Misconceptions About Digital Marketing – Chris Pugh

The Top 5 Common Misconceptions about Digital Marketing

1. Digital marketing is just another way of describing “Social Media’’

Social media is a hugely important aspect of digital marketing but it is far broader than that. Digital marketing includes anything that makes use of smartphones, tablets, computers, game consoles, electronic billboards as well as radio and television. Within these tools digital marketing takes many different forms, from websites for mobile platforms, to personalised emails and interactive adverts.

2. Digital marketing is technical and should be the responsibility of the techies

The technology is merely a (usually very simple to use) tool to reach and engage people in a product or service. It is a marketing skill not a technical one.

 3. Digital marketing is not relevant to small businesses

Digital marketing gives you the chance to communicate with customers (without a call centre), to sell directly (without the expense of a shop) and to engage and research customers’ preferences (without employing a market research company). Digital marketing gives small businesses the tools which, in the past, were only available to businesses with big budgets.

As a small company you can react on social media in minutes and tailor messages for local customers that will engage them. This is something that large businesses often struggle with, when even a tweet has to go through numerous approval processes and are often written centrally.

4.Digital marketing should be a separate part of the company’s strategy

Like all marketing, digital marketing has to be fully integrated with the business strategy. Most companies now recognise that their website is their ‘shop window’ and few companies would put out a press release without giving careful consideration to the messages that it contained and the impression it gives of the company.

However, social media is part of that shop window and it too is a public communication. With most people now using social media, it is more likely that a company’s personality will be judged on their presence and interaction (or lack of interaction), there than anywhere else.

5. Digital marketing is difficult to track or measure

With today’s apps and digital capability there is more up-to-date, real-time data than ever before and it’s easily accessible and available. For example, if you post on Twitter or Facebook you can check your website analytics to see if there has been a spike in the number of unique visitors to your site. Things like Google analytics are now readily available and most social networking sites offer their own form of analysis.

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