Have You Fallen for Any of These 5 Online Marketing Myths?

Marina Snyder
Jul 20, 2017 · 5 min read

I know, I know. The word “marketing” — much less “online marketing” — often has a pretty big ick factor associated with it. As someone who fell into this field accidentally and with hesitation, I totally understand your desire to scoot away as quickly as possible. But before you go, why not find out if you’ve fallen for any of these 5 myths? They’re the ones keeping some businesses in the dark ages during the online marketing renaissance that’s happening now.

The Top 5 Online Marketing Myths

1. Online Marketing Is Evil

There are thousands of ways to market your products or services online and, admittedly, some will indeed feel icky. So when you run into these, what should you do?

A) Stop marketing online. It’s not the right fit for your business.

B) Work through the discomfort of this necessary evil and just trust the experts.

C) Adjust your strategy and offerings until you no longer feel like you’re doing something gross.

Ready for the answer? If you chose C, congrats, you got it! If you chose A or B, you’re definitely not the first.

So what’s the best way to improve your strategy and offerings? First, figure out the common pain points felt by your audience by talking with them. Dig deeper to find out how you can provide the most value. Next, adjust your offerings with this feedback in mind. Then instead of trying to sell products or services, focus on getting the word out about the solutions you’ve created. If you genuinely feel that your business helps solve a common problem, isn’t sharing your discovery the right thing to do?

2. Online Marketing Is Creepy

Okay, so it can be a bit intimidating to think about how much information about you is stored across the internet. This collection of data isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, when it comes to online marketing. In fact, it’s actually behind some pretty nifty advancements.

Instead of needing to cast a wide net in the direction of their audience (for instance, by posting an ad in a newspaper), marketers can now target only the people that might be interested in their offerings (for instance, electing to have ads shown only to Facebook users who have “liked” a comparable business). This technology benefits businesses since it allows them to focus their marketing efforts, but it also benefits the citizens of the internet who are far more likely to discover products or services that actually interest them. By filtering and customizing ad content, modern marketing helps people more easily find solutions amid the noise.

3. Online Marketing Is Unnecessary

Hobbies don’t need an audience or customer base. Businesses do. And to gather and engage people, you’ll need to do some online marketing.

All businesses need to find a way to attract new people if they want to generate revenue, receive donations, increase their audience size, raise brand awareness, etc. While it is possible to get a few results without marketing initially, in order to see any growth, you’ll want to have an online marketing strategy in place. How you do this depends on your business needs. You might create a website, post on social media, blog (regularly), send a newsletter, offer free promotional content, or implement any number of other strategies. (For the best results, mix and match these tactics.) How can you know which solutions are right for your business? You’ll have to experiment. Remember that the better you get at letting people know about the solutions you’ve created for them, the greater your impact.

4. Online Marketing Is Expensive

Online marketing can be insanely expensive. But does it have to be? Absolutely not. There are a lot of free tools such as Buffer for social media scheduling or MailChimp for sending newsletters. Getting a website online will likely be your biggest investment. If you don’t have the funds for outside support at the moment, I’d suggest using self-hosted WordPress (it’s free!), Siteground* for hosting, and Namecheap* for domains. (I wrote more about why I chose these companies in an earlier post: Have You Built an Ethical Website?)

Online marketing takes many forms and budgets are all over the map. I will say, though, that spending a modest amount (I’d suggest $50 — $100 per month) for things like hosting and software makes a huge difference. The initial investment — for instance, paying for a premium plugin that’s professionally updated and debugged and won’t break down without warning — will save you time, stress, and even money later down the line. Research your options to find the solutions that fit your budget and your needs. And more than anything else: Don’t use a lack of funds as an excuse! Chances are you’re lacking funds because not enough people know about your business. And why’s that? Because you’re not getting the word out online. So hop to!

* affiliate links

5. Online Marketing Is Complicated

Like in pretty much any field, you can fall down the online marketing rabbit hole as deep as you’d like. My own journey began back in the days of MySpace. At the time I was self-publishing “zines” (personal literary magazines) and using the internet to sell and trade them. I didn’t understand this as online marketing at the time. What I understood was that I was part of an online community. Later, when I was offered a position in the marketing department at a nonprofit book publisher, I thought long and hard about it. Wasn’t marketing kind of icky? Wouldn’t it be tough to learn? Wasn’t it all about money? Fortunately, I took the job and soon realized that online marketing was actually a beautiful, creative, and compassionate field.

While you could spend a lifetime learning about new marketing tactics, all you need to get started is a willingness to dive in and experiment as well as a genuine belief in your business. Beyond that, I’d suggest reading industry articles when you have the time or taking some self-paced courses (XOSarah and Marie Forleo are my current favorite teachers). What you do with what you learn and how far you take your education is entirely up to you!

So What Is Online Marketing?

With the rapid evolution of the digital space, marketing has come a long way from the billboards, TV commercials, and newspaper ads of the 20th century. While website banners, YouTube commercials, and Facebook ads may not look or feel that different from their respective precursors, the technology behind them allows marketers to seek out the right people and provide real value. Online marketing helps businesses to connect with their audiences and draw in new people. It creates traction and even enables movements to take shape. Don’t you think that it’s about time to break free of your assumptions about online marketing and embrace the renaissance going on around you?

What are your thoughts about online marketing? Were you led to believe any of these 5 myths? Have you changed your mind on any of them? Leave a comment below and feel free to share on social media!

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