we will bust. A lot of people who haven’t really tapped into the Digital Marketing era think that it is very expensive and that it does not produce results of equal magnitude. However, it is a big misconception. We are used to buying things by feeling the product, touching the product, for e.g. when they see an ad of their company up there on a pole at the side of the road they feel like they really invested their money in the right place, so in contrast, a digital ad feels pretty expensive to them. But Digital Marketing does not need a high investment, with the right techniques even a small campaign can show you great results!
5. You shouldn’t think about your competitors just focus on your work
The field of Digital Marketing is not as Nobel to think that just you do your best and don’t bother what others are doing. That may help you in your personal life but not in Digital marketing. You need to keep a very close eye on your competitors, just the smallest of observation about your competitors can win you a lot of things!
You need to know why are they better than you, what do you offer that you don’t, what can you give the customers that they cant, etc. Here’s a recent example, Vivavideo is this great editing app for Android but I wanted the comfort of editing a video through my laptop but they don’t have a web version. But when I was looking for it, I typed in viva video for pc, and the first search was of a website which said the same thing I typed out but it wasn’t Viva video, and I did download that app and it turned out to be great. So you see? Even by slyly using your competitors’ name can help you outshine them too.
It is also important to know that Digital Marketing is the same for everyone, for startups and for 50-year old companies. It’s a skill, almost an art. So, you definitely shouldn’t worry about your competitors but don’t just forget them or disregard them completely. Use competitor analysis to your advantage.
6. Digital Marketing won’t work for me because my business is not attractive.
This is one of the biggest digital marketing myths that just in the recent past has started fading out. If you think Digital marketing is only meant for fancy looking products like clothes, or cutlery, or makeup, then you, my friend are living in the stone age. Digital marketing is for everyone whether you are a high-end fashion designer or a plumber. No matter how big or small or what kind of a business you are running, when used right, Digital marketing can bring you a lot of success. Google searches are one of the biggest branches of Digital marketing, so don’t hesitate, find the right strategies for your brand.
Read More: Top Trending Digital Marketing Blogs to Follow
7. My brand needs to be active on every platform!
Yes, an overall social media presence for your brand is crucial. However, with the amount of new social media channels popping up every day, it is hard to catch up with all of them and more importantly not necessary. Back in the day Orkut and twitter were honestly the only social media channels but now we have Pinterest, Tumblr, Tik Tok, Twitter, and whatnot. So choose only a couple of social media channels that are relevant for you and be active on those. For eg, if you offer book-keeping services then Pinterest might not be a great channel for you. But LinkedIn, twitter, quora, etc may be more helpful. So choose wisely.
Read More: 7 Tips to Get New Clients Through Social Media
8. Bad responses will destroy my online business
I use this sentence in every one of my articles- Customer is King, and he is. But there is a boundary for everything. Yes, you may get bad comments here and there, but it is not going to affect your business negatively in the long run if you take care of a few things. First, never ignore these bad comments, address them, see where the problem is and fix it. There will always be positive feedback over that when the core of your business is tight. So don’t worry about the small negative comments here and there.
9. My marketing strategies are failing so probably my brand is not made for Digital Marketing.
Err! Wrong thinking. As mentioned before Digital marketing is made for every brand, so if your strategies aren’t working, you may want to reflect back and see what is going wrong, maybe you need to choose different channels, different methods, different demography. Skill is very important when it comes to Digital marketing so make sure that you take some help from outside agencies to guide you through this process.
10. Traditional marketing does not work anymore
A lot of people may think that TV ads, billboards, newspaper ads, etc don’t work anymore so one should only have an online presence. That is not true, sometimes the perfect blend of these two work the best. For example, for a service-based industry, if you put up a newspaper ad, and list your website in the ad, while also running a retargeting ad side by side, with the same demography. You may get a lot of eyes and conversions.
Read More: Objectives & Key Components of Digital Marketing To Consider Right Away!
There we go, light read on the common myths that are associated with Digital marketing and the interpretations of it. Are there any other digital marketing myths that you have heard? Do drop your comments down below.
