As a business owner, one of the things you need to know about is marketing. You have to choose the right type of marketing for your business. unfortunately, there are a lot of marketing myths out there that can really hurt your business if you believe them. Below are four common marketing myths you may have heard.
Marketing Myths 1 – Marketing & Advertising are Exactly the Same
Even though these terms are related, they are actually really different. Marketing’s an ongoing plan that will span the whole process a business should follow for providing services or products to consumers. This will include:
- Designing & pricing products & services
- Figuring out where it’s going to be sold
- The way to persuade others to purchase it.
Advertising is a single aspect of a marketing plan. This is focused on creating ads and placing them to tell others about your services.
Myths 2 – Everyone’s Your Customer
Even though your business is fantastic, not everyone will want your services are products. For instance, if you are a landscaper, people who live in an apartment building won’t be interested in your services. No matter how fancy or appealing your mailer is, they aren’t going to be interested. So you want to save your resources, budget, and time by putting your focus on the people who are actually going to be able to use your service.
Myths 3- What Works for Other Companies Will Work for Mine
Marketing campaigns are very subjective and personal. So even though a marketing campaign might work for another company, even with the same offering, it may not work for yours. What works for your company is going to depend on a lot of things – your demographics, your target audience, and even your budget. In order to market the right way to your audience, think about what is going to work for them.
Marketing Myths 4 – Marketing Always Means Selling
There’s selling and then there’s selling. There’s the BIG SALE BUY NOW selling. And then there are the “5 Tips for a Greener Lawn” type of selling. Now don’t get me wrong. There’s a time and place for the in-your-face type of selling when you have a sale going on. However, think of newspapers. With the exception of the Thanksgiving Day paper, and even that’s not as big as it used to be, people buy papers for the news. When you watch the news, you watch it for information, not for the commercials. That’s why soft sales such as tip blogs are always a good idea. You may not be selling your service per se, but you are showing you know what you’re talking about.
These are just four of the common marketing myths that you may have heard and the truths behind them. The next time you hear a marketing myth like one of these, ignore it. it could save you a lot of time and money.
