Marketing Myths

Myths exist everywhere, they form our perceptions on how the world is and operates. Often or not some of which are misconceptions on the truth. The marketing world is no different, thats why I thought I would dip my feet into expelling some of those marketing myths.

Marketing and Sales are the same

Now I know what some of you may be thinking. How could anyone think Marketing and Sales are the same? But believe me it happens. Businesses assume that because the common goal is the same for both functions that they are so and that if they have a marketer that this person can also preform a sales role too. This in most cases is false and it comes down the the distinction between both functions.

Marketing is the function of attracting audiences, getting them interested in what it is that you do and keeping them interested. Sales however, is the process of turning interested audiences into customers.

Think of them as going to a furniture shop. You’ve been watching tv and during the adverts you see one for a new store opening in your area, something you have been hoping for months as the next nearest store is miles away. Upon arriving at the shop you notice posters showcasing their new range of sofas. That is marketing. You then go inside to look at the sofas and a staff member comes up to you and starts a conversation, asking why you are interested in the sofa, telling you why you should buy the sofa, the benefits you can get by buying it there and then and coming with solutions to problems you may have around purchasing. That is sales.

There are of course many other differences between the two functions, you can learn more here.

You have to be on every social media platform

No matter how hard us marketers try and tell people otherwise, there is still this idea that in order to reach your audiences have a strong social media presence that you have to be on every single social media platform. This is of course, false.

Instead you should be focusing on being on the platforms that audiences are actively using. Which is not all of them. People don’t have time to be on them all and have preferences on what channels they do and do not like.

Take you for example, what channels do you use? I bet its not every single one of them, and that of those that you do use, there are those you use more than others. Your audiences are the same. These preferences are often difined by their age, interests and location (In some countries they also have different platforms to those that we do, they may also have restricted access to others).

Another aspect to think about in the process of choosing platforms is what type of content you can and want to share. There is no point of being on YouTube if you struggle with video content. There is no point of being on Twitter if you can’t meet the 280 character count. However if you can take photos Instagram may be perfect for you. Social media marketing takes a lot of time, between creating content, scheduling, evaluating performance and responding to engagements it can burn a person out managing marketing on multiple platforms alongside every other aspect of your business.

A strong social media presence comes from being aware of who your audience is, why they use platforms and how/if you can utlise these platforms. Which leads onto the last myth (of this post)…

On social media everyone is your audience

I remember a conversation my masters class had one day on target audiences. We had to present a brand(s) and who their potential audiences may be and how to reach them. Often there would be questions our lecture would ask to test our thinking. To one group they asked ‘What about Red Bull?’ to which one replied ‘well everyone’. This as we all came to understand that day was wrong.

Afterall when you start a business you need to have an idea on the people you want to be customers. If that is everyone, then I suggest you rethink and fully dig deep into why you started your business.

Every business has a target audience and just because you use social media it does not mean that you use your marketing efforts to target everyone. By targeting everyone, no one will be clear as to the value that you will bring them. They may see posts that you share and think that they are not your audience when they in fact are or the reverse, believe they are the customer you want when you don’t. Which is where negative experiences may begin.

It’s not just your audiences who will be unclear but you as a business, you will fall into the ‘trap’ of not knowing what to post and posting content that doesn’t resonate with those that you are trying to reach. Not to mention that you will no doubt find yourself being the victim of the being on every social media platform myth. By knowing who your audience is you will find yourself creating content that is purposefully created for them, that they enjoy and that brings them value. You will find yourself having a sense of self and not bogged down by the chaos that is social media.

Myths exist everywhere, they form our perceptions on how the world is and operates but that doesn’t make them set and stone fact. I’d love to hear some of your perceptions and thoughts on the ones I’ve mentioned above, so please leave a comment or get in touch.