September 17, 2020
Busting 5 Common Marketing Myths

There are tons of myths and misconceptions about marketing that are floating around on the internet. In today’s blog post, we’re going to bust 5 of the most common myths:

#1: If you build it, they will come.

Many business owners expect that once they’ve launched their product or services, customers will magically know and just start buying. Unfortunately for all of us, that’s not how it works. 

When you build something, you need to make sure you’re promoting what you’ve built, so customers know it exists. This starts with promoting at launch and continues throughout the lifespan of your product or service. You need to continue to promote your business in order to make sure customers are aware of and that they think of your business when they have a need for your products. 

This applies to both online and brick and mortar businesses. Of course, if you build out a physical location, you may get some customers who come in once you’re open - but you will still have to promote your business in order to grow beyond that initial customer base.

#2: Your content can be the same across multiple channels.

I see this all the time: if your social media accounts are linked, you might have them set to automatically cross-post the same content across multiple channels. For example, having your accounts linked to share the same exact content to your business’ Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn profiles with the push of a button. While this is a great time-saver, it can create less than optimal results. This is because customers are less likely to engage with content that isn’t tailored to the channel it’s being shared through, and it’s pretty obvious that you’re copy/pasting the same thing in multiple places. 

When you’re creating content, you should be tailoring it for one specific channel and the customers who are following you there. Each channel has its own strengths and limitations like caption/text length, hashtag limits, image requirements, video support and even terminology like re-tweeting on Twitter versus pinning on Pinterest. 

This doesn’t have to be a lot of work! Once you’re familiar with how your customers engage with you on each channel, you can make small changes to your content to optimize it for each one. 

#3: Email is the best way to communicate.

While it may seem like email is the best way to communicate with customers, it’s easy to forget how many emails we each receive daily and how desensitized we’ve become to very full inboxes. That’s why I think email is just one of the best ways to communicate with customers. After all, it’s relatively low-cost, you can reach customers directly and you can communicate a lot of information in one email. 

However, there are other great ways to communicate with customers! Engaging over social media, whether it’s through direct messages or comments, is one way to build customer relationships. Other businesses have started texting customers directly, too. There are plenty of options for you to explore and use in addition to email.

#4: Marketing is only meant to acquire new customers.

Acquiring new customers is great, and you need new customers to grow your customer base. But once a customer has purchased from you, you want to make sure you’re also doing some marketing to retain them and bring them back to your business!

Ultimately, selling more to your existing customers, whether that’s through upselling them to a premium product or cross-selling additional products to them, is cheaper than acquiring new customers because you’ve already built a relationship with them. So, when you’re building an understanding of your business’ customer lifecycle, make sure you also work on customer retention and loyalty. 

#5: When imagining your customers, you should imagine someone you know. 

Most entrepreneurs start by marketing and selling their products to their friends and family, and by imagining their ideal customer to be someone they already know. This is a great way to build traction and learn what works for your business in the beginning. 

However, if you only rely on imagining your ideal customer, you could end up introducing bias into your business and marketing decisions. As you grow, you’ll need to acquire more customers and learn about them and their needs. I always suggest doing your research by talking to customers or running a survey, in addition to any background research you might have already done! 

What other common marketing myths do you have questions about? Send them to us at hello@thecultivatemethod.com and we’ll answer them in a future blog post. 

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